Clark Gable

[mrsl]

jdb1:

I love your story, I can hear your sigh as you say 'yeah, nice'. My daughter is in her 40's but you could have knocked me over with a feather a few weeks ago when I was watching something with old Bing Crosby, and she walked in and made some comment on how handsome he was and what a beautiful voice. She rarely shows any interest in the classics, but that comment makes me think she is just secretly trying to be cool about some things.

Anne

[jdb1]

The yummy photo of Gable with his shirt off makes me think this: today's emphasis on body building really isn't all that necessary. I see young men, especially on TV, who are so out of proportion as to look pretty grotesque in clothing, and somewhat off-putting without it.

And look at Gable -- in shape, but like a realistic looking man. Yeah, baby!

[JackFavell]

Aww, now, jdb. You made me have to go back and look again......

THANKS!

[jdb1]

Can't you just imagine the oohing and aahhing and sighing that rippled across a movie theater when Gable took off his shirt in It Happened One Night? Thinking about it even now is getting me all distracted.

[movieman1957]

The man had the power to set the clothing industry on its ear. Apparently sales of undershirts fell apart after that scene.

[knitwit45]

Can you imagine the impact he must have had when first seen in GWTW???. Women had read the book, were huge fans (this was a wildly romantic book for the time) and everyone (that I've read, anyway) said, "It MUST be Gable for the part!" With the huge overload of sex, soft porn, not so soft porn that we are witness to on a daily basis, it's hard to really grasp just how daring the book and movie were.

[charliechaplinfan]

A feast for the eyes, I haven't loged on for a day, what a place to come too. I could never work out, was it Clark Gable who was my perfect man or was it Rhett Butler. Nowadays I'd take either I do think with GWTW he was at the absolute peek of his attractiveness.

[MissGoddess]

Can you imagine the impact he must have had when first seen in GWTW???. Women had read the book, were huge fans (this was a wildly romantic book for the time) and everyone (that I've read, anyway) said, "It MUST be Gable for the part!" With the huge overload of sex, soft porn, not so soft porn that we are witness to on a daily basis, it's hard to really grasp just how daring the book and movie were.

I've been to several screenings of GWTW in the past year and I'm going again next week and EVERY time
the movie comes to the part where the camera first pans down to Gable looking up at Scarlett on the stairway,
the audience GASPS loudly. Every time. I've never witnessed anything like it.

[JackFavell]

I'm tearing up, thinking of that audience gasp. I wonder if he ever knew how good he was, and how much less the world would be if he had never been in it.

[MissGoddess]

Some thumbnails of larger images you can click on:

[MissGoddess]

I'm tearing up, thinking of that audience gasp. I wonder if he ever knew how good he was, and how much less the world would be if he had never been in it.

I think he'd be shocked and humble about it. One thing that keeps coming back in my
readings and research about his life, from his own words and what others who knew him say, is that he
never could believe his "luck" and his success. He didn't understand what all the fuss was about; thought
he had just marginal talent and alway distrusted it would last.

[JackFavell]

turtleneck sweater..... great gosh almighty....

[MissGoddess]

Clark and Carole Lombard knew each other socially and, of course, starred together
in No Man of Her Own long before their marriage. Both were fond of practical jokes,
especially Carole, and here's a snap I found of the time she presented Clark with a
great big ham wrapped up with his picture on it.

(thumbnail---click to enlarge)

[moira finnie]

I'm tearing up, thinking of that audience gasp. I wonder if he ever knew how good he was, and how much less the world would be if he had never been in it.

I think he'd be shocked and humble about it. One thing that keeps coming back in my readings and research about his life, from his own words and what others who knew him say, is that he never could believe his "luck" and his success. He didn't understand what all the fuss was about; thought he had just marginal talent and alway distrusted it would last.

I like the stories told by those who knew him in his earliest days in Hollywood about his disbelief at his burgeoning career. Meeting him in a diner where he was nursing a cup of coffee, saving every dime, there were those few people, with whom he shared his fears that soon "they'll catch on at the studio" and send him packing. His only solace was the fact that by this time, he'd knocked around enough and worked hard enough to feel that he might just be okay, if he could just go back to the theater.

I prefer his appearance before the mustache became a standard part of his equipment. There is something open and vulnerable about his face then that inevitably faded as he became a big star.





A question for you guys. Spencer Tracy once said that one of the best things that ever happened to his career was leaving MGM, after which he felt that much better parts came his way. Why was Gable unable to find better contemporary parts after MGM? One of the very best, imho, was his last film, The Misfits, in which he gave a fine performance as an aging cowboy. Do you think that Tracy just had better luck or was he perceived as a character lead, while Gable was merely a leading man? And an expensive one, at that.

[JackFavell]

Tracy had the reputation of sort of a "genius actor" rather than a "leading man"....they marketed him that way.... I think they were willing to throw some challenges Tracy's way, because of that reputation. I don't know that much background on Tracy job-wise, did he have to fight for good roles at any point? The studio probably didn't want to take chances with Gable, or maybe he just wasn't a fighter, since he felt so bemused by his own fame.....I also feel that there was a part of him that simply didn't care anymore after a certain point after Carole died, but perhaps that's just me putting my own romantic notions on him. In some ways, I don't mind his roles later on, because his presence is so great that he almost doesn't need a story... is that wrong of me? He could pretty much sit there and open his mouth to say a line every once in a while and I'd be happy.

But the Misfits shows an incredibly deep understanding and a range one never would have imagined. I am glad he went out with that movie, and I think he might have been too.