Hollywood History

Clark Gable: Cad (Confidential Magazine, 1955)

We all know that there are two sides to every story, but not in this article. If the utterances of Clark Gable’s first wife (Josephine Dillon, 1884 – 1971) are true, then we have no choice but to believe that Gable was a real stinker.

When Miss Dillon left for Hollywood, he followed. A year later they were married in Los Angeles by gospel minister A.C. Smithers. Josephine traded the Dillon name to become Mrs. Clark Gable.
It didn’t take her long to discover quite a bit about her new young husband. He didn’t even have a grammar school education. He knew nothing about acting. And he was penniless. They lived in the money Josephine made as a dramatic coach. There wasn’t much of it, because her best pupil was her big-eared husband; his lessons were ‘on the house’. He sopped up what she knew like a sponge.

Clark Gable: Cad (Confidential Magazine, 1955) Read More »

D.W. Griffith in the ‘Vanity Fair Hall of Fame’ (Vanity Fair, 1918)

Sweet words of praise were heaped high for the silent film director D.W. Griffith when he was selected by VANITY FAIR magazine to be one of their anointed ones:

Because he was for many years an excellent actor and a leading man on Broadway; because he went into moving pictures as a an actor and emerged from them as a producer;because the greater the magnitude of the task ahead of him the more the prospect pleases him; because he invented the high-priced movies; because he has employed upwards of 5,000 people in a single scene; because he is an excellent musician and wrote the orchestral music for ‘Hearts of the World’, the most sensational moving picture of recent years.film production
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D.W. Griffith in the ‘Vanity Fair Hall of Fame’ (Vanity Fair, 1918) Read More »

Where the Stars Dwell: Beverly Hills, California (Coronet Magazine, 1953)

Times have changed: when this article about Beverly Hills first went to press, that famed little hamlet could support as many as ten bookshops. It is now barely able to support one:

Beverly Hills became famous in 1926 when, in one of the smartest publicity stunts of the century, the movie star Will Rogers was elected honorary mayor. Installed in drizzling rain, Rogers declared that all the budding town needed for progress was a little scandal and a few murders…


This was not a problem.


Beverly Hills Confidential: A Century of Stars, Scandals and Murdersstyle=border:none

Where the Stars Dwell: Beverly Hills, California (Coronet Magazine, 1953) Read More »

The News from Talkie Town (Theatre Magazine, 1931)

To a regular cinema-goer in the era of silent films, attendance at the motion-picture playhouse today is a continuously disturbing experience…The discovery that the shadowy images of the screen could be made articulate was as fruitful for exploitation to the captains of the cinema industry as was the realization that women would wear long skirts to the couturiers. …Paramount alone has already announced 243 releases for next season, double the number issued this year, and other companies are following suit.

Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.

The News from Talkie Town (Theatre Magazine, 1931) Read More »

The Missing Star: Jane Russell (Pic Magazine, 1943)

Those cheeky, ill-informed editors at PIC MAGAZINE impertinently protested that the Howard Hughes’ movie The Outlaw should have been in the theaters ages ago – failing all the while to recognize that the film had been released a week prior to the publication of their article.


But they made up for it by providing their readers with six seldom-seen cheesecake pictures of the star, Jane Russell.

The Missing Star: Jane Russell (Pic Magazine, 1943) Read More »

What’s in that Brooklyn Water? (Quick Magazine, 1952)

2013 marked the 100th year since the first film was made in Hollywood, and in that time one American neighborhood more than any other has consistently supplied the film and television industry with a seemingly inexhaustible pool of talent: Brooklyn, New York. From Clara Bow in the era of silent film to Gabby Sidibe in the digital – the talented sons and daughters of Brooklyn have made their way West and we have all been the beneficiaries.

What’s in that Brooklyn Water? (Quick Magazine, 1952) Read More »

The Audience Laughed at the First Talkies (Film Spectator, 1930)

Upon viewing one of the earliest sound movies this film reviewer did not find it odd in the least as to why the audiences laughed uproariously while listening to perfectly ordinary dialog during the viewing of one of Hollywood’s newest offering War Nurse (directed by Edgar Selwyn):

It was not so much [that they chortled] at these isolated bits of dialogue that the audience laughed, as it was a resort to laughter caused by the absurdity ceaseless chatter that prevails throughout the entire production.


From Amazon: Shattered Silents: How the Talkies Came to Staystyle=border:none

The Audience Laughed at the First Talkies (Film Spectator, 1930) Read More »

Shirley Temple Sheds a Baby Tooth! (Stage Magazine, 1935)

Child movie star Shirley Temple (1928 – 2014) was by no means at her box-office peak when this article was penned (her most popular period would span the years 1936 through 1938), but the institution that she had become by 1935 had already built many second homes and an assorted number of mansions for more than a few well-placed studio executives and mogul types. When the news hit the palmy, sun-soaked boulevards of Hollywood that she had lost her first baby tooth, there was panic!

That the end now shows unmistakable signs of beginning. That first baby tooth fell to the studio floor with a crash heard ’round the world….Yet, even as as the nabobs of Fox stood about applauding and cooing, the cold hand of fear must have gripped their kindly hearts.


Click here to read a 1939 profile of Shirley Temple.

Shirley Temple Sheds a Baby Tooth! (Stage Magazine, 1935) Read More »