Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1948)

ma€-U ’n 'Gota%, White ^n GoM... Our Sancfal has glittering gold piping at your toes . . . in BLACK SUMMER SUEDE or SOFT WHITE KID eittier I Cuban end only 498 StZESi 5-9 AA & A (narrow) 3 V2-9 B & C (med. and wide) charles COrey — Haverhill, Mass. Please send me at $4.98 “GLITTER" . . . SIZE WIDTH COLOR HEEL OPEN BACK CLOSED BACK NAME STREET CITY STATE C.O.D □ MONEY ORDER □ CHECK □ • • &au ^aree , . . the bra with detachable shoulder straps for day through evening wear. 860 S. Los Angeles Street^ Los Angeles, Calif. suggested to me that we shoot them to give Cam the breaks. As for Gable away from work, he’s the same off screen as on. I know, because despite not making pictures together we’ve been personal friends since we met. He loves to laugh and has a broad sense of humor. Between scenes he likes to park his canvas chair in the middle of the set and swap yarns on hunting, fishing or bygone days of movie making with old timers in the crew. At parties he is inclined to be quiet. He’s a good raconteur, but also a good listener. Usually his conversation is crisp and to the point. He dislikes dancing and buffet dinners; he likes to sit down at a table for his meals. At the studio he never eats in his dressing room. He lunches in the commissary at the directors’ table, not a Gable table. He never rides in the studio stand-by car, even from the farthest sound stage. He walks. Gable doesn’t take himself seriously as a star, despite the fact that he’s been just about the biggest star for the longest time of anyone in Hollywood. He insists on going on trips alone, without benefit of a studio publicist’s protection. He doesn’t enjoy interviews because he feels he is dull copy, but is gracious about them unless the interviewer tries to pry into his private life. At that point he will raise an eyebrow, ask “Are you kidding?’’ and change the subject. He currently has the habit of calling everyone — male or female, fifteen or fifty — “Baby.” A few of his close friends call him “Pappy,” the name given him by his late wife Carole Lombard. Generally he has been known as “The King” since he was first voted King of the Movies. I called him “King” several times at the beginning of production. Then he began calling me “King,” pointing out that Le Roy is a corruption of le roi, the French equivalent. I stopped. Then I tagged him “Colonel” for awhile, because that’s his rank in the picture. So, one day he borrowed from the wardrobe department a jacket bearing a general’s stars, presented it to me and announced: “Just so you won’t feel I outrank you, General.” Gable wore his own Army uniforms with insignia changed (he was a Major in the USAAF), for our picture. To me, at least, this indicates a sentimental streak. In “Homecoming” he also wore the same surgeon’s outfits that were made for him thirteen years ago for “Men in White.” The only picture in his dressing room is one of the most unflattering caricatures ever drawn of him, which he thinks is enormously amusing. His hair is graying slightly at the temples. Gals find this an addition to his romantic appeal. He ignores it. For story purposes at the beginning of “Homecoming” we had it touched up. Then in a hospital scene in which Gable, as the surgeon, is sluicing himself thoroughly before an operation, some of the tint washed off. With his usual wry humor Gable said; “I went into this scene yoimg and came I out old!” ; Gable manages an incredible amount of j reading which makes him one of the best j formed men I know. Somehow he finds i time for all the local papers, news , magazines and all the important new ' books. In the latter he continually looks 1 for screen material and often finds it. For example, he read “Command Decision” when it was just off the presses. He persuaded the studio to buy it as a possible screen vehicle for one Gable — before it was rewritten to become a Broadway hit play. I don’t know quite how Gable finds the leisure for this reading, for he is predominantly a man of action. During four days off he painted the exterior of his ranch house in Encino. Before production started he rebuilt the fences and laid all the pipe for a new sprinkling system, pruned his trees, replanted and cultivated large sections of his twenty acres, played golf and went on several fishing trips. Our friendship happily has somehow survived despite my complete lack of interest in the outdoor exercise he likes so well. The only hunting we’ve ever shared was riding around in a jeep out on location near Calabasas, seeing how close we could get to the deer that were always around. We had no gims. Incidentally, Gable has not shot a deer in years; thinks they are too graceful and gentle to kill. Not long ago he learned that his old teacher back in Hopedale, Ohio, Miss Frances Thompson, was ill. He sent flowers with a note saying, “You were the best teacher I ever had.” And he meant it. Still, I cannot say I exactly agree with one old fan, an 81 -year-old Toronto woman who wrote him recently, “For fifteen years I’ve been trying to figure why you are my favorite actor. Now I know it’s your boyishness. You appeal to the mother instinct in all women. You’re the kind of son I’d like to have.” I’m more inclined to believe that Gable has been, is and will be for many more years almost any woman’s idea of what a man should be like. At my home I have a large guest book in which Gable several years ago wrote, “Thanks for believing in me back in 1930.” If ever he asked me to inscribe a similar book, I could think of nothing more apt to say than, “I never changed my mind.” The End LISTEN TO the radio program everyone’s talking about . . . "let s talk ho Ilywood FEATURING GEORGE MURPHY EDDIE BRACKEN leading Hollywood columnists and famous Hollywood guest stars every Sunday on NBC 7 PM, EDT. 5 PM, MDT. 6 PM. CDT. 4 PM. PDT, Listen to “Lets Talk Hollywood” this Sunday, and learn how you can win a GOLD PASS for one year to your favorite theater and a five-year subscription to Photoplay Magazine.