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Gone with the Wednesday: I’ve Seen You Before
Gone with the Wind had an absolutely stellar cast, and as I have discussed with many a fellow film fan, it is a great launching pad for anyone to delve into classic films. You can start with any of the four leads–Leigh, Gable, de Havilland, Howard–and start diving into their films and you are awash with classic film fabulousness. And for many of these players, it wasn’t their first time sharing the screen. Let’s see who Clark Gable met up with elsewhere: Clark and Laura Hope Crews (Aunt Pittypat) also co-starred in Idiot’s Delight (1939), which they made just prior to GWTW. Clark also previously shared the screen with Hattie…
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Gossip Friday: Visitor in a Station Wagon
From December 1939: It was a great thrill for the tiny coast town of Pismo beach to have a big movie location move right into their midst. The entire town was agog because Joan Crawford was reported really to have arrived in her limousine, in true movie star fashion. Every youngster in the village was out for an autograph. The Crawford name was magic until the youngsters found out that the guy driving an old station wagon looked like Clark Gable. When they found out it was Gable, and he fixed up an immediate game of softball to entertain the mob, because the weather got too foggy to work, glamour…
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Gone with the Wednesday: Cut Out of The Barbecue
There are several stories that have floated around over the years of Clark Gable being at the outdoor barbecue scene set in Busch Gardens in Pasadena. Well, in the final film Clark isn’t in any of the outdoor barbecue scenes. Inside, yes, gazing up the stairs at future wives and having things thrown at him. But not outside. So what is he doing there, in full costume? Filming a scene that ending up on the cutting room floor, that’s what. There was a scene shot for the film, called “A Young Man Talks to Rhett,” in which Rhett converses with a heavily-whiskered man (listed in studio records as being played…
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{New Article} 1950: Just Call Him King
Earlier in the week we looked at the essay Clark Gable wrote about his co-star, Loretta Young, as publicity for Key to the City. An innocent idea, certainly, except of course when said co-stars had a secret child fifteen years earlier. So let’s see what Loretta had to say about Clark, shall we… I first met Clark Gable about twelve years ago when we co-starred in a woodsy drama entitled “The Call of the Wild.” Although we were given top billing, the real star of the picture was a massive dog named Buck. The rest of us, compared to the instant attention Buck’s slightest bark commanded, were no more impressive…
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Gossip Friday: Avoiding the Former Mrs.
From November 1953: The former Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Lady Ashley, etcetera, used the name Mrs. Clark Gable for her London social engagements and created no end of embarrassment for her ex-husband when he arrived in London en route to Hollywood and accepted party invitations. The “Mogambo” star had to send his regrets to several titled households when he cancelled out at the last minute because Sylvia Gable was to be among those present.
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Gone with the Wednesday: Coming to a Theater Near You, Sept. 28 and Oct.1!
Great News: FINALLY Gone with the Wind is being re-released on the big screen to commemorate the 75th Anniversary! Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment invite you to celebrate one of the most beloved Hollywood classics when Gone With the Wind: The 75th Anniversary Celebration comes to select movie theaters nationwide on Sunday, September 28 and Wednesday, October 1. Experience the incredible story behind this 10-time Academy Award® winning masterpiece. Fully remastered and with a specially produced introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne, this event is one you will not want to miss. The film will be shown in the same aspect ratio as it was…
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{New Article} 1950: Meet a Great Lady
Sometimes work duties can be awkward. Like, say, when you are required to pen an essay detailing why your co-star is so great, and you and said co-star had a secret baby out of wedlock fifteen years earlier. Yeah. That’s awkward. During the press circuit of To Please a Lady, Clark Gable and Loretta Young were asked to do just that. The whole story of their secret baby was known widely around Hollywood but not so much in the households of moviegoers. I’ve often wondered why the producers even proposed starring them together, if it was such a widely known fact. It doesn’t surprise me one iota that neither Clark…
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Gossip Friday: You’d Never Guess
From November 1937: Just before he left on his extended bear-hunting expedition, Clark Gable had a short wave radio set installed in his car. You’d never guess whom he wants to keep in touch with during his trip, would you?
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Gone with the Wednesday: Test Your Clark Gable Knowledge
One of the many random books I have on Gone with the Wind is “The Official Gone with the Wind Companion” by Stephen J. Spignesi. It’s a book of quizzes and random trivia; I think my parents got it for me for Christmas when I was in middle school! My copy is tattered and has my childish handwriting scrawled everywhere. I thought to resurrect it though and see what compelling questions the Clark Gable quiz had in store. Pencils ready, everyone! 1. For the Clark connoisseur: Which of the following was not one of Clark Gable’s pre-acting occupations? Tire factory worker, oil driller, pharmacy clerk, department store salesman, telephone lineman.…
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Gossip Friday: Party of One
From December 1949: You can believe this or not—but we actually saw Clark Gable lunching alone in the MGM commissary—and all around him pretty gals who would have been delighted to keep him company. There was quite a glamour gang scattered around at the various tables—the three Taylors, Elizabeth, Bob and Don, handsome Barry Sullivan, Mark Stevens, Peter Lawford, Marilyn Maxwell, Bob Walker—looking fit as a fiddle—and the most beautiful girl in the room, Arlene Dahl, all excited about getting the lead in the Western “Outriders.” ____ This one made me sad. Like his heyday was over and there he is all alone while the new crop of stars takes…