Here’s another Hollywood great, and a great car from the 1930s.
Hello Everybody. It’s Monday again and Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, are here to chat about one of the biggest stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Yup, that’s Clark Gable above posing with his 1932 Packard. (What a great looking car, and the 31-year-old Gable looks pretty good too.)
At the time this shot was taken, Gable was not quite the box office “king” he came to be but he was certainly well into his “prince” period. In other words, his star was rising in a hurry.
Director Frank Capra’s classic, It happened One Night, was two years ahead. Gone With The Wind was seven years away. Three years into Gable’s future was Mutiny on the Bounty and The Call of the Wild, the adventure drama costarring Loretta Young, which allegedly resulted in Young’s illegitimate daughter by the actor (Judy Lewis), a matter still debated today on Classic Movie Chat.
In 1932, Gable made three movies for MGM and one for Paramount. In Polly of the Circus, his costar was Marion Davies, a talented screen comedienne but best known today as William Randolph Hearst’s paramour.
In Red Dust, Gable was a perfect mate for Jean Harlow. A change of pace was Strange Interlude, based on the Eugene O’Neill drama, with Gable teaming up with Norma Shearer. In No Man of Her Own, Gable played opposite Carole Lombard, who seven years later became the actor’s third wife.
We like the leafy location of this publicity shot, and Lawdie, they really made cars back then, didn’t they?
