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December 1939: The End of a Banner Year

December 1, 1939 – Knoxville Journal

(Excerpt from article on a Tennessee football game)

During the game Carole Lombard, a blonde of some note, telegraphed Bill Stern that she and party were listening in on the set… She said by wire that work on her current picture had been suspended while the play-by-play details of the Vol-Wildcat contest agitated the ether.

Stern declined to put Mrs. Clark Gable’s message on the air… He said it smacked of commercialism inasmuch as she mentioned the name of the picture on which she is, or was, toiling.

December 3, 1939 – Springfield Leader and Press

Carole Lombard visited the set of the untitled Clark Gable-Joan Crawford picture when some of the early scenes of his escape from a Guinea prison were being filmed. One brief shot showed him running down a corridor and through a door which he slammed behind him. But Gable did it so violently that an end section of a wall, presumably made of stone, rocked dangerously, and a hinge was torn from the door. Whooped Miss Lombard: “He’s just like that at home!”

December 3, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

(Excerpt from article about “Johnny Got His Gun”)

“And while we’re on the subject, I’d like to tell another peculiar story. Carole Lombard read the book and decided that she and Clark would buy enough copies to send to members of the Senate and the President with a personally autographed preface saying it was the best book ever written against war.

“Ninety-seven books were shipped to Mrs. Gable’s care of the publisher’s local representative – but the books are still there because the studios felt it was unwise of Gable and Carole to put themselves on record as being against war – that the subject was controversial and therefore out of keeping with the policy of any performer.”

December 8, 1939 – Buffalo Evening News

Guests Are Butt of Gable Joke

Two women from Milwaukee visiting the “Strange Cargo” stage were unwitting stooges for one of the silly gags Clark Gable constantly is playing on his wife, Carole Lombard. A guide had introduced the two visitors to Gable and after a few moments’ polite conversation, he excused himself to use a portable telephone plugged in nearby. The women couldn’t help stealing an occasional glace, nor could they help overhearing Gable’s end of the conversation.

Getting a line through to his ranch, he wanted to know from Carole if the “vet” had called yet to prescribe for an ailing horse. There was some talk, and then Gable said, “Wait a moment, dear – I want you to meet a couple of friends of mine.” With that he led the startled women to the telephone, introduced each by name to Carole, and, leaving them hanging in confusion on the line, fled to his dressing room…

December 10, 1939 – St. Louis Globe Democrat

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard have no swimming pool on their premises, but instead have a rustic reproduction of the “ole swimming hole.”

December 10, 1939 – The Tampa Tribune

The recently-married Carole Lombard and Clark Gable have come to the parting of the ways, but it’s not too serious a break. A month ago, Carole, who usually plays comedy roles, appeared on the “Silver Theater” broadcast in a serious drama. On the program at 6 p.m. over WDAE, Clark, who usually is cast in serious roles, will take a comedy part. The play will be “For Poorer, For Richer,” with Clark as a carefree fortune hunter.

December 12, 1939 – The Kansas City Star

Carole Lombard was scared stiff when Clark Gable awakened the other early a.m., uttered a shriek of pain and rushed to his gunroom. He had an excruciating toothache. No, he didn’t end it all. He had the two offending teeth yanked the next day. Carole, by the way, is preparing a surprise for Clark when he returns from Atlanta. Eight years ago, William Powell presented his bride – Carole – with a mink fur coat. She has had it remodeled three times since then and has now relegated the fur as lining for a hunting getup – for which Gable gets the bill. She will wear it on a hunting trip the couple are planning to the Adirondacks.

December 12, 1939 – Knoxville Journal

A treat awaits the U-T football team members at Los Angeles. Carole Lombard, screen actress, it has been promised, will be at the railroad station to greet each member of the squad with a kiss. Carole will be accompanied by her husband, Clark Gable, who is understood to be in favor of the idea.

December 14, 1939 – The Indianapolis Star

“He Does as She Pleases” is the tentative title for the Metro combination of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard…

December 16, 1939 – Times Tribune

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, both among the top earners of the Hollywood of today, divide their private-life expenses as follows: Clark pays for the running of their house and farm in the valley – food, liquor, and servants’ wages. Carole pays for her own clothes – except when Clark does – and also pays her own personal and business expenses – such as secretary, charitable donations, and studio gifts.

December 20, 1939 – Salt Lake Telegram

Clark Gable Plans Long Holiday

Rested after the riotous “Gone with the Wind” ovation at Atlanta, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are planning a second transcontinental jaunt, it was learned today.

Shortly after January 1 they will leave for New York City, where Gable expects to have the time of his life showing all the sights to his beautiful bride. She’s a native Midwesterner who has lived most of her life in California.

They’re going to see every show on Broadway, remaining away from Hollywood from two to three weeks.

Gable was a frequent visitor in New York until recent years, but Miss Lombard’s one excursion didn’t give her even a glimpse of the town.

She made the trip with her secretary, Madeleine Fields, and they had just arrived when “Fieldsie” became ill and the film star spent her time nursing her.

December 22, 1939 – Ogden Standard Examiner

At the counter of the corner drug store Clark Gable is sipping a cup of coffee, while his Mrs. in the lingerie shop next door tries to decide between pink and blue undies for her secretary, Fieldsie. Shopping’s no effort for Clark – for he simply doesn’t do any. Last year, he smiled, he received exactly fourteen electric razors from his fans. “Guess they thought I needed a shave,” he grinned.

December 22, 1939 – St. Louis Star and Times

With only five minutes of camera work left on “Vigil in the Night,” Carole Lombard collapsed on the set. She had been crying all day and it probably was emotional strain. Anyway, they had to send her home. She returned and did the five minutes’ work.

December 23, 1939 – Evening Star

By and large it will be a home Yuletide for most of Hollywood’s film luminaries. Carole Lombard and Clark will spend the day quietly at their Encino ranch.

December 23, 1939 – The Tribune

The movie colony is as excited as a couple of maiden stunts over the persistent rumor that both Carole Lombard and Barbara Stanwyck are expecting babies.

There’s no denying that Miss Lombard isn’t herself on the set these days. More than once she ahs displayed Victorian fragility quite uncommon to her usual vivacious character by fainting during the filming of “Vigil in the Night.”

For future father Clark Gable there may be some vigils in the night yet to come.

December 24, 1939 – Johnson City Chronicle

Many local movie fans, if they react normally, will gnash their teeth in envy when they learn that Mr. and Mrs. Joe Jared of Johnson City will be among those to attend a Christmas party given by Clark Gable and Mrs. Gable (Carole Lombard) after a Tennessee-Southern California game New Year’s Day.

Dan Wexler, president of a local tire company, was invited to join Gov. Prentice Cooper’s party which will travel by special train to the game, the be entertained by the Gables at their ranch. He will be unable to attend, but Mr. Jared, his business associate, with Mrs. Jared will do so.

December 24, 1939 – Chattanooga Daily News

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard have accepted Gov. Prentice Cooper’s invitation to be his guests at the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, Cal., on New Year’s day, when the University of Tennessee plays Southern California.

Gov. Cooper met the stars in Atlanta at the “Gone with the Wind” premiere. Gov. R.T. Jones, of Arizona, who is a former Tennessean, and Gov. John E. Miles, of New Mexico, will also be guests of the governor.

December 25, 1939 – Oakland Tribune

Hollywood’s Night Spots Deserted on Christmas Eve

The chanting of Christmas carolers re-echoed today from the holly-studded Hollywood hills as the movie colony joined the rest of the world in observance of Christmas.

All Hollywood, apparently, stayed home for the holiday, and the customary haunts of the movie people at nearby resorts were virtually deserted.

At Clark Gable’s home in the San Fernando valley, the dashing hero of “Gone with the Wind” and his actress wife, Carole Lombard, spent the day at home, eating a turkey which a publicity man conservatively estimated weighed 25 pounds.

Gable and his wife, who perhaps have become the most famous married couple in Hollywood since the late Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford occupied the mansion “Pickfair,” hung their Christmas presents on an ordinary tree of 75 cent variety.

December 27, 1939 – St. Louis Star

‘Twas very funny, the hectic afternoon before Clark Gable and Carole Lombard took off for Atlanta. Due to the fact that there were only going to be a few people in the twenty-passenger plane, the two stars figured they could carry more than the average load of baggage. Gable alone had packed two suitcases. But the plane was loaded with so much extra gasoline to avoid refueling stops that Clark and Carole had to repack their things and get by on fifty pounds apiece.

December 27, 1939 – Buffalo Evening News

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are also on the sick list – but in a minor way. Carole is merely overtired from the Atlanta junket, and Clark has lost his voice from the same cause. As a matter of record, Clark found the jaunt much less dangerous than he had anticipated. “I had expected to be torn apart,” he said on his arrival back here. “But the people in the South are ladies and gentlemen – they leave you with your pants.”

December 27, 1939 – Springfield Daily News

(Excerpt from story on Josephine Dillon)

“People still come to me,” she said in an interview today, “and say, ‘you poor dear, isn’t it awful how that man treats his wives?’ Well, if there was anything wrong with a man, you wouldn’t stay seven years with him.

“When I’m in the south I have to be very careful that people don’t confuse me with the second Mrs. Gable. I said, ‘I am Mrs. Josephine Dillon Hollywood Gable, and not Mrs. Rhea Langham Houston Texas Gable (Gable’s second wife).’”

“When the second divorce was breaking, Carole Lombard called me. She was perfectly charming and lovely, and said she knew I’d had a difficult time and she wanted to know what she could do to make everything pleasant and sweet for me.

“I told her all I wanted was to be moved up into the present tense, from the ‘was’ column in the newspapers to the ‘is’ column. You get identified with a verb like that, and people expect you to come hobbling up on crutches. After all, I can walk, and I’ve got all my teeth.

“Well, Carole was perfectly lovely. I think she saw the publicity people and now I am known as Josephine Dillon – ‘is.’”

Mrs. Dillon coached 28 people – aside from her ex-husband – for the part of Rhett Butler in “Gone with the Wind,” because, she said, the movie people hesitated for a while to put Gable in the part lest any later role be an anti-climax.

“But,” Mrs. Dillon added, “I think Gable was the only choice. He is so peculiarly fine in his eye work, and he’s a great artist. He knows his machine like Heifitz knows his violin.”

December 28, 1939 – The Muscatine Journal

Judging from letters pouring in from Atlanta, the down-to-earth good-fellowship displayed by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard there for the premiere of “Gone with the Wind” scored as great a hit as the picture. Remembering how often our touring celebrities have made exactly the opposite impression in their contacts with John and Jane Public, I think the academy ought to vote Clark and Carole a special statuette. By simply being “folks”, they’ve probably done the industry more good than has resulted from any one super-production of the year.

It's significant that as the praise comes marching back from Georgia, Hollywood wears an expression of astonishment. “Imagine!” explain the wide-eyed publicists, “Clark and Carole didn’t ask for a special concession – think of it, they spent hours uncomplainingly signing autographs!”

… The fact that the actions of Clark and Carole offer such a pleasing contrast to the usual stellar displays, they rate Hollywood’s gratitude. One city has learned from them that not all of our luminaries are inflated snobs.

December 28, 1939 – Asbury Park Press

Carole Lombard, the town’s most extensive Christmas giver, did her shopping early – from a list that flabbergasted husband Gable, himself no piker in the Santa Claus racket…

December 28, 1939 – The Tennessean

Governor Cooper said that he had received a telegram from Clark Gable just before he left, expressing regret that he would be unable to attend the Bowl Game.

“I had asked Gable and his wife, Carole Lombard, to by my guests,” he said. “However, he assured me that he would do everything he could to entertain me and the other Tennesseans who will be on the coast.”

December 30, 1939 – Hollywood Citizen

Premiere of the week: “Gone with the Wind” finally opened at the Carthay Circle and everyone turned out for it. … The biggest cheer of the evening went to Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. But Clark and Carole didn’t sit through this premiere of “Gone with the Wind.” They managed to leave the theater unnoticed and spent the evening in a booth at Chasen’s.

#1939 #clark gable #carole lombard #old Hollywood

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December 1939: Gone with the Wind Premiere

December 1, 1939 – Buffalo Evening News

Clark Gable won’t take Carole Lombard along for that Atlanta world premiere of “Gone with the Wind” Dec. 15 as originally planned. Fears of crowd buffeting have Gable badly scared, and he’s anxious to save half the family from being pushed around.

December 11, 1939 – Fort Worth Star

Celebrities to Go by Air to Atlanta

Two chartered airplanes will take the celebrities of Cinemaland to Atlanta for Friday’s premiere of “Gone with the Wind.”

Vivien Leigh, the English “Scarlett,” will leave Tuesday by TWA. Also aboard will be Producer and Mrs. David O. Selznick, Laurence Olivier, and Olivia de Havilland. Stops will be made in Albequerque, Kansas City, and St. Louis, with arrival in Atlanta scheduled Wednesday afternoon.

Clark Gable, hero of the piece, will depart Wednesday by American Airlines with his wife, Carole Lombard, and Director Victor Fleming. The plane will pause in Dallas and Nashville, reaching Atlanta Thursday afternoon.

December 11, 1939 – The Tennessean

“Rhett Butler” will visit Nashville Thursday

Which is another way of saying Clark Gable will be in this city while en route from Hollywood to Atlanta for the premiere of the motion picture version of “Gone with the Wind.”

Two special airplanes will transport stars and motion picture executives to Atlanta, the International News Service reported last night.

The first group, including Miss Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Olivia de Havilland and Mr. and Mrs. David O. Selznick leave Tuesday night. Stops will be made at Albuquerque, Kansas City and St. Louis.

Aboard a special plane leaving Wednesday night will be Gable, co-star of the film, and his bride, Carole Lombard, and Director Victor Fleming.

The Gable plane will stop at Dallas and Nashville and arrive in Atlanta Thursday afternoon in time for the affair that marks the opening of the official three-day holiday, the annual Atlanta Junior League Charity Ball, to be attended by 7,000 persons.

Note – The exact time Gable and his actress wife would stop here Thursday was not definite last night.

December 11, 1939 – The Atlanta Constitution

STARS TO ARRIVE OVER TWO DAYS

…

“Rhett’s” Wife Coming

So far it is a very deep secret but Carole Lombard, who in private life is Gable’s wife, will arrive on a plane with him.

There will be several officials of the Hollywood movie colony, including Howard Strickland, and many lesser lights accompanying Gable on his separate entrance.

December 13, 1939 – Atlanta Constitution

December 14, 1939 – Montgomery Advertiser

Clark Gable, Where Are You?

In response to an inquiry, Floyd Goolsby, manager of the Whitley Hotel, said last night Clark Gable was “somewhere” in the hotel. Where, he did not know.

“They drove up front,” said Mr. Goolsby, “and the driver came in. They took several rooms under assumed names.”

Didn’t he know which room the actor was?

“There are 256 rooms in this hotel and I am unable to say in which room they are,” he said.

Perhaps he had learned something from the bell boys? Perhaps they had ordered food or ice.

“No,” he said, “I’ve been watching that myself.”

Mr Goolsby would not expand on his replies beyond this. It was assumed that Gable’s wife, Actress Carole Lombard, was in the hotel, too, since Mr. Goolsby spoke of “they” and Associated Press dispatches said she accompanied him.

Gable is en route to Atlanta for the premiere of “Gone with the Wind.”

December 14, 1939 – Fort Worth Star Telegram

Dallas Fans Greet Gable and Carole

Clark Gable, starred in “Gone with the Wind,” stopped here 20 minutes Thursday en route to Atlanta for the premiere of the movie.

He was accompanied by Carole Lombard, his wife, and two studio press representatives.

About 2,000 admirers of the Hollywood celebrities were on hand at Love Field to greet the players when they emerged from the chartered plane. Most of them dogged them during the entire stopover, crowding into a small café at the rear of the airport terminal and interrupting the coffee session with requests for autographs.

Miss Lombard signed “Carole Gable.” She took good-naturedly the obvious preference of the crowd for her husband, most of the women asking Gable to “have your wife sign it, too.” He suggested they take up the matter with her.

Gable must report in Hollywood Monday for work on “Strange Cargo,” in which Joan Crawford is to be co-starred.

December 15, 1939 – Atlanta Constitution

Cheering 300,000 Hail Clark Gable In Wild Welcome

It was Gable’s show.

A bronzed and debonair Gable – a very “Rhett Butler” of a man – came into Atlanta late yesterday afternoon to the largest, most spontaneous, often hysterical demonstration which Atlanta has ever seen.

It was Gable all through, this time.

His wife, Carole Lombard, gracious and charming, sat beside him and shared in the adulatory cheers and gestures, from what must have been at least 300,000 people lining roads and streets from Candler airport to the Georgian Terrace. But Gable was the one they were looking for.

December 15, 1939 – Kansas City Star

Of all the visitors, the most unusual is Carole Lombard, who is playing second fiddle and playing it tenderly and gracefully as ever Kreisler stroked a Stradivarius, to her limelight-stealing husband. Carole was the mayor’s girl at the ball tonight. She wore a black evening gown of extremely simple cut. Not only that but she lent a patient ear to her husband’s grousing tonight as she put the studs in his shirt.

Before the mammoth crowd in Atlanta and the smaller ones that greeted them at Dallas and Atlanta on the way here, Clark was a genial figure. But no sooner was he locked in a room with his wife and a few friends that he began to mutter.

“I always feel like a chump in front of crowds,” he growled. “Why do they want to look at me? I’m not Pershing. I didn’t win the war, and I’m not Lindbergh. I didn’t fly the ocean. I’m just a guy that tries to make his living doing a job. I feel like a sap when everybody begins to holler at me.”

“You’d feel awfully wistful if they didn’t, darling,” remarked his wife with a pat and a dimple.

December 15, 1939 – The Tennessean

December 15, 1939 – Austin American Statesman

December 15, 1939 – Boston Globe

December 15, 1939 – Atlanta Constitution

December 16, 1939 – Daily Herald

December 16, 1939 – Fort Worth Star Telegram

Clark Gable Sleeps Through Fort Worth �� Tuckered Out

Mr. and Mrs. Clark Gable stopped in Fort Worth for 30 minutes Saturday morning, but two publicity men, an airline stewardess and another member or so of the royal retinue kept interviewers and others from disturbing their slumber, which started in Atlanta, Ga., at 3 a.m.

“They’re dead on their feet – they haven’t had any sleep since Wednesday,” Howard Strickling, head of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer public relations department, told hopeful reporters who wanted to ask Gable what he thought of himself in “Gone with the Wind,” which had its premiere in Atlanta Friday night.

Then he confided that Gable, co-star of the picture, and his wife, who is Carole Lombard on the screen, had taken sleeping pills on leaving the Georgia city after 24 hours of fanfare and celebration.

Gable must be back in Hollywood Sunday to resume work on another picture, “Strange Cargo,” with Paul Lucas and Joan Crawford.

Strickling said both of the stars “got a great kick” out of the “Gone with the Wind” premiere and added that few movie openings ever were carried off with such splendor and pomp and ceremony.

Also on the plane that arrived here from Atlanta were two fortunate persons, Stewardess Betty McLaughlin and Pilot WR Vine.

They are two of the comparatively few persons who saw the premiere. Strickling said they got tickets, which were at a premium, when CR Smith, president of American Airlines, had to elave Atlanta before the show. The Gables turned the tickets over to the pilot and stewardess.

Since Vine lives in New York, Miss McLaughlin has become the first person from Fort Worth to see the great, four-hour picture.

“It’s marvelous,” smiled the pretty stewardess, who lives at 2314 Market Street.

“The greatest picture I ever saw,” said Vine.

“Mr. Gable and Miss Lombard are two of the very finest people you ever saw and you couldn’t be with anyone who is more fun,” said Miss McLaughlin as she left the plane after escorting the movie couple from Hollywood to Atlanta and back to Fort Worth on a special American Airlines flagship labeled “Gone with the Wind Special.”

December 16, 1939 – Knoxville News

It was noticed by those who saw the cyclorama spectacle with them that Great-Lover Gable held Carole Lombard’s hand through the whole showing.

December 16, 1939 – News Press

December 16, 1939 -Des Moines Tribune

December 29, 1939 - Los Angeles Times

#clark gable #carole lombard #1939 #old hollywood #gone with the wind

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November 1939: Her Giddy Days Over

November 16, 1939

By Sheilah Graham

HER GIDDY DAYS OVER

Carole Lombard Calms down, Since Last Marriage.

Carole Lombard… western bit player – Mack Sennett bathing beauty – dramatic actress, zany actress, and now coming to you again in very serious vein in “Vigil in the Night” … Carole never does anything by halves, and, to give a true interpretation of her current role of nurse, she arranged the coincidence of a rush appendectomy and three weeks’ sojourn in a hospital.

Carole’s career was due for the final fadeout ten years ago, when Cecil B. DeMille said to Assistant Mitchell Leisen, now a director – “Carole Lombard is a feather-brained playgirl who will never amount to anything in the picture business.” Leisen repeated this to Carole, scared her into a serious attitude, and, from them on, her star future in pictures was assured.

FROM SUBSTANTIAL FAMILY

Miss Lombard is a natural blonde – but lightens her hair for pictures… She is one of the few actresses whose parents were well-to-do before this success… She was born in Fort Wayne, Ind., (1910)… Arrived in Hollywood when she was 10… Her real name is Jane Alice Peters… She became “Carole” because a numerologist said it would be lucky for her. It was. The Lombard was filched from family friends – Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lombard.

Miss Lombard has been married twice – the first time to William Powell in 1931 – her pet name for him was “Junior.” … They were divorced in 1933. Her pet name for second husband Clark Gable is “Pappy.” He calls her “Mama.”

Carole has been less boisterous since her second nuptials – she has given up giving and going to parties. And it is quite hard to recognize the girl in slacks on the Encino farm as the dressed-up-to-the-hilt city girl of pre-Gable days… Her favorite conveyances these days are a station wagon and a black and gray motor scooter… The grounds of her valley home are spacious – twenty acres – but the wooden house is small and simple – with one guest room only (you saw this house in “Kid Galahad”).

ALWAYS UP TO PRANKS

Carole is Hollywood’s gag girl No. 1… Pranks in the past include presents of custard pies to Norman Taurog (as a supposed rebuke from his producer); a picture of herself pasted on a ham to Clark Gable; also to Clark, a model T Ford with a coat of white paint, a bib and a red heart on one side.

Miss Lombard, formerly under a long-term contract to Paramount, is now freelancing and getting $150,000 per picture… Her best picture – “My Man Godfrey” … Her worst – “Fools for Scandal” … Carole is extravagant when it comes to furs. She owns the skin of every animal you can think of – her favorite fur piece is a sable coat that cost $18,000… Favorite exercise, tennis – her most frequent partner is Alice Marble (who has a kind heart)… The three weeks Carole spent in the hospital recently were not, according to the actress, wasted – “for the first time in my life, I had time to think,” says Carole.

#carole lombard #1939 #sheilah graham #old hollywood

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November 1939: Adoption Rumors

November 2, 1939 – Miami News

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will be a papa and mama soon, via the cradle route…

November 3, 1939 – Des Moines Register

Their not-so-private affairs: The simple, pleasant process of going out for dinner can and does provoke a minor crisis in the lives of some folks.

The Gables, for instance, would much prefer to stir up something at home.

But the other night, Clark and Carole decided to brave the tourist gantlet and eat out – their first café appearance since their marriage. Clark had just finished a radio rehearsal and the Brown Derby loomed invitingly around the corner.

Stares.

They strode boldly through the bar and into the Derby’s jam-packed dining room. Sightseeing customers getting a wallop out of the presence of Wallace Beery and three “B” actors dropped their silver and stared in astonishment.

Soon a crowd began collecting at the door. Autograph seekers from the nearby broadcast studios came on the run. Three policemen joined to force the fanatics back.

Meanwhile, the excited café manager phoned his publicity man. Two photographers appeared from nowhere. Bulbs flashed. The Gables were photographed looking at the menu, then looking at each other.

Bolder.

Pretty soon the tourists grew bold. One by one they brought over menus to be autographed. When the check was placed on the table, Clark merely glanced at it and pushed it toward Carole. She settled and left a crisp bank note for the waiter.

The job of getting into their car demanded police help.

Inside the Derby, the head waiter was conversing with the press agent.

“Whatdye suppose ever brought them out?” asked the H.W.

“Why, ‘Gone with the Wind’ of course,” returned the P.A. “Don’t you know Gable and Lombard have gotta go to Atlanta for that world premiere Dec. 16? They were bucking the crowd here just to get in training. But boy – wait’ll they get a taste of that southern hospitality!”

November 14, 1939 – San Pedro News

Take those Carole Lombard-Clark Gable adoption denials with a grain of salt…

November 17, 1939 – Hartford Courant

Carole Lombard was buying some guns for Clark Gable’s birthday between takes on her latest picture. She pointed one of the guns in the air – and down came a dead duck – planted tehre bt Brian Ahern

November 19, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

Clark Gable and Caroel Lombard will feast at home.

November 20, 1939 – Minneapolis Star

FASHION AND LOCAL INDUSTRY NOTE: Out in Hollywood Clark Gable is sporting a brand new, fringed bucksin jacket made for him by Carl Scherer, Minneapolis taxidermist. So pleased about it is Clark that he’s just ordered a whole suit of the same.

Incidentally, Carole Lombard has also done a bit of shopping in town (by mail). She bought a whole flock of wooden duck decoys from Leo Boutin and Leo’s already had two reorders on them.

November 24, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

Hollywood studios closed yesterday for observance of Thanksgiving in accordance with President Roosevelt’s proclamation advancing the day one week ahead. Film celebrities for the most part remained at home for turkey dinners, although the popular cafes reported many reservations.

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard invited numerous friends to their ranch for a spread with all of the trimmings, while George Raft entertained at his new home.

November 24, 1939 – Morning Post

Every place we stopped the “insiders” are convinced that Carole Lombard and Clark Gable are going to adopt a baby boy right after the first of the year.

All I could say to the reporters and fans who asked whether the stories were true is to quote Clark, who says the Gables are not going to adopt a little boy and if they become parents the baby will be one of their own.

November 25, 1939 – Santa Rosa Republican

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard have sent 12 “prize chickens” to the Rev. Kenneth Engle, who married them in Kingman, Ariz…

November 26, 1939 – St. Louis Globe

Although Carole Lombard and Clark Gable have denied the baby adoption story, their intimates say the denial is made in a merely Pickwickian sense.

November 26, 1939 – Oakland Tribune

Bride Carole Lombard should find very little difficulty in arranging Clark Gable’s menu. He’s rarely eccentric about his food, except that when he Dagwoods out to the refrigerator for a late snack, “Blondie” Lombard is likely to move over to the edge of her side of the bed. Onions! Nothing is so tasty to Clark as a raw onion sandwich.

November 28, 1939 – The Kansas City Star

Carole Lombard called up her home and asked “Is Mr. Gable there?” And this is what the maid shouted to Clark – “Hey Pa, Ma’s on the phone!” Even Carole thought this was carrying informality too far.

November 29, 1939 – Ogden Standard

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable are not going to adopt a baby – because they’ve decided in favor of the Gable brand.

#clark gable #carole lombard #1939 #old hollywood

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October 1939: Moviedom's Dizzy Dame

October 1, 1939 – Statesman Journal

Dizzy Lombard Turns Serious

HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 30 (AP) – Moviedom’s dizzy dame has turned into a demurely dutiful farm wife, but Carole Lombard still has that old twinkle in her eye.

Screwball sensation of the “My Man Godfrey” comedy cycle, now appearing in serious roles, she has remains a wag at heart.

The other day, for example, in the midst of the heat wave she ordered up a 100-pound cake of ice and sat on it between set calls. When she was working she turned it over to extras to “keep it warm” for her.

Carole, still receiving compliments for her serious work in her two most recent pictures, “Made For Each Other” and “In Name Only,” currently is playing a starkly dramatic role with Brian Aherne in “Vigil in the Night.”

Carole, in case you didn’t know for some six months now has been the wife of Clark Gable.

Just Farm Folks

They live on a ranch miles from the studio, drive to work together – to separate studios – every day, and are very happy.

Six years ago they played in a picture together – “No Man of Her Own” – but Carole says they wouldn’t do it again unless they got just the right story.

“No one,” she asserts, “wants to see Mr. Gable playing opposite Mrs. Gable.”

Clark is doing quite well in the cinema, thank you, says Carole. She just saw him in a sneak preview of “Gone with the Wind,” and she says the picture is terrific.

“You mean Gable is terrific,” she was asked.

“I mean the picture is terrific,” she said firmly. Far be it from Carole to boast, even about Clark.

From Cronin Novel

Maybe they’ll be saying “terrific” about Carole one of these days in “Vigil in the Night.” From a new novel by AJ Cronin, it paints England’s nursing profession in the same uncompromising colors “The Citadel” did for British medicine.

A nurse in the picture, Carole wears the unromantic uniform of the profession, complete with cotton stockings, and emotes within a severe hairdo. It’s realism, that’s what.

Carole abandoned haywire comedy, but not for long, not by design and not for fun.

She didn’t particularly choose the roles in her three serious pictures, she says – “They just came my way and looked like they had guts.”

She has no especial preference for drama – “If it’s a good part in a good story, that’s all that counts” - and she regards comedy as being more difficult than heavier roles.

October 7, 1939 – The Record

Carole Lombard learned today who it was on the telephone yesterday, calling up every two hours and chirping sweetly, “happy birthday.” The greeting was nice, at first, because it was Miss Lombard’s 30thbirthday, but before the day was out, she had the maid answering the phone.

The voice, she learned, was that of a Western Union telephone operator. Husband Clark Gable had arranged the calls for a prank.

Nearly 50 actors and technicians chipped in and bought a mammoth birthday cake, which was wheeled onto the picture set where Miss Lombard was working.

October 9, 1939 – Miami News

Clark Gable has forbidden Mrs. Gable (Carole Lombard to the masses) to have a personal press agent, the way she did in her bachelor days. The p.a. used to publicize her in the screwball vein. Clark, the conservative, is holding out for dignity.

October 9, 1939 – Tampa Bay Times

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will take a flying two-weeks’ vacation in Gotham, come the latter part of November…

October 10, 1939 – Ogden Standard

Someone tells us that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are going to take that belated honeymoon to New York within a month. It was postponed due to Carole’s operation and her current new picture. Well we’re relieved that they’ll take the honeymoon – for Clark put us on the spot – so to speak by telling us all about it – which we cover-featured over one of the screen magazines. And both the editor and “us” – have been waiting for him to show up.

October 11, 1939 – San Francisco Examiner

Metro turned thumbs down on Clark Gable’s proposed trip to New York with Carole Lombard. He’ll be needed for another movie soon.

October 15, 1939 – Philadelphia Inquirer

Gable’s Test Nets Yells

The first screen test Clark Gable ever made for MGM was a dilly – For it he wore a loin-cloth, a rose behind his right ear and his wild hair was brushed straight up on the sides of his skull. His bride, Carole Lombard, ribbed him with it the other night.

Clark arranged a showing of “GWTW’ in a Metro projection room… He invited Carole and four close friends… The lights went down and then the projectionist, with whom Carole had arranged it, screened the test! … They yelled and howled.

And there is an after-story… The next afternoon, a correspondent was at Metro and an executive whispered: “I’ll give you a scoop worth a column. I’ll have Clark’s first test screened for you. It’s never been seen by a newspaper man.”

Ten minutes later, from the studio’s film vaults, came a message: “Unable to screen Gable’s Test No. 1. All early tests of Gable appear to have been junked!”

October 17, 1939 – San Fernando Valley Times

Old Oak Tree Gable Home Is Destroyed

Ever since Clark Gable and Carole Lombard have moved to their Encino homestead, they have been petting along their pride and joy, a 200-year old oak tree. The tree was continually being propped, its crevices filled with cement, and otherwise coaxed along, but the recent spell of wind and rain has written the final chapter for the ancient beauty. It was blown down and will now be sawed up for the winter fireplace.

October 17, 1939 – Indianapolis Star

World premiere of “Gone with the Wind” has been set for Dec. 7 in Atlanta – subject to change, however, as are all dates and notices concerning this picture. Clark Gable’s name is still penciled in for a personal appearance there, and he plans to take Carole Lombard along to help with the gland-handing…

October 17, 1939 – Evening Star

The “feud” between Joan Crawford and Clark Gable is a publicity dream to drum up attention for their next picture together – “Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep.” Clark made his first bid for fame in an early Joan Crawford picture. It is hardly likely that he would hate her for it… Clark, by the way, has shed his hair disguise for Rhett Butler. He was sorry to cut his hair because – “Carole says it gives a better line to my head.”

October 19, 1939 – Hollywood Citizen

Carole Lombard wanted to buy 100 copies of Dalton Trumbo’s anti-war novel, “Johnny Got His Gun,” and together with Clark Gable send them to Senators and Congressmen. A studio publicity department talked her out of it…

October 19, 1939 – Atlantic City Press

Here you have an intimate shot of Carole Lombard and Husband Clark Gable eating. It’s one of their favorite pastimes. The other day they decided to share the fun with some photographers.

October 21, 9139 – Miami News

RKO is plenty sore at Carole Lombard for using a lot of space in Modern Screen talking about a Mr. Clark Gable who works for MGM.

October 21, 1939 – Daily Journal

On Carole Lombard’s birthday, she had to report to work for “Vigil in the Night,” so Clark Gable, for a rib, had the Western Union’s singing operators call her every half hour.

October 21, 1939 – The Winnipeg Tribune

Farmers in the San Fernando Valley screen colony are becoming more practical daily. Farms started a short time ago are coming into bearing, and on studio sound stages are heard proud boasts about fruit and produce being sold at profit.

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, on their farm, have successfully raised and disposed of poultry, a peach crop, and walnuts. Spencer Tracy’s walnuts were a commercial success this season. Robert Armstrong’s tomato crop was a bumper one.

October 23, 1939 – Harford Courant

Oil ‘Find’ Turns Stars’ Sport Club To Business Boom

Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, and other celebrities, members of Encino’s “Hard Rock Club,” may soon be oil magnates. Oil has been discovered on the land from which the club a group of San Fernando Valley property owners, takes its name.

The Club started when 160 acres in the Northridge hills were bought as acreage for a weekend cabin resort.

A group of stars, Valley residents, then wanted to buy it for a weekend lodge for skeet shooting and riding. They did and named it as a “gag,” the “Hard Rock Club,” because of the stony nature of the land.

A short time ago, oil was discovered two miles to the west of their land, and hundreds of barrels produced. Now oil has been discovered on the club’s land, which has become priceless, and the erstwhile social club is now a business organization.

Members include Gable, Miss Lombard, Phil Harris and Marcia Ralston, Norris Goff (Abner of Lum and Abner), Andy Devine and Chester Lauckes (Lum).

October 24, 1939 – Buffalo Evening News

Country style recipes rule on the Carole Lombard-Clark Gable ranch. A favorite old-timer is fried apples, quartered, cooked in brown sugar, flavored with a hint of orange or lemon juice. Delicious with country sausage on cool Autumn days.

October 28, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are said to have had their first quarrel. Seems Clark won’t use the tonic on his hair Carole bought for him…

October 30, 1939 – Casper Star Tribune

Clark Gable and his wife, Carole Lombard, are dickering for purchase of the ramous R.V. “Dick” Dennison ranch on the east fork of Wind river in the Dubois country, according to a report traced by the Lander Evening Post to reliable sources. The Dennison ranch with its vast acreage and mansion-like residence is one of the show places of the country. Its owner died recently.

#clark gable #carole lombard #old hollywood #1939

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October 1939: Mr. and Mrs.

October 1, 1939

October 15, 1939

#clark gable #carole lombard #1939 #old hollywood

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September 1939: Carole's Advice For Dictators

September 2, 1939 – Morning World Herald

Hubby Clark Doesn’t Catch

It must have been a god joke from the expression on Carole Lombard’s face, but her husband, Clark Gable, doesn’t seem to see it. They are shown on their ranch in the San Fernando valley, California, where they rest during pictures. Gable is working on “Gone with the Wind” and Carole is starring in “In Name Only.”

September 2, 1939 – The Knoxville Journal

Imaginable hilarious evening: watching the play of expression on Carole Lombard’s mobile face as she stared at the stuffed, eight-foot swordfish Clark Gable had sent home with instructions to hang it over the fireplace.

September 3, 1939 – Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Recipe for Appeasement

Nothing gives you a lift like an appendectomy, take it from delightful, delicious Carole Lombard, wife to Mr. Clark Gable, the man of glamour.

Lovely lady should know whereof she speaks, for she had one; spent, in fact, four weeks on her alabaster back in the hospital, and only last week arose from bed of pain to return to the Encino rancho that Mr. Gable built for her and announce her belief that there’d be fewer war scares and crises and Munichs and what-not if Messrs. Hitler and Mussolini would take time out from their horrendous affairs of state and have one, too.

That’s her considered cure for the world’s ills. Quoth bright-eyed she:

“In bed with nothing to do but think you get a deeper appreciation of life itself. You realize how fortunate you are simply to be alive. You discover how nice everybody is; how kind are even perfect strangers.”

Thus, thought Trend, if only Der Fuehrer of Germany and Il Duce of Fascismo would get a load of themselves and take a good long rest and maybe have an operation and get to thinking how kindly are the Poles and how nice the Albanians, then possibly Mr. Chamberlain would have less to worry about in these parlous times, and Il Duce would become the village blacksmith in Belacqua and Der Fuehrer would go back to paper-hanging in dear old Vienna.

“My month on the flat of my back has given me a new outlook on life,” Carole says. “It has given me a new tolerance and a new patience…

“And as I stayed there in bed thinking, I couldn’t help but believe that everybody should have an operation once in a while; preferably an appendicitis operation.”

And Il Duce and Der Fuehrer would have something new to talk about to the folks back home…

“It’s not particularly serious and it doesn’t hurt while they’re doing it. You think. That’s all there is to do. And it seems to me that anybody, even the men who are talking about starting wars, could profit from a little enforced thinking, with nobody to interrupt them except the nurse, bringing orange juice.”

So it’s fruit juice and bed for you, Adolf, and zwieback at noon, and milk at four. (After all, you’re already on war rations, and down to one percent beer). And for Benito, a dark-eyed signorina to cheer him in his convalescing hours. And for the world, peace again.

How come Mr. Chamberlain never thought of it?

Trend thinks Miss Lombard, after Mr. FDR, has made the best suggestion yet. But knows that in this crazy world no one will have the sense to heed it. And so it goes, with everybody everywhere except Miss Lombard and a few others going about this dreadful business of making the simple life every day and in every way harder and harder.

September 3, 1939 – The Birmingham News

Mr. and Mrs. Gable At Home

September 3, 1939 – The Charlotte Observer

Fleming’s Pal “Gone with the Wind”

All because of Carole Lombard, Victor Fleming is shopping for hunting accessories and a new African safari pal.

For several years Fleming has been planning a second big game expedition in Africa, and during the making of “Test Pilot” sold Clark Gable on the idea of accompanying him.

With “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind” completed, Fleming expects to have time for his trip this fall or winter. So he notified Gable. But since first planning the trip, Gable has married, and wife Carole firmly decrees that her husband “shall take no chances with Fleming, lions and rhinoceroses.”

Hence Fleming is looking for another hunting partner.

September 6, 1939 – Messenger Inquirer

September 9, 1939 – Evening Star

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard have just concluded their first separation since their marriage. Clark had a week of fishing, while Carole recuperated from her recent appendectomy…

September 10, 1939 – The Kansas City Star

The Gables “Go Rustic” on a 14-Acre Estate

September 10, 1939 – The Courier

Miss (Alice) Marble looks as glamourous as Carole Lombard as they watch a game together. With them are Clark Gable and Felix Young, right.

September 12, 1939 – The Minneapolis Star

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who were going to Europe, are talking about a trip to Africa for big game.

September 13, 1939 – Wilkes Barre Times Leader

Carole Lombard’s first public appearance since her hospitalization was at a Bakersfield Fun Club. She and husband Clark Gable bagged a limit of doves.

September 13, 1939 – Richmond Times

Carole Lombard and her husband, Clark Gable, have left Hollywood on a hunting expedition – without guns.

Miss Lombard is hunting for weight, as she is under her doctor’s orders to gain 11 pounds before she returns to RKO Radio to resume work in “Vigil in the Night,” filming of which was suspended a month ago when the star was suddenly stricken with appendicitis.

The operation and hospital confinement cost Miss Lombard 13 pounds, only two of which she has been able to regain.

September 24, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

The Gables Entertain – Clark Gable and wife, Carole Lombard, entertained with an outdoor buffet recently at their new ranch at Encino. Carole seems to be on no diet.

September 24, 1939 – Knoxville Journal

Carole Lombard’s Operation Fails to Dull Spirits

By Melrose Gower

Carole Lombard has returned to the Hollywood sound stages, appendix gone but sense of humor still intact.

Her convalescent remark that dictators should have appendectomies because it would keep them in bed, give them time to philosophize about their follies, already has belted the globe (except in censored countries).

Discharged from one hospital, ironically she went to work at once in another, resuming her role of nurse in AJ Cronin’s “Vigil in the Night,” interrupted by illness after two days’ initial shooting five weeks later.

Her first day was spent in a British provincial hospital set on an RKO Radio stage. Script calls for a young lad to die in an oxygen tent through negligence of nurse Anne Shirley, Miss Lombard’s sister for picture purposes. Director George Stevens wanted the utmost in heartbreak to be registered, enlisted the aid of mood music.

All day, between camera takes – and during them, too, when dialogue was not employed – professionals on a muted violin and a pump organ with the soft stops all pulled out obliged with “Sweet and Low,” and other blue strains.

End of day found Stevens highly gratified, Miss Shirley in dithers, Miss Lombard irrepressible.

Cracked the star to Stevens: “I’m glad you didn’t direct my operation.”

Protecting his tense atmosphere, Stevens closed the set to visitors. Producers to secretaires, workers on the lot were not to be denied opportunity to greet Miss Lombard, offer congratulations on recovery. Mob scene was result as they waylaid her at noon when stage doors were rolled back.

To one who said everybody had missed her, she opined: “Bet it was quieter.”

That it’s an ill operation which produces no good was Miss Lombard’s sage amendment of an old saw. She pointed out that sans appendectomy she would have been sans honeymoon.

Marriage to Clark Gable last summer occurred when she had just finished work on “In Name Only,” was on eve of starting “Vigil in the Night.” Immediate honeymoon was denied both, as he returned from Arizona to go before the cameras at once in “Gone with the Wind,” she to begin “Vigil in the Night.”

With work on the latter suspended, however, due to her illness, the star in the convalescent period was enabled to go to the High Sierras with her husband, who meanwhile had finished his assignment.

By product: Brian Aherne, cast opposite Miss Lombard in a medico role, availed himself of the enforced vacation to wed Joan Fontaine, also got a honeymoon before being recalled.

“Another thing. Flat on my back for a month I studied nursing technique. It was excellent training for my role. I know just how long to hold off before bringing the patient his orange juice,” said Carole.

#clark gable #carole lombard #old hollywood #1939

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August 1939: The Gables At Home

August 10, 1939 – The Evening Times

Clark Gable and his bride, the former Carole Lombard, go bucolic and spend much of their time with their chickens on their new twenty-acre ranch at Encino, Calif. Carole is recuperating from appendix operation.

August 11, 1939 – Daily News

Down on the Farm. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, off screen, are just a couple of simple souls who hobnob with their chickens. The Gables dwell on a ranch in San Fernando Valley. They admit liking country life in contrast to their sophisticated screen personalities.

August 23, 1939 – Daily Record

Farmer Takes a Wife

Clark Gable snapped with his bride, Carole Lombard, in his new twenty-acre ranch at Encino, California, where they have been enjoying a sunshine holiday.

August 24, 1939 – The Pittsburgh Press

Stars Enjoy the Simple Life Down on the Farm

More and more the movie glamor girls and boys are going in for the simple life of the folks who till the soil. Well, of course, they don’t raise big crops – but when they’re not engaged at the studios the movie players take to the outdoors. Many of them own ranches and spend the greater share of their leisure in rustic surroundings. As, for example, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, above. As the “farmer’s wife,” Carole hands Clark a cargo of “vittles” sufficient for a ranch hand – and Clark prepares to “tear into it.” Both are resting now after long months of work in the studio. Clark has finished with his role of Rhett Butler in “Gone with the Wind” while Carole is resting from her labors in “In Name Only.”

August 27, 1939 - The Tampa Tribune

At Home with the Gables

Life at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gable is predominantly rustic, judging from these scenes. At least, it’s flattering to have a cameraman always handy when you are performing such homey chores. Here we have (1) “Tea” time with good old Nellie. It’s share and share alike, says Carole Lombard. (2) Just a couple of pals resting on the hind end of their service car. (3) Carole shows she has learned to water fowls without undue squeamishness - a star in a chicken coop, so to speak. (4) They’re proudest of what they believe to be the only perfectly docile mule in captivity. Its name, paradoxically, is Maud.

#clark gable #pictures #carole lombard #1939 #old holywood

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August 1939: Burglary and Appendicitis

August 1, 1939 – The Daily Argus

Clark Gable Nabs a Burglar; Wife Lombard Has a Good Laugh

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, whose uproarious courtship was a matter of note, still enjoy a good laugh.

They had it when the screen’s no. 1 male star turned he-man at home yesterday to overpower and disarm an eighteen-year-old Polish youth he found hiding in the closet of his dressing room.

“The madame thought it was quite funny, and she laughed when I called her at the studio,” Gale said. “She has a swell sense of humor, at all times.”

The No. 1 he-man of the films thought it was funny, too, but he said he regretted that he had to turn Willard J. Broski over to the police. The officers said the youth probably would be given a psychiatric examination before any charges were filed.

Gable had just finished a shower bath and was about to get into his clothes when he saw the door of his dressing room closet move and the tip of a man’s shoe protrude.

“Come out of there,” Gable yelled, advancing on the door. Broski came out and Gable leaped on him. A revolver, taken from the gun room of the Gables’ Van Nuys home, fell to the floor in the scuffle.

Broski got a good working over, but he was unhurt after Gable dragged him downstairs and held him until officers arrived. The actor said the youth told him he wanted money and hoped Gable would give him $15 or $20.

Carole had gone to her studio for scenes and missed all the action.

Broski said he was an unemployed cook’s helper and that he had “always wanted to see Gable but couldn’t meet him.”

August 4, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

Clark Gable Testifies Against Youth Captured in His Home

Clark Gable, screen actor, played to one of the smallest audiences in his career yesterday.

It was in the tiny Van Nuys courtroom when he was called before Municipal Judge William Frederickson at 10 a.m. as a witness against Willard J. Broski, 18, captured as a burglary suspect in his North Hollywood ranch home.

The courtroom has seats to accommodate about 60 persons. Thirty of them were occupied when Broski’s preliminary hearing on a burglary charge was called.

Gable, dressed in a gray sports coat, light gray slacks and open-front polo shirt, sat among the spectators awaiting his turn on the witness stand. He wore a mustache. He wasn’t annoyed by autograph hounds. He was pleasant but appeared not to like the role he was playing against the youth.

From the witness stand, Gable calmly reiterated how he stepped from a shower in the master bedroom suite of his home last Monday to see a figure disappear behind a closet door.

“I yelled for the intruder to come out,” Gable testified. “As the door opened I grappled with the stranger. I noticed that he had one of my antique guns sticking from his belt.

“To protect myself, I grabbed him, threw him to the floor and disarmed him. That’s about all there was to it. I held him until the officers arrived.”

Detective Lieutenant Chester Welch, who, with Detective Lieutenant Paul Harrison, arrested Broski, Fannie Jacobson, a cook for Gable and his wife, Carole Lombard, and William Milner, the butler, were other witnesses.

Judge Frederickson bound Broski over on a burglary charge to the Superior Court, where he will be arraigned in Division 41 on Aug. 19.

August 5, 1939 – The Miami Herald

Carole Lombard Has Appendectomy

Associated Press

“She’s okay,” said Clark Gable to friends who telephoned Friday at a hospital to ask about his wife, Carole Lombard.

Miss Lombard, ill for two days and unable to work, was taken to the hospital late Thursday night for an emergency appendectomy. Gable sat up with her all night.

August 5, 1939 – The Plain Speaker

Carole Lombard, playing the role of a nurse in her new picture “Vigil In the Night,” is getting some firsthand, if painful, pointers in a hospital.

She was a patient, and convalescing well, at Good Samaritan Hospital today after an appendectomy made necessary by a sudden attack at her studio (RKO) Thursday afternoon.

Husband Clark Gable spent a restless night in her room after the operation but told friends today that she appeared to be out of danger.

Miss Lombard complained to Director George Stevens Thursday that she was experiencing shooting pains in her right side. She went home and Gable rushed her to the hospital. The operation was performed less than an hour after her arrival.

Her picture will be delayed two weeks by the operation.

August 6, 1939 – The Eugene Guard

Carole Lombard Ill; Can’t Study Role

United Press

Carole Lombard, blonde movie actress wife of Clark Gable, was too ill from the effects of an emergency appendectomy today to study the nursing technique necessary to her role in a forthcoming picture.

She arrived at Good Samaritan hospital Thursday night in the real life role of a patient, doubled up with acute appendicitis pains. The operation was performed immediately while Gable paced the corridor outside the operating room.

Miss Lombard was to have begun a study today under auspices of the Good Samaritan nursing school staff to prepare herself for her portrayal of a nurse in the picture, “Vigil in the Night.”

Gable appeared this morning, seated in her flower-banked room at the hospital, as the personification of the picture title; he was bleary-eyed, unshaven, and weary after his 48-hour vigil.

Dr. Norman Williams, the operating surgeon, said Miss Lombard was showing a rapid recovery but would be too ill for the next 24 hours to study the technique of the young nurse flitting, not too calmly, around the handsome Gable’s chair.

August 9, 1939 – Monticello Herald Journal

Don’t know if Carole Lombard and Clark Gable have hired the watchman yet, but they have bought a pair of bloodhounds trained for police work. You can hear them bay for about six miles, Carole says. Well, maybe not quite that far.

August 9, 1939 – Holyoke Daily Transcript

One of the funnier sidelights of Gable’s capture of the youthful gunman was overlooked. The intruder spent most of the night in Carole Lombard’s car in the garage. Less than 10 feet away peacefully slept Gable’s bulldog, Toughie. He never let out a single yelp of warning.

Probably result of the little melodrama will be the hiring of a watchman at the star’s menage. Carole and Clark hated to have one around, but they are afraid that the ease with which the visitor roamed their house may put ideas into other heads.

August 20, 1939 – Atlantic City Press

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard romping around among the cows and chickens looks as happy as a couple of kids. Glanced over some 20 photographs of them the other day “down on the farm,” doing everything except milking the cow.

The expressions on their faces is a long way from the hectic squinting of eyes and corrugating of brows which have become the accustomed thing among actors, producers, directors, and who-not who bet on the horses practically every day. Hundreds of thousands of dollars change hands at the Hollywood track during the summer and at Santa Anita in the winter months, to say nothing of what goes on in little cubbyholes here and there where bookies hang out. Several producers have private wires in their offices, which would seem to be the height of something or other. Maybe it’s the reason for the “low high” in picture production the past few weeks.

August 20, 1939 – Detroit Free Press

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable have the right idea. They were observed having a picnic luncheon put up for them the other day at the Brown Derby in Hollywood. They were off to the Santa Susannah Mountains for a picnic instead of a trip to Europe which they had planned originally. They have decided to see America first and wait for the European war clouds to roll by.

August 25, 1939 – San Pedro News

Happiest man in town these days is Clark Gable, who after seven years of fruitless angling finally landed his first marlin swordfish – it weighed just under 200 pounds and battled more than two hours before coming to gaff…

August 29, 1939 – Daily Clintonian

Now that Carole Lombard is on the mend, Clark Gable has gone to San Diego to try for marlin swordfish. He stayed in the adjoining room the whole time Carole was in the hospital…

#1939 #clark gable #carole lombard #old hollywood

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July 1939: New Home Detailed

July 2, 1939 – Detroit Free Press

For Women Only by Grace Wilcox

The Gables at Home

There is something of a race on among some hundred or so journalists and magazine writers to get a description of the Clark Gable-Carole Lombard estate. There seems to be a distinct catch in it, for the newlyweds absolutely refuse to have their place photographed in detail.

“It isn’t that we want to be mean,” explains Carole, “but we like to feel that our home is our own, and anyway it isn’t finished yet. Possibly it never will be finished. That’s why it keeps us interested.”

Gable admits he has always wanted a farm. It has been a suppressed desire for years and now that he has 14 acres, he feels he has a start, especially with four horses in his stable.

In case you are interested, I can tell you something about the estate in words, if not in pictures. Here are two people who could have practically any sort of place they want. I am happy to say they have the good sense to keep well within bounds. It is a beautiful home, but not ostentatious; it is neither a palace, a castle nor a chateau, but a good early American farmhouse of seven rooms, which may easily be cared for by one or two persons. They have no desire for a large staff of servants and so far, they have done most of the work themselves.

Back in the Valley, about a mile off Ventura Blvd., a winding drive leads up to the house, the gardens of which are surrounded by a split-rail, whitewashed fence.

It is set in the midst of a forest, for Clark has about 900 trees of various kinds, more than 100 of them citrus, planted on the grounds. He takes great pride in the fact that his farm supplies the family table with fresh fruits in season, avocados and all the vegetables. There are 1,000 chickens, a mule, four dogs, a milch cow, the four horses, innumerable cats. There is a pine tack room off the modern, up-to-the-minute stables. In this are the saddles, bridles, and farm equipment.

Each stall is provided with a feed bucket which swings automatically into the stall – the same system used at racetracks for the blooded stock. There are long chicken coops, dog kennels, a milk house; there are several acres of pastureland, a terraced grape vineyard, fig trees, flower gardens, lawns and shrubbery. A garage for four cars houses two coupes and a station wagon. Both Clark and Carole drive their own cars: they have no chauffeur. A complete irrigation system is being installed.

Inside the house, one receives an immediate impression of great comfort and serenity. There is light everywhere, with no heavy drapes to keep it out.

A huge living room extends right across the front of the house. This is furnished in quiet taste, with a special white davenport upholstered in plain, creamish-white whipcord material, several chairs in creams and rust color, tables, divans, carpets, drapes and woodwork carrying forward the light and airy effect, with just enough color to lend contrast. It is the sort of room one would rather sit in and talk, or smoke or read than to write about; it has charm, it is livable and peaceful with a great fireplace, brass andirons and copper kettles.

Off this is the dining room, which is done in knotty pine, with early American dining room furniture of pine. The buffet and set of shelves display Carole’s collection of silver, China and pewter.

To the right of the living room is gable’s gunroom, with one of the finest collections of modern and ancient weapons, from old flintlocks to the newest inventions in pistols and rifles. His most treasured brace of flintlock guns are crossed over the fireplace in the living room. Off the gun room is a specially built ice-box room for hanging his game after a hunting trip.

With the well-equipped office and kitchen, this comprises the downstairs living quarters.

Upstairs the master bedroom is done in leather, with a deep tan color predominating. A huge dressing room with plenty of cupboard and closet space, easy chairs, comfortable reading stands, proper lighting and a generally masculine effect makes an excelling loafing place.

Mrs. Gable’s boudoir is in pastel shades, with a sort of pink-orchid color scheme in upholstery and rugs. Here there is a great deal of white in the pointe d’esprit curtains, walls and furniture. She has a dressing room with revolving mirrors on the dressing table and with mirrors as wall panels. Her closets are also very large, with built-in shelves for hats, shoes, bags, etc. Although her room is delicate and lovely, it is by no means fluffy or hard to live in. Its furnishings have character and are designed for comfort as well as beauty.

So far, they have a man and his wife as caretakers. A bungalow is being built for them on the estate. Later they will have a housekeeper, cook and possibly a butler.

It would seem that Carole Lombard and Clark Gable have everything. It is just a little touching to hear them wistfully plead for privacy.

They laugh all the time, these two, and never seem to tire of ribbing each other. Carole has not lost her whimsical attitude toward life and certainly if Gable isn’t happy as any man can hope to be, he is doing a fine job of pretending.

#1939 #grace wilcox #carole lombard #clark gable #old hollywood

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July 1939: A Baby and a Road Trip

July 2, 1939 – The Lincoln Star

Only two places haven’t been considered as honeymoon destinations by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard – Africa and Niagara Falls.

July 2, 1939 – Knoxville Journal

Strangest sight in Hollywood recently was that of Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Kay Francis and Director John Cromwell sitting around on the set of “Memory of Love” – cutting out paper dolls! When Director Cromwell decided that the setting for a little girls’ playroom lacked something to make it genuinely juvenile, Carole promptly suggested: “Paper dolls – lots of them.”

July 6, 1939 – San Fernando Valley Times

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were among the first dinner guests of Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck at the latter’s Northridge ranch…

July 7, 1939 – Evening Star

That honeymoon of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard has dwindled to four days at Del Monte in the northern part of the state…

July 7, 1939 – The Morning Post

Fieldsy and Walter Lang (he is Shirley Temple’s director, and she was formerly Carole Lombard’s secretary and manager) expect their baby in 10 days.

Carole and Clark Gable left for a motor trip up north early this morning, but will telephone every day for progress on the expected arrival.

July 7, 1939 – The Santa Maria Daily Times

I Spied – Carole Lombard and Clark Gable at a local service station yesterday afternoon en route north; Gable rating as a “whiskerino” with a brushy beard for a new film.

July 7, 1939 – The Daily Times

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable really must have found the privacy they wanted on the ranch. She’s been ill for a week with an appendix attack and Hollywood did not find it out until the other day. There’ll be no operation for the present, Carole says, but the doctor will have to okay any vacation plans. Carole finished “Memory of Love” two weeks ago at RKO. Clark winds up in GWTW any minute.

July 10, 1939 – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable have bought an additional 10 acres adjoining their ranch in San Fernando Valley.

July 14, 1939 – The Leader Post

Several Hollywood stars may be hunting ducks in Manitoba this fall, according to Jimmy Robinson, American sportswriter, who was in Winnipeg the other day. The stars include Gary Cooper and his wife, Fred MacMurray and Clark Gable and his wife, Carole Lombard.

July 14, 1939 – News Herald

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were reported to have stopped in town one evening for a bite to eat.

July 15, 1939 – The Daily Clintonian

Well, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable finally got off on their vacation. They are motoring north and will try to dodge crowds. Clark said they would stay out of hotels and stop at tourist camps.

July 23, 1939 – The Fresno Bee

Honeymoon is Continued

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are still enjoying their honeymoon bit by bit between picture engagements. Here they are on the golf course at Del Monte. Gable’s hair is just one shade shorter than that of his bride. That is an account of Gabel still having Rhett Butler’s hair, grown for that part in Gone with the Wind.

July 23, 1939 – The Lincoln Star

Used to be that Clark Gable was hard on the florists, buying all kinds of floral offerings for Carole Lombard, but now that he's married, he has switched his account to a nearby hardware store and buys everything for his farm…

July 24, 1939 – Daily News

When Clark Gable and Carole Lombard posed for honeymoon pictures the other day Gable handed one of the lensman a pair of glasses… Nobody understood the gage… Last year, the photographer took action pictures of Gable at his ranch for eight solid hours… When he developed the photos, they were all out of focus… Gable, to get him out of a spot, went through the same routine the next day.

July 25, 1939 – Monticello Herald

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable are back in town and report they got all the privacy they wanted on their trip. In the auto courts, though, people either didn’t’ recognize them, they say, or didn’t care. Both stars are so strong for this way of traveling that they are planning a similar motor trip to the southern states after Carole finishes “Vigil in the Night.” She plays a nurse in this one and will spend several days at the General hospital observing technique.

July 26, 1939 – Hartford Courant

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard made their first public appearance together since their marriage at Lamaze, and were given quite an ovation by their friends and fans.

July 28, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

Former Secretary to Star Has Son

With the likelihood that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will be his godparents, a son was born early yesterday to Mrs. Walter Lang, more familiarly known in Hollywood as Fieldsie, former secretary to Miss Lombard.

The latter and Gable spent the night at the bedside of Mrs. Lang, wife of the director, at Good Samaritan Hospital, awaiting the arrival of the stork. Dr. Norman Williams reported that the boy weighs 6 pounds, 10 ounces and that he and his mother are doing nicely.

July 28, 1939 – The Morning Post

No baby was ever ushered into the world with more attendant glamor than Walter Richard Lang, Jr., the new song of Madalynne Fieldsie and Walter Lang.

Waiting in an adjoining room in the Good Samaritan Hospital with anxious papa were Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.

Early in the evening Hedy Lamarr stopped in. Hedy was at the hospital with her husband, Gene Markey, who is threatened with pneumonia.

Carole, who is Fieldsie’s closest friend, had been making tests all day for “Vigil in the Night,” in which she plays a nurse. She said she was sorry she hadn’t worn her nurse’s costume.

But even without it, Dr. Norman Williams permitted her to remain right by Fieldsie’s side until 3:28 a.m., when the young man made his appearance, weighing six pounds 10 ounces.

Had a small bet with Clark that it would be a boy – and this is just to remind him.

July 31, 1939 –Monticello Herald

Well, Carole Lombard and Clark gable finally have yielded on the subject of home pictures. RKO and MGM photographers spent a whole day photographing the two on their ranch.

July 31, 1939 – The Fresno Bee

Gable Overpowers, Disarms Burglar

Associated Press

Clark Gable displayed some of the masculinity for which he is famed on the screen in real life today when he overpowered and disarmed an 18-year-old youth who entered his home.

Detective Lieutenant Chester Welch reported the youth, William J. Broski, a transient, slipped into the Gable residence, obtained an antique gun from among Gable’s trophies and surprised the actor when he went into the bedroom.

Welch reported the youth demanded money.

The report of the police stated simply that Gable “overpowered the suspect and held him until we arrived.”

Carole Lombard, the actor’s wife, had left for her work at a studio before the episode occurred.

“I asked him what he wanted,” Gable said later, “and he told me, ‘Money.’

“I said, ‘that’s a hell of a way to get it.’”

Broski was booked at a suburban police station on suspicion of burglary. An official said he had asked the psychopathic detail to investigate.

#1939 #old hollywood #clark gable #carole lombard

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June 1939: Chicken Ranchers

June 7, 1939 – The Pittsburgh Press

That deep-throated voice that echoes across San Fernando valley clucking “Here chick-chick-chick,” is known around the world.

It’s the voice of Clark Gable and is usually accompanied by the voice of his bride. Carole Lombard, also calling “chick-chick-chick.”

Gable and Carole are now farmers in fact. A friend presented them with 300 chicks and an incubator and they have gone in for chicken ranching in earnest.

June 7, 1939 – Buffalo Evening News

Talking about sport, Gary Cooper and his wife won the Santa Monica skeet shooting tournament last Saturday, and have issued a challenge to Mr. and Mrs. Clark Gable. I think the Coopers will win. Carole is quite good, but Mrs. Cooper is better. And the men are about equal.

June 9, 1939 – The Times

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard of the movies have engaged in the fruit and vegetable business and were recently given honorary membership in the California Fruit Growers exchange.

June 10, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

No truth in the report that Carole Lombard and Clark Gable will adopt a baby. But Carole may retire after her next picture to have one of her own. She’s so sensible and sane, it’s frightening. She realizes the danger of having two careers in one family. They’ve been rumored going abroad, Yosemite, Painted Desert, Canada for vacation honeymooning. My hunch is they’ll stay home on the ranch.

June 13, 1939 – Spokesman Review

Clark Gable wants to play the Tom Joad role in "Grapes of Wrath" – but not until after his European honeymoon with Carole Lombard. They will be away two months – unless Clark has a hurry call for retakes on “Gone with the Wind,” which, believe it or not, will be completed next week – according to David Selznick.

June 15, 1939 – Daily News

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable haven’t had a honeymoon. The poor kids had to work int wo pictures that will give them a nest egg of $275,000… Sixty per cent of that goes back to the man with the whiskers, however…

June 19, 1939 – Atlantic City Press

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are perfectly willing to talk about anything under the sun – except each other and their home life. Carole says she’s superstitious about telling what a wonderful guy Clark is and Gable says he’s afraid he might jinx his wife if he started enumerating her many lovable qualities. Good sense in Hollywood.

June 21, 1939 – San Pedro News

Maybe it’s just my imagination but Carole Lombard’s speech seems to have acquired new dignity since she’s become Mrs. Gable. Addressing Annabella as “Mrs. Power,” and you’re sure to be rewarded with a gratified smile. No one can charm an unfriendly dog quicker than Jean Parker.

June 22, 1939 – Windsor Star

With her RKO picture finished, Carole Lombard gets a month’s vacation, but she refuses to leave town without Clark Gable. And so she’s going to putter around the ranch until he finishes “Gone” and then they’ll take a vacation together, mayhap to the Painted Desert, Europe… who knows?

June 24, 1939 – The Wilkes Bar

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard holding hands at the Café Lamaze as Matty Malneck plays “The Man I Love” …

June 25, 1939 – The Charlotte Observer

Along the matrimonial front: minor tiffs and clashes of temperament recently have marred the pace and harmony of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s domestic life. After these little flare-ups and differences the one who was wrong has admitted his or her mistake and expressed regret.

To emphasize their good-sportsmanship, these famous two have dispatched stuff “doves of peace” to each other during working hours. Thus far, he has sent her four times as many of these tokens as she has forwarded to him. She has just completed a chore at RKO, and is ready to hop off on that honeymoon Clark and she promised themselves. His current assignment at MGM compels him to keep his nose to the grindstone; but a prospect flutters that he will shortly be able to tear away for an abbreviated freedom within a month.

June 30, 1939 – Fort Worth Star Telegram

There’s been skullduggery on the honeymoon ranch of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.

While the film stars slept, two shadowy figures crept past their house and to the chicken pen a quarter of a block away.

In the pen, also sleeping, were six prize hens and a prize rooster that Andy Devine, comedian, presented to Gable on the star’s birthday.

Frantic squawks assailed the air. Gable leaped out of bed, grabbed a pistol and dashed for the chicken house.

This was no movie, however, and the thieves made a getaway, carrying with them the six prize hens. Sole survivor of the raid was the rooster – and he was minus a handful of tail feathers.

#1939 #clark gable #carole lombard #old hollywood

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May 1939: Making a House a Home

May 3, 1939 - The Knoxville Journal

It’s a bit of a shock, all right, to hear Carole Lombard phoning baby talk to Clark Gable…

May 4, 1939 – The Lincoln Star

Another Clark Gable-Carole Lombard item of domesticity: She calls him “Pa” and he calls her “Ma.” And in front of people…

May 11, 1939 – Press Democrat

The Clark Gable-Carole Lombard honeymoon is definitely set for August.

They’ll probably spend two or three weeks roughing it in New Mexico’s painted desert and a week or two riding hither and yon from their new 14-acre San Fernando valley ranch home. Carole, who once rode a great deal, has done little of late, but Clark moved his three horses onto the ranch the other day and she’s going to take it up again.

Clark gave Carole a horse a year ago, but the nag turned out to be so frisky the screen hero later made his lady give him away.

Clark gets finished with “Gone with the Wind” at Selznick’s about July 1 and he’ll have a month to do any added scenes which may prove necessary. MGM wanted him to start “The Great Canadian,” a hockey story, immediately thereafter, but Clark turned thumbs down on the idea, informing the studio he was entitled to time for a wedding trip first.

Over at RKO, Carole completes “Memory of Love” in three weeks, and she’ll do her other picture for that studio, “Vigil in the Night,” after only a week’s vacation. So, she’ll be all set to get away around August 1.

May 14, 1939 – Lincoln Star

Carole Lombard is in a quandary. Clark Gable has so many guns in their house, she’s thinking of trying to rent them to the movie studios.

With all movie stars having their homes named, she may title the Gable-Lombard ranch “The Arsenal.”

May 15, 1939 – Minneapolis Star

Soon as “Gone with the Wind” is finished, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will take a six weeks’ honeymoon.

May 15, 1939 – Roanoke Times

Newcomers to Hollywood who feel they have to put up a front might take a hint from Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, two of filmdom’s brightest stars, who refuse to be bothered with butlers, chefs, chauffeurs, first maids, second maids and the array of supernumeraries that you sometimes stumble over in homes.

There are only two house servants in the new Gable-Lombard menage in the valley. Besides these, there are a man and his wife to take care of the 14 acres of grounds.

Neither Carole nor Clark has a chauffeur. They drive their own cars, and when they want to go to a film premiere, they rent a machine with a driver.

Carole selected or okayed the design for every stick of furniture in the nine-room house. She and Clark have separate rooms, dressing rooms, and baths, which cover the entire second floor. Carole’s bedroom is very feminine, Clark’s very masculine, with bookshelves in one corner. Fanciest thing in his quarters is the bed with headpiece covered with brown leather.

May 19, 1939 – The Times

You might find it hard to believe but the pet on the new Carole Lombard-Clark Gable ranch home is a mule, one “Judy.”

“Judy is just wonderful,” Carole informs a reporter. “You would never believe a mule could have so much brains. She knows every single word Clark or I say to her.”

May 20, 1939 – Evening Star

How Clark Gable became a farmer. Carole Lombard gave him a mule, so he bought a plough. Andy Devine gave him five chickens, so Clark said, “I might as well have a chicken farm, and bought 500 more. Bob Cobb gave him a milk pail, so Gable bought a cow. I wonder what will happen if someone gave him a horse. Will he buy a racetrack?

May 26, 1939 – Wisconsin State Journal

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will soon be enjoying the beauties of Wisconsin elm trees on their Bel-Air property in Los Angeles. The McKay Nursery Co. revealed today that two Washington elm trees have just been shipped to the movie stars as a wedding gift from their “Aunt Nell,” Mrs. Helen K. Stuart, Neenah.

May 28, 1939 – Richmond Times

Mr., Mrs. Clark Gable Are Housekeeping in Valley

The social life of the movie colony is getting along these days without the benefit of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Of course, both of them are pretty busy, Gable with the Rhett Butler role in “Gone with the Wind,” and Carole with “Memory of Love,” in which she costars with Cary Grant.

But, even in their leisure time, they have no hours for socializing. They’re too busy trying to make a home. Denied a honeymoon because of picture commitments, they are still “having fun,” says Carole, “shifting furniture and figuring on what stock to buy for their 12-acre estate in the San Fernando valley.

“It’s the first time either of us has ever owned a stock of furniture,” she adds. “And maybe we’re being foolish about it, but, just the same, everything about the house seems to be of major importance. Pappy is like a boy. He came in yesterday when I was about to drop from fixing things, and he shook me and yelled, ‘Carole, come on. Look at the wonderful knobs we’re going to put on the doors!’”

The Gables plan to stock their place, too, but friends did not wait for them to begin. Director John Cromwell, long-time friend of both players, sent them one of his prize milch cows. David Selznick contributed a mule.

Carole says she is going to learn to milk the cow. Gable says he already knows how to cuss a mule!

May 30, 1939 – Evening Vanguard

By Jimmie Fidler

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are treating Hollywood to a masterly exhibition of diplomacy in their dealings with the press. With every fan magazine scribe and newspaper sob-sister in a dither of eagerness to “tell all” about their at-home life, they have managed to maintain their dignity, preserve their privacy and avoid slushy comment. And – most remarkably – they have done it without making enemies. Some of their fellow stars who, with far less excuse, are constantly feuding with the fan scribblers, might well profit by the Gable-Lombard technique.

Clark and Carole avoid giving offense – and, incidentally, being offended – because they know WHERE to draw the line. Instead of going into temperamental tailspins when asked some perfectly legitimate, though quite personal, questions, they have the common sense to concede that the public, whose admiration made them stars, has a perfect right to be curious about their personal affairs. And, being perhaps the least egotistical top-notchers in town, they are grateful enough to that public to satisfy its legitimate curiosity cheerfully.

They draw the line precisely where it should be drawn, between the word, “personal,” and the word, “private.” They are glad to talk about vacation plans, common career interests, social activities, hobbies, their new home – in short, any one of the multitudinous subjects that the public has a right to display interest in. But they do not choose to talk about “How Clark looks when he wakes up in the morning,” or about “The reason why marriage hasn’t robbed our kisses of thrills.” I’m beginning to believe that two people who show such tactful good sense are due for a lot of happiness together.

May 31, 1939 – The Times

… Gable, incidentally, is having a tough time getting a gentle horse so his real bride, Carole Lombard, can resume her riding. Clark gave her one as a present a year ago, but he was so frisky they had to get rid of him.

The new one with which he has just presented her has his little tricks, too, but let Carole tell about him:

“He’s just too playful. When you turn your back to him for instant, he nips you. And when you are riding him, if you don’t want carefully, he swings his head around and nips your knee or your leg. He doesn’t really want to injure you, but believe me, it hurts.”

#clark gable #carole lombard #1939 #old hollywood

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clarklovescarole · 1 year

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May 1939: Life Is 'But Terrific'

Carole Reports Life with Clark is “But Terrific”

May 14, 1939

By Melrose Gower

HOLLYWOOD – That the honeymoon is over when the bride goes back to work is the reputed observation of some evidently petty-minded anti-domestic philosopher. Only recently, for instance, a young bride went back to work in high glee after a week-end honeymoon with the statement that for her, the honeymoon would last forever.

She was Mrs. Clark Gable, nee Carole Lombard, and she went back to cinema work at RKO Radio Studio to star with Cary Grant and Kay Francis in “Memory of Love,” a story of a man married to a woman who doesn’t love him, who is determined to hold him even against his insistent demands for divorce.

And her husband, Clark Gable, was back at work too, at Selznick International Studio, as Rhett Butler, suh, “Gone with the Wind.” The bride, and bridegroom too, you see, had gone back to work. Yet filmdom’s No. 1 Mr. and Mrs. were very, very happy about it all.

They will take a real honeymoon, your correspondent learned from Mrs. Gable, when the lady completes “Memory of Love” and Clark finishes battling the wind.

TO TAKE TRIP

Their honeymoon trip will be a little ocean excursion to Alaska. After this real honeymoon trip, Carole will again return to work at RKO Radio to star in AJ Cronin’s new novel, “Vigil in the Night.” Mr. Gable, too, will go back to work. He’ll be busy at MGM starring with Myrna Loy in a picturization of Robert Sherwood’s “Road to Rome.”

Thoroughly reticent about her domestic life is Mrs. Gable, Carole will tell you, as she sits on the set at RKO Radio waiting for Director John Cromwell’s call, that she and Clark have moved into Gable’s San Fernando Valley ranch home, are remodeling it. She will tell you, too, in her electric fashion, that she is going to install a first class anti-aircraft pop gun on the front lawn to stop airplane photographers from taking shots of the residence before it is completed.

Your correspondent did learn, however, that when completed, the Gable hacienda (which they do not intend to call the House of the Seven Gables) will be a modified Colonial ranch style house. That’s pretty complicated, we know, but it’ll have to suffice for the present. Also, there’ll be a cow (which Carole avers she is going to milk personally), and a few barnyard inhabitants such as a pig, some chickens, ducks and horses. Both Carole and Clark enjoy a canter in the country enormously, which accounts for the equines.

Far more important to the lady as a subject of conversation than her domestic life, which she assures you is “but terrific,” is her embarkment in a series of serious dramatic roles for the screen. “Made For Each Other” was the first of the new genre for Mr. Gable’s wife, Carole, and her current film, “Memory of Love,” is the second. She said she hadn’t forsaken comedy permanently.

SERIOUS STUFF

The actress’ role in the RKO Radio production is that of a lady who meets Cary Grant, falls in love with him only to discover that he is already married and that his wife, Kay Francis, candidly, blandly admits that she won’t give him a divorce. So adroitly does the wife play her “game” that no one but her husband realizes how thoroughly hateful she truly is.

To all the world she is a most satisfactory wife. The husband cannot get a divorce, obviously, because he has no grounds. The wife won’t.

It is interesting to observe, however, that no cinema fiction can equal the true life romance of Mr. and Mrs. Gable.

Incidentally, Carole calls Clark “Pa.” Clark calls Carole “Ma.” That’s domesticity!

#clark gable #carole lombard #1939 #old Hollywood gossip

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April 1939: New House, No Honeymoon

April 1, 1939 – Spokane Chronicle

Hollywood’s Top Romance Leads to Altar

Eagerly solicitous of his bride’s welfare, Clark Gable was pictured Thursday with Carole Lombard as they held hands after their speedy return from the automobile elopement to the litte desert town of Kingman, Ariz., that brought to a happy climax Hollywood’s No. 1 romance.

April 1, 1939 – Salem News

Mr. and Mrs. Gable Now at Home

Smiling happily are Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, motion picture stars, on their return home to Bel Air, Los Angeles, Cal., ending their one-day honeymoon following their surprise marriage to Kingman, Ariz.

April 1, 1939 – Arizona Republic

Newlyweds Arrive At (Bride’s) Home

Save for the quieting influence of a few score cameraman and newspaper reporters, Mr. and Mrs. Clark Gable – Mrs. Gable is a former Miss Carole Lombard – were “alone at last” in the bride’s home in Hollywood when this picture was made. The two were married Wednesday at Kingman, Ariz., and are honeymooning (to use the bride’s words) on a “when, as and if basis.” The newlyweds will live in a home in the San Fernando valley as soon as it is completed.

April 1, 1939 – Cincinnati Enquirer

GABLES IN REAL LIFE

April 2, 1939 – Atlantic City Press

Andy Devine and his wife are entertaining Andy’s brother, Thomas Devine, and his wife, who are visiting Hollywood from Burlingame. Breakfast guests included Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, and Mr. and Mrs. Walt Lang.

April 2, 1939 - Quad City Times

News stories indicate that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard went honeymooning in a very primitive sort of a cottage…

April 2, 1939 – Sunday Pictorial

Carole Lombard is one of the finest personalities of Hollywood. She and Clark Gable have been doing most things together for some time now. When Clark decided that Carole was his ideal girl, Carole knew it wouldn’t last unless she changed herself around to this way of thinking.

Clark’s best-loved sport is shooting. Carole started taking lessons in hitting the bull’s-eye until she became pretty expert at the job.

Duck-shooting with Clark meant getting up at 4 a.m., which didn’t suit her way of living at all. But she persevered, got up at 3:30 in the cold dawn, prepared sandwiches, and never seemed to tire.

She learnt to go after her own duck, cleaned them, and asked nothing from the men in the way of assistance.

She’d wear the most disreputable old hunting trousers, a hunting cap stuck squarely on her head, and she’d walk for miles across the country step for step with the man she was so crazy about.

With a dogged persistence she made herself over until she was the perfect companion for the strong man of the screen. Now, as well as being in love with each other, they share most likes and dislikes.

April 4, 1939 – Evening Star

Do you recognize Andy Devine in the role of Cupid? Well, take another look. When I talked to him on Paramount’s “Geronimo” set, he told me that he was responsible for the Kingman (Ariz.) elopement of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. “Gable called me up the night before and said, ‘Well, I think we’re going to do it tomorrow, but we don’t know where. Can you suggest any place?’ ‘Sure,’ I replied, ‘my hometown – Kingman, Arizona. And I can get everything fixed for you.’ But I’m sorry I suggested it now,” Andy added. “They used to say of Kingman, ‘This is where Andy Devine was born.’ Now they will say, ‘This is where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married!’”

April 4, 1939 – Intelligencer Journal

Mrs. and Mrs. Gable return to Hollywood after their marriage – Clark Gable looks fondly at his new mother-in-law, Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, as he holds hands with his new wife, Carole Lombard, after their sudden elopement to Kingman, Ariz. The newlyweds are pictured at Miss Lombard’s home in Hollywood, Cal., after their return from Kingman.

April 5, 1939 – Pittsburgh Press

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard became the favorite couple of the Hollywood scribes when they refused to make news of their marriage an exclusive…

April 5, 1939 – Calgary Herald

Movie star Clark Gable is planning to return next fall to the shooting marshes of this district, 80 miles northwest of Winnipeg, according to a letter received by Jimmy Robinson at whose lodge Gable was a guest last fall.

In his letter the movie actor said he expected to bring his new wife, Carole Lombard, with him on his next duck-shooting trip, as well as Gary Cooper, Wallace Beery, and Robert Montgomery.

April 5, 1939 – St. Louis Post

Rancher Gable

Clark Gable of the films busy with a workman at the ranch near San Fernando Valley, Cal., which he purchased for his bride, Actress Carole Lombard.

April 7, 1939 – Knoxville News

Income figures revealed today that Carole Lombard made $25,000 more in a year than her new bridgeroom, Clark Gable. Does that make Gable a gigolo?

April 8, 1939 – Holyoke Daily Transcript

Well, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable put one over on us Hollywood reporters by getting married while we were up in San Francisco to see the preview of “The Story of Alexander Graham Bell.” Talked with the happy pair the other day and here’s sidelight of the marriage that others missed – we hope.

Clark wanted to buy Carole a wedding corsage but knew that if he put in an order for orchids, it would be a tip-off on the plans. So when Carole Lombard, who earns a fantastic weekly salary, got married, she wore a corsage of two pink roses and lily of the valley.

It cost 50 cents.

Carole’s wedding ring is a plan platinum band – price $11.

April 10, 1939 – Portland Evening Express

Clark Gable and his bride, Carole Lombard, had their Easter breakfast with the Andy Devines…

April 11, 1939 – El Paso Times

Carole Lombard, who just married Clark Gable: “I am a very good cook, but I don’t know yet what Clarks’ favorite dishes are.”

April 11, 1939 – Los Angeles Times

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will move into their new home tomorrow…

April 12, 1939 – The News Messenger

In Hollywood by Paul Harrison

The honeymoon is over. Clark Gable has gone back to his task of making love scenes with Vivien Leigh, and Carole Lombard is puttering around the Encino house in the role of a ranch wife, not having a picture to do just yet.

But now that it’s all over, maybe you’d like to know something of what happened on the day of that co-starring marriage, because it shows just how and why movie weddings are planned as they are.

Most movie elopers skip out of the state to avoid the California law requiring the previous filing of intention to wed. Of course, everybody knows the eventual intentions of Mr. Gable and Miss Lombard, but you can imagine that would have followed any formal statement – they would have been pestered unmercifully.

As it was, nobody else knew of their definite plan except a mutual intimate friend – Otto Winkler, Metro publicist and former ace newspaper reporter. They drove to his house at sun-up one morning, left Gable’s car in his garage and started for Arizona in Winkler’s coupe, Winkler driving.

Gable wore whipcord slacks, an old brown jacket, a green hat and whitish, opaque glasses. When stops were made for gasoline, he’d keep a hand on his forehead like a man with a headache.

Miss Lombard wore a very plain brown suit, no trace of makeup, and had her hair tight to her head. Their luggage contained fresh clothing for the ceremony.

Gable had bought a corsage for the bride but had been thoughtful in selecting one that didn’t look too bridal, lest the Hollywood florist guess what was happening. What Gable hadn’t considered was what a corsage would look like after a 10-hour drive through the desert.

Neither had brought any food. Just before starting, Winkler raided his own refrigerator and brought out some remnants of turkey and a loaf of bread. That was all they had to eat on the long drive.

Miss Lombard sat in the middle and made sandwiches. They escaped recognition without difficulty except at the state line, where the Arizona agricultural inspector had to look through the car. That gave them some anxious minutes.

Picture people often are criticized for these furtive, hasty marriages, which improperly are called elopements. Sentimentalists wonder why they don’t prefer more formal ceremonies, with a religious note plus guests and flowers and all the fixings.

Trouble is, though, that no stars can be married in Hollywood merely as a couple of people in love. With the mobs, cops and photographers, the occasion becomes a cross between a carnival and a riot in Union Square.

And, too often, Hollywood bigwigs themselves help to make such a wedding a garish, noisy affair that brings jibes from those of us who write about such things.

April 13, 1939 – San Fernando Valley Times

The first wedding present received by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard was a 10-foot camellia bush from Stanley Campbell, Clark’s MGM makeup man, for their new San Fernando Valley ranch home…

April 14, 1939 – Spokesman Review

Carole Lombard’s Bel Air house is on the market. It represents an investment of between $80,000 and $90,000, and has the added selling attraction of being the locale of the Gable-Lombard romance.

April 15, 1939 – Evening Star

Carole Lombard drives into the Selznick International Studio in her station wagon, bringing, like a good wife, a hot lunch for her working husband, one Mr. Clark Gable. The couple eat in the wagon, which is equipped with a folding table…

April 15 1939 – Chattanooga News

A big ink spot is right smack dab in the middle of the marriage license that permitted Clark Gable and Carole Lombard to engage in holy matrimony. And here’s the story: When they showed up in Kingman, Ariz., the clerk in the marriage license bureau was so flustered that she spilled the ink bottle – right over both their names. They were nice about it, though. Didn’t say a word and took the disfigured license with a smile. They were little flustered themselves, too.

April 15, 1939 – The Dispatch

In Hollywood by Milton Harker

Sentiment won over hard business in Hollywood today so Carole Lombard gets an extra week to fix up the San Fernando valley ranch home she and Clark Gable bought shortly before their marriage.

Cary Grant, Kay Francis, Charles Coburn and the rest of the cast of Memory of Love must report at RKO Monday but the shooting schedule has been arranged so screenland’s most famous bride won’t have to put in her appearance until next Friday.

Carole and Clark began moving Wednesday most of the furnishings for the new home from their respective bachelor establishments. There were so many things to be sorted out and arranged and Carole was so tired out yesterday that Freddie Fleck, studio business manager on the picture, arranged the schedule so the scenes in which Carole doesn’t appear could be filmed first. He figured Carole could well use the extra time putting up curtains and doing all the other things any bride, famous or otherwise, likes to do around her honeymoon home.

Gable has done everything he can to help at nights because he’s been tied up steadily every day on Gone with the Wind.

They expect to have the house in order by next weekend and then Clark will start looking around to see what he’s going to do with all his fourteen acres.

April 17, 1939 – The Daily Times

The fan magazines might as well cease their clamor for pictures taken inside the Carole Lombard-Clark Gable home. The two stars say nothing doing. Their house is going to be their private castle.

April 18, 1939 – The Times

Carole, Gable To Honeymoon

By Harrison Carroll

Honeymoon plans became even more nebulous today for Hollywood’s most famous pair of newlyweds, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.

After their marriage in Kingman, Arizona, recently, the film pair announced plans for a trip as soon as Clark finished his part in “Gone with the Wind” and Carole her in “Memory of Love.” That meant they would get away in early summer.

But studio plans now will force a further postponement.

For, at RKO today, it was revealed that Carole will start a second picture, “Vigil in the Night,” within a week after the finish of her current role.

This will keep her busy until the end of July. Meanwhile, MGM will be clamoring for a picture with Clark. Plans for the honeymoon are thoroughly up in the air.

April 30, 1939 – Star Tribune

I have heard many localites wonder how it happened that Carole Lombard earned more than Clark Gable in 1937. Clark is the bigger draw, but Carole was in a happy position of being lent to David Selznick at the rate of $150,000 for “Nothing Sacred,” which is why Carole received $314,000 and Clark $289,000. Both were definitely worth their pay to their employers. Carole made three pictures, “Swing High – Swing Low,” which I did not like personally, but which I am told made money; “True Confessions” - very good; and “Nothing Sacred,” box office success. Clark’s output of the two included the very terrible “Parnell” – but the other was “Saratoga,” which netted a little fortune for Metro.

#clark gable #carole lombard #1939 #old hollywood gossip

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Text

March 1939: Just Married

(Printed March 31, 1939 – Los Angeles Times)

Clark Gable, Carole Lombard Wed In Little Arizona Desert Town

March 30, 1939 (Associated Press)

Fun-loving Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who wrote the long-anticipated happy ending in the story of their courtship in a little Arizona town late yesterday, returned early today to the bride’s Bel-Air home.

Exhausted by their 750-mile trip, they retired, to wait until later to move into the home on his one-mile San Fernando Valley ranch which Gable redecorated in preparation for the wedding.

Marriage Expected

Friends were not surprised when news of the ceremony reached here last night, although their absence from the film capital during the day had gone unnoticed. The marriage had been expected daily since the screen's No. 1 masculine star was given his freedom earlier this month by his second wife, Maria.

Gable, 38, and his blonde bride, 31, a top-ranking comedienne, scorned the time-tried Hollywood elopement plot. They chose Kingman, Arizona, a desert railroad community, for the rites in preference to filmdom’s more favored Gretna Greens, Yuma, Ariz., and Las Vegas, Nev. They traveled by automobile instead of by plane, as most other elopers.

They slipped in and out of Kingman so unobtrusively that only a half-dozen residents knew they were there. The license clerk, Viola Olsen, said she was so startled when she recognized them that she was almost speechless.

Directed to Parish House

After issuing the license, she directed them to the parish house of Rev. Kenneth M. Engle, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. While Miss Lombard changed from a simple traveling suit to a gray flannel ensemble, the minister quickly arranged the details.

Inside the church next door, Mrs. Engle played softly on the organ as the famous stars began their march. They walked down the aisle hand-in-hand to hear the pastor pronounce the ceremony, in which there was no word “obey.”

As each said, “I take the…” Gable slipped the ring on the actress’ finger, kissed her and they hurried out. But the news had not spread. Not a soul was waiting for them. Gable confided to Howard Cate, high school principal and one of the witnesses, that they intended to leave for Boulder City, Nev., and spend today at Boulder Dam. Then they drove away.

Dine at Needles

But a few hours later, they were eating dinner in Needles, Calif., and were reported seen in the small communities on the highway across the Mojave Desert, en route home.

They stopped briefly at a state checking station in Daggett, where an inspector said Gable was sleeping soundly, Miss Lombard appeared drowsy and their companion, Otto Winkler, publicity man, was driving.

Gable was due back on the Selznick lot today to continue work as Rhett Butler in “Gone with the Wind.” Friends said the couple expected to defer a honeymoon until summer, when both are free of picture engagements.

Gable’s ranch, with his comfortable home, was purchased some months ago. He has spent almost all his spare time there, doing some plowing and helping fare for his citrus grove.

Like “Gags”

For four years, he and Miss Lombard have been indulging in “gags” at the other’s expense. Carole’s latest was the gift of “Bessie,” a mule, to Gable on his birthday last month. “Bessie” is a favored resident of the ranch.

Once she gave him an old model T Ford for a Valentine’s gift, and he responded by parking a fire engine on her front lawn. When he gave what she considered a good performance, she sent him a ham with his picture on it. The actress, who delights in the “screwball” roles she made popular first in “My Man Godfrey,” once arrived at a party given by John Hay Whitneys in an ambulance, pretending she was ill. Gable paid her marked attention throughout the evening.

Meet In Picture

They first met in 1932 in a picture, and socially at a party a year later. Since 1935, when Gable and Maria Gable separated, they have been frequent companions at film affairs. Meanwhile he and his wife had made a mutual agreement not to meet publicly, to avert embarrassment.

The second Mrs. Gable was granted a divorce March 7, in Las Vegas. Gable earlier reached a property settlement involving $286,000 with her.

Miss Lombard, whose real name is Jane Peters, was married to actor William Powell in 1931, and divorced him in 1933.

(Printed March 31, 1939 – Daily News)

Romantic Gable Turns Shy as He and Carole Are Wed

March 30, 1939 (INS)

The Encino home of screen hero Clark Gable today welcomed the return of Gable and his new bride, Carole Lombard, blond screen beauty, whom he married late yesterday in a surprise elopement to Kingman, Ariz.

It was an elopement that left the film colony buzzing with excitement, although it was a foregone conclusion the popular film pair was to be married shortly.

Gable, recently divorced in Nevada by his second wife, and Miss Lombard had been watched constantly by reporters since Gable was divorced.

Yesterday, with practically all the writers in San Francisco for a picture premiere, the vigilance was let down.

So Clark and Carole hopped into Gable’s white roadster, picked up Otto Winkler, a studio representative, and departed for Kingman.

At dusk, in the Methodist church of Rev. Kenneth Engle, with Winkler, Mrs. Engle and Howard Cate, Kingman High School principal, as witnesses, the long-publicized romance of the two famous stars was culminated.

Viola Olsen, county clerk at Kingman, revealed the romantic Gable and the glamorous Carole were very shy indeed when they appeared before her and asked for a marriage license.

Gable grinned and said:

“I’m Clark Gable. I’d like to get a marriage license.”

He gave his age as 38. Miss Lombard said she was 29, and an actress.

Gable, Miss Olsen said, timidly asked her to recommend a minister and the clerk suggested Rev. Engle. Then Miss Olsen drove the couple to the minister’s home.

The young minister called in his wife, and went next door for Cate. Gable and Miss Lombard sat in the rectory parlor, whispering.

After the marriage service, Gable kissed his bride.

Cate said Gable, the real-life bridegroom, was not Gable, the sophisticated lover of the screen.

“They were quite lovey-dovey,” he said.

The ceremony over, Gable and Miss Lombard headed for Boulder City, Nev., where they stayed overnight, returning here today to the rambling home whose interior Carole herself arranged.

Just before leaving, however, the couple went to a phone. Mrs. Elizabeth Peters picked up the receiver in Hollywood.

“Hello, Mom, this is your new son-in-law,” Gable laughed.

Then after the bride spoke to her mother, Gable turned reporter and called the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer press bureau in Hollywood to give details of the wedding.

It is the second marriage for Miss Lombard, who divorced actor William Powell, and the third marriage for Gable.

(Printed March 31, 1939 – Daily News)

Gables Back At New Love Nest

March 31, 1939 (INS)

Back at the bride’s smart Bel-Air home after their elopement to Kingman, Ariz., Clark Gable and Carole Lombard bubbled with excitement today as they received countless congratulations and visits from well wishers.

“Honest, “Clark explained, “it was just on the spur of the moment. I found out Tuesday night I wouldn’t have to work Wednesday and Thursday, so I called Carole and we decided to leave on Wednesday morning.”

With the nation’s No. 1 screen hero scheduled to be back to work today, the honeymoon will have to be deferred until his new picture “Gone with the Wind” is finished.

“But then we’ll go some place for a real honeymoon,” they said.

The Gables’ new love nest cottage in San Fernando valley is practically ready for occupancy, they said, and then added that it was nothing pretentious – just seven rooms.

“And one of them is going to be a gun room for Clark,” said his beaming bride, herself an actress of renown.

Discussing the marriage in Kingman, they revealed that there was no difficulty about producing the wedding ring when they stood up before Rev. Kenneth Engle in the First Methodist Episcopal Church.

“I’ve had this ring in my pocket for two months,” said Gable. “We weren’t sure when we would be able to get married because of the picture and I didn’t want to be caught unprepared in case the chance came.”

(Printed March 31, 1939 – Berkshire Evening News)

Gables Pack Up To Go To “Ranch”

March 31, 1939 (AP)

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard returned from their 725-mile wedding jaunt at 4 o’clock this morning, slept a few hours and were up at noon, looking fresh and happy, to receive photographers and reporters.

They were “at home” at Carole’s house, but there was evidence in every room that they will move soon. Dishes and pictures have been packed and Carole said she was moving to Clark’s little ranch house in about a week.

“You’ll have to put the word ranch in double quotes,” laughed Gable. “It’s only 14 acres. But we like it, don’t we honey? I plowed it personally and Carole did the interior decorating.”

The “ranch,” about 15 miles from Hollywood, boasts a mule, a hand tractor, walnut trees, and chickens. The house is Dutch colonial, seven rooms. It has two bedrooms. The servants’ quarters are over the garage.

Mr. Gable is to resume making love to Vivien Leigh, his leading lady, at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

(Printed March 31, 1939 – Tampa Tribune)

Honeymoon of Gables On “As and If” Basis

March 31, 1939 (United Press)

Clark Gable, who performs more gracefully as a lover on the screen than off, diffidently put his arm around the slim waist of Carole Lombard, his bride, today and said yes, he was a lucky guy. She had just called him the star in their family.

The newlyweds drove until 3 a.m., after their elopement to Kingman, Ariz., yesterday, slept for a few hours, and emerged from Miss Lombard’s torn-up house as fresh as a couple of daisies – well, almost as fresh – to say their honeymoon was on a when, as, and if basis.

The widely-grinning Gable, clad in a slightly rumpled blue serge suit, badly needed a haircut. That was the rub. He has to have his hair long for his part in “Gone with the Wind” and it’ll be two months before that job is finished.

Plans Indefinite

“And on Wednesday I go to work at RKO,” his bride said, “and it looks as it our plans for a honeymoon will heave to be indefinite as they were for our marriage. Only reason we got married yesterday was because Clark suddenly found he’d have the day off.”

“That’s true,” chimed in Carole’s mother, the wealthy Mrs. Elizabeth Peters. “I certainly was surprised when they called me up and swore me to secrecy.”

As for widely-printed reports that Miss Lombard intends to stop earning $425,000 a year as one of the movie’s top stars and become a housewife and maybe have some children, she smiled and said that was more guesswork.

“Eventually,” she said, “I’m going to retire, but that’s all in the future and I haven’t thought about it much. It’s too far away. But I can say now that Clark is the star of the family. He always has been.”

Have Pictures Taken

While his bride did the talking, Gable tried to follow the orders of a dozen directors, in the form of news cameramen, all shouting at once. Some wanted him to squeeze his wife, others wanted him to put his head next to hers as if about to bestow a kiss, while the rest insisted that the bride and groom walk arm-in-arm from the front door of Miss Lombard’s white brick house.

All this artistic work was accomplished in good time. Gable and his bride are old hands at having their pictures taken. When the last flash bulb was exploded, they invited everybody inside to drink to their happiness.

This took some doing, because all of the bride’s highball glasses were wrapped in old newspapers and packed in barrels. The catering department of the Brown Derby drove up about then, though, and all hands had a spot of Scotch and soda.

Miss Lombard had packed all her furniture on the theory that Gable’s new ranch home in San Fernando valley would be ready, but the plasterers still had not finished their work.

“So I had a few chairs and things unpacked again,” she said, “and we’ll stay in this house until our new one is ready. I think it’ll be about two weeks more.”

#clark gable #carole lombard #1939 #married #wedding #old hollywood #articles #pictures

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