Back to Golden Days

The Golden Age of Hollywood was all about the glitz and glamour. Movie stars were fashion icons, western heroes, brooding outsiders, average Joes, and femme fatales. Some had careers that spanned decades, others were short-lived in their success, and most of them were no strangers to scandal. In such crazy times as these, there are bound to exist some wild facts about the stars and films that made Old Hollywood legendary. I've rounded up 10 of them. In all honesty, they're not really «wild» facts; they're more like random, useless tidbits. 1. When Clark Gable appeared without an undershirt in It Happened One Night (1934), women across the nation stopped buying the garment for their husbands. This caused a depression in undershirts in the United States in the 1930s. In 1957, Gable said, «I didn't know what I was doing to the undershirt people. That was just the way I lived. I hadn't worn an undershirt since I'd started school. They made me feel hemmed in and...

A lot happened in 1932. Gandhi was arrested and interned by the British in India; Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the United States Senate; Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was published; women's suffrage was granted in Brazil; James Chadwick discovered the neutron; Goofy made his first ever appearance in a Disney short; the Summer Olympic Games took place in Los Angeles; the first Mars bar was produced; Babe Ruth performed his famous called shot; the BBC World Service began broadcasting; and the iconic Radio City Music Hall opened in Manhattan. It was also in 1932 that Carole Lombard and Clark Gable met for the first time, not knowing each would change the other's life forever.     CHAPTER I: Carole with an «e» Jane Alice Peters was born to a wealthy Indiana family on October 6, 1908. When she was seven years old, her parents separated and her mother, Bessie, took her and her two older brothers to live in Los Angeles. Jane grew up a «tomboy» and was pa...

Clark Gable is undoubtedly one of the most iconic actors of the Classic Hollywood era. With or without moustache, he captivated audiences as a leading man for three decades and continued to do so even after his death. From his Oscar-winning role in It Happened One Night (1934), to his dashing Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939) and his aging cowboy in The Misfits (1961), Clark Gable established himself as «The King of Hollywood.» But like every self-made king, he had to fight a few battles in order to win the throne. Clark Gable is often referred to as «The King of Hollywood.»   William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in the small coal-mining town of Cadiz, Ohio. His father was William Henry «Will» Gable, a tall and good-looking oil-driller and wildcatter, with a reputation as a womanizer and a boozer. His mother was Adeline «Addie» Hershelman, a striking dark-eyed brunette plagued by a mysterious illness. Both Will and Addie's ancestors had migrated from Germany...