Do people really know who Clark Gable was today?

The average person doesn’t know what Gone With The Wind is.

The average person doesn’t know the three branches of the US Government.

Unless you're a film buff, it's unlikely you know who Clark Gable is.

I don't think a lot of people know his ouevre outside of GWTW, unless you like classic films.

Maybe Misfirs because it was Marilyn’s last movie.

Let me tell you about Clark Gable

People probably know the line “Frankly Scarlet, I don’t give a damn” more than they know Gable.

He slept with Loretta Young(who?) and got her pregnant. So she pretended to adopt the kid like she thought no one knew. Hollywood wanted to pin his ears back. His dentures were so poorly fitted his breath was really bad. Is that enough? Judy sang "Dear Mister Gable" (I know, Judy who?)

It’s funny that he was dubbed the King of Hollywood and now he’s basically forgotten.

But I know what you mean OP. I threw my socks at Jeopardy! last week when NO ONE recognized Irving Thalberg and Norma Shearer for chrissakes!!

[quote]People probably know the line “Frankly Scarlet, I don’t give a damn” more than they know Gable.

Frankly, MY DEAR, I don't give a damn.

Think ahead 100 years. Who's going to remember you or know who you were?

R12 no one and I've spent my entire life trying to be invisible so that's fine with me. But I'm not Clark Gable.

Was it Joan Crawford who was reputed to have said that if he was an inch smaller he would have been a she?

With the advent of YouTube, TMC and the like, more people probably know about Clark Gable today than they did 30 years ago.

When I was growing up it was difficult to see classic films. Cinemas that showed classic films were rare and they existed only in cities.

Sure there was TV, but believe it or not, "Gone With The Wind" wasn't shown on TV until 1976. I remember seeing "It Happened One Night" and the "Misfits" on TV as a kid in the '60s, but remember they were interrupted with commercials and you couldn't watch them on demand.

Does anyone know that Clark Gable's grandson, Clark Gable III, hosted the trashy reality show "Cheaters" and died of an overdose in 2017?

I remember seeing "Gone With the Wind" several times at the drive-in during the 60s, along with many other classics. I was a history buff, and my parents thought I would enjoy a movie about the Civil War.

[quote]I remember seeing "Gone With the Wind" several times at the drive-in during the 60s

The film was only shown twice in the '60s: 1961 and1967.

Like asking my generation who John Gilbert was? Streaming killed The Late Show. Making most 20th century actors culturally extinct.

[quote]Do people really know who Clark Gable was today?

Do I look like a scientific survey, OP?

He's no Fatty Arbuckle.

OP Do people today know who Clark Gable was?

No. Unless they see Gone with the Wind, nobody younger than Gen X would know who he is. Why would they?

[quote]Misfirs

Oh, dear.

[quote]Do people really know who Clark Gable was today?

Is there some remotely good reason that they should?

It seems a little pointless and cruel even to measure someone's worth or intelligence against popular culture markers that were once widely known and but now are not.

It doesn't make me feel superior or complete to know who he was, and I would question why anyone might get pissy about such a thing

It Happened One Night is a great film. Funny and romantic

Gone With the Wind is awful. Only Vivien Leigh makes sense.

Do people know about Cheaters?

People today don't know who Paul Newman and Robert Redford were. Kids don't know much about Madonna.

Gable you say?

An aging segment of the public still knows he and Carole Lombard were said to have had a deep and true love, tragically ended when her plane crashed, and an even smaller segment has slept in the room named after him in the Wolf Creek Inn, north of Grants Pass, Oregon, where he stayed when he escaped Hollywood to come up north to fish/hunt.

[quote] It Happened One Night is a great film. Funny and romantic

Agreed. I have watched it a handful of times. It's one of those rare films where my appreciation of it increases each time i watch it.

For the GOAT of romantic comedies, the only reason I put "Roman Holiday" slightly ahead of IHON is because of RH's bittersweet, poignant ending.

[quote]An aging segment of the public still knows he and Carole Lombard were said to have had a deep and true love,

An aging segment that is rapidly dying off.

He had stinky dentures.

It was some 89 years ago that Loretta Young gave birth to Clark Gable's love child.

That was so long ago that that child, Judy Lewis, is now dead. She died in 2011 at age 76.

[quote] I remember seeing "Gone With the Wind" several times at the drive-in during the 60s

[quote] The film was only shown twice in the '60s: 1961 and1967.

R18 It was released twice. Did it occur to you that R17 might have attended more than one showing in 1961 or 1967?

Very interesting story regarding Judy Lewis, she was furious and rightly so regarding the circumstance of her birth.

Her mother, Loretta Young had the gall to tell her that she (Judy) was her greatest sin! To her face!

Judy's looks favored both parents but mostly her dad. Another star child nepo baby who did soaps like Christina Crawford.

Those ears gave it away. Mom thanked God for the invention of bangs!

The problem is not that people don't know Clark Gable. It's that they don't bother with history. I'm guessing if you don't know Clark Gable, chances are you don't know who Winston Churchill or Charles Lindbergh is either. Or how WWI started. Those who don't know history etc etc. it's not just "pop culture" that people don't know. Ignorance is practically revered these days.

The only reason anyone remembers Joan Crawford is due to Mommie Dearest. Has Christina not published that book no one would be checking out her films.

Was he really a sex symbol? He looks so ugly to me. There were much better looking men at the time.

In 60 years will anybody know who Brad Pitt was?

[quote]It was released twice. Did it occur to you that [R17] might have attended more than one showing in 1961 or 1967

For the idiot at R35: he may have sat through a hundred showings for all I know. The fact remains, the film was only shown twice in the '60s: 1961 and1967.

—Anonymous:

R38 Bangs don't cover the ears.

Gable had an exciting and charismatic screen presence. He had that undefinable "it" factor that you have to be born with to be a "movie star" because it's not a thing you can develop.

There are exceptions, of course, and it's subjective, but for the life of me, although he's a beauty, Brad Pitt lacks screen excitement and charisma, except for his debut star turn in "Thelma and Louise." But it's like he exhausted the tank in that one movie.

When it comes to those early Hollywood male actors, Gable may not have had as handsome a face as Robert Taylor, but Gable's stardom has endured because Taylor didn't have the exciting screen presence that Gable had.

Bogart, Cary Grant, John Wayne also had that kind of star quality.

R40 “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane” still gets a lot of oxygen amongst the gays

R43 Look at the one sentence of his post you quoted, and your reply. He says he saw the film several times in the 1960s, and you say it was only shown two times in the 1960s. It sounds a lot like you're trying to suggest he couldn't have seen it several times. What was the point of your reply, anyway? It wasn't clear. (See if you can answer without calling me an idiot again.)

There's a thread about Gene Tierney that has 50 replies, so if people remember Gene Tierney, they must remember the more famous Gable or Crawford. Unless by "people" or "anyone" you only mean younger people.

Should the James Stewart was a sexy handsome guy troll be on this thread?

I'm not the troll but Stewart was the #1 box office star for several years in the 1950s so I'm sure there were many people who at least found him easy on the eyes. Not everyone was into Hugh O'Brien or Guy Madison types. Personally I always found Jimmy handsome.

[quote] Streaming killed The Late Show. Making most 20th century actors culturally extinct.

I can't work that out. How come there is no streaming service that runs quality classic films, and/or shows that curate and introduce them? I mean, many services have a few, but there is nowhere you can go to "pick a classic, any classic" and catch up with it. I'd have thought the still-substantial Boomer demographic would watch them for fun, and there are plenty of youngsters serious enough about film to pop in to educate themselves, especially as anything before about 2010 is "classic" to them.

I saw It Happened One Night on daytime TV once and have never seen it available again, except at a couple of those aforementioned specialist cinema sessions. It was terrific. Idiot's Delight is worth a look too.

He was an amazing actor and extremely handsome! Perfect. Gone With the Wind was the greatest film ever made, and his other films were top notch.

It’s a dinky little thing.

R51 = Crushing on Jimmy Stewart all over the DL

Stewart’s appeal was based on him being an “every man” not on being a sex bomb.

In their defense, consider how many movies a younger person would need to know about, over the past 90 years or so, in order to really be an expert on cinema. Not just the timespan but the volume, which has increased so much since 50 years ago.

It's the same with pop music. Imagine being 25 back in 1990 and eldergays barking at you for not knowing about Kate Smith, except there were 100 different Kate Smiths they expect you to know about.

R14, Miss Crawford would never say such a thing. She adored Clark and remained loyal to him. The quote is attributed to Gable's third wife Carole Lombard, who supposedly quipped, "If his pee-pee was one inch shorter, they'd be calling him the 'Queen of Hollywood.'"

Please, R56. Elder gays would bark on about Sinatra, not fucking Kate Smith.

Nobody said they have to become experts on cinema, R56, but a bit of background and context never hurt anyone, especially when so many of those old black and white classics are really entertaining. It shouldn't be so hard to find them. It's the one category that is really underrepresented on streaming.

I heard his dick was uncut, and he had smelly foreskin.

I think Gable was extremely sexy and handsome. In my imagination he has a glorious cock and minty-fresh breath. His son and grandson resembled him quite a bit, along with the aforementioned illegitimate daughter with Loretta Young. Those Gable genes are strong!

Brad Pitt I do not find attractive. Too pretty. But I loved him in Fight Club.

This Kate Smith?

Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon often joked about "aerial photographs of Kate Smith"

It must have been in those years I saw it, R43. I was a kid then. Some of us were born in the 50s, you know. I saw it at least four times in 1967. A different relative took me each time. It was a long movie and I wanted to absorb every historical detail.

You are aware the Disney animated flicks were on a rotation every seven years or so. The showing was for a limited time period and you had to see it during that week or two, otherwise you'd have to wait until they removed it from the vault and re-release it. I saw Pinocchio and then my sister saw it about seven years later. It was brilliant for Disney to do, creating new fans as they grew up.

stop talking about Kate Smith.

OP, I was born in 1963, three years after Clark Gable died, yet I knew he was the biggest Box Office draw in 1939/40, because of the popular culture I grew up in during the 70s/80s. Americans broadly shared that milieu thanks to television before the arrival of cable. It was common to watch movies from the 30s through the 70s (even, I dare say, the Silent Film Era) on tv in all parts of the United States. So, most of us knew Clark Gable not only from GWTW, but also from "It Happened One Night," "Mutiny on the Bounty," and "San Francisco." We also knew who Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. were to name the 20s' stars. Cable at first continued this common cultural experience, but also began to erode it. The internet killed it.

R55 Nobody says he was a sex bomb. Typical "either or" thinking. Either he was massively sexy or completely without allure.

Jimmy Stewart was very cute when he was young and was a good looking man until he got old. He appeared in many romantic roles, or didn't you notice? Was he only cast in so many romantic relationships with Ginger Rogers, Jean Arthur, Roz Russell, Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner, etc. because he was an "everyman?'

Stewart was also known as "Hollywood's most eligible bachelor" until he finally got married at 41. Strange that a guy without any sex appeal would be known as that.

I lot of people today don't know a lot about anything.

No, but maybe they will tomorrow, OP?

Today is tomorrow, if you tell me so.

I don't know R42, but I'm almost certain he and Angelina will still be duking it out in court. (1960s reference for those who actually do know and love Clark Gable and his many films.)

Why arent parents passing on the classics to their kids. My dad gave me my love of golden era Hollywood movies. Nowadays people use the excuse of I wasnt born then....Im a 70s kid and my favourite stars as a kid were Judy, Doris Day, Cary Grant and Laurel and Hardy. If id kids they would know all this magical history. And as for people who wont watch a b & w film, just so sad. Though Bette Davis did say, they didnt think about TV and believed movies would have their original run, and if hugely popular, a re release. Its staggering to think we got such creativity with such care and craft with that thought in mind?

[quote] It’s funny that he was dubbed the King of Hollywood and now he’s basically forgotten.

That will be the same aftermath that guys like Glen Powell will suffer in a few years.

I don't even know who Glen Powell is now.

I saw GWTW about four or five times when it played for about 10 days at my local movie theater in the '70s. The reason was, as R64 says, it was being re-released and that run was finite. It would not be released again for several years. It was not on TV and you couldn't watch it on home video. People who didn't grow up without home video and the rest of it, when everything is always available, may not emotionally understand how special film was. It was in theaters only, and you went through the whole process, you couldn't pause it, you had to sit and pay attention. And it was a presentation, it was presented, as a theatrical event.

Meh - he's one of those stars from an era that I can't relate to.

Worshiping 'stars' from about a century ago when everything was so controlled with publicity and image is just a sad pastime for old farts.

There were some good films then - but a LOT of horseshit too that no one remembers because nobody wants to see them again.

We're left with the 'best' films of those eras - but it wasn't a Golden Age of great films, you're seeing a very edited list now. I really don't give a fuck about Clark Gable, John Wayne and many others from that time.

R74, I was watching an episode of Rizzoli & Isles (STARTTV) and there was a young and chipper Glenn Powell getting stabbed to death in a prison bathroom. Look at him now, lol.

Clark Gable tidbit: After the release of It Happened One Night, male undershirt sales tanked because of the scene in the rental cottage where he removes his shirt and was sans undershirt. Men wanted to be like him. I can't believe recent generations don't know who he is.

R76, I honestly believe that's the reason dementia is more prevalent in today's society. Cable came about which enabled you to watch the same film two or three times a day. No need to focus or pay attention to every little detail because it would be on again in four hours. Then VCRs came out and it became even more of a fractured viewing experience. Stop, start, pause, huh?

Minor correction, it was a motel cabin, not a rental cottage.

R73, I tried to get my 17-year-old nephew to watch a few classics with me, like The Wizard of Oz, The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven, etc., but he was utterly bored. The pacing was too slow for his short attention span. He kept squirming in his seat, picking up his phone to read texts or watch little videos, and saying repeatedly "this is boring!" I'm wondering if this is the case for many in his generation.

Clark’s grandson (the one who hosted cheaters) was mostly raised by his stepfather Jason Scheff who was the lead singer of Chicago after Peter cetera left. John Clark Gable was a shit parent who walked out on his son and daughter. When the grandson died John Clark refused to allow him to be buried in the Gable Family Plot or pay anything towards his funeral.

He died 64 years ago. That's longer than most people's lifetimes. "Gone With the Wind" will no longer be watched because it is such uncomfortable viewing due to its horrific racism - so Gable will be completely forgotten once the boomer generation die off.

Only the icons last and Gable isn't an icon. Sure he was very famous for a short period but so was Tom Cruise but he won't be remembered in another 64 years.

My kind of man. We didn’t have G spots back then.

[quote]Worshiping 'stars' from about a century ago when everything was so controlled with publicity and image is just a sad pastime for old farts.

*cough* Taylor Swift *cough*

To contemperory audiences watching B&W films from the 30s & 40's is the equavelent of reading Latin. And the readers are dying out.

You have to be taught Latin to understand it. Are you suggesting that people wouldn't understand Deadpool if someone turned the color off?

[quote] I tried to get my 17-year-old nephew to watch a few classics with me, like The Wizard of Oz, The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven, etc., but he was utterly bored. The pacing was too slow for his short attention span. He kept squirming in his seat, picking up his phone to read texts or watch little videos, and saying repeatedly "this is boring!"

R80 I would have watched one film with him and if he acted like that I wouldn't keep trying to interest him in something he doesn't have interest in.

I probably wouldn't have even tried to get him to watch something, in the first place. I know kids who are interested in old movies or music, but it has to be their own interest.

R84 - what the hell does Taylor Swift have anything to do with this? She's scrutinized about everything and she's a current mega star.

R82, his career spanned thirty years, that's not a short period of time. He died before I was born yet I damn well know who he is. I've seen many of his films and understand why he was dubbed the King of Hollywood.

I also know that people are capable of viewing films in the context of the times in which they were made. GWTW is a classic and if you prefer to see nothing but the supposed "horrific racism" in a film that was released in 1939, based on a novel about a romanticized south, before, during and after the Civil War, that's on you. Such a self-absorbed myopic view. The past few generations expect everyone to align with their incessant outrage by censoring or blacklisting anything that offends their modern-day sensibilities. No thanks.

R89 - I know, right? People just don't appreciate black face no more! And don't get me started about all the moaning about Birth of a Nation!

It's not either/or. You can appreciate a film and also call out the bullshit that was promoted during that time.

The average person could point to Canada on a map.

Couldn’t, dammit

R90 doesn't understand context. Thank you for proving my point, little outraged individual. Hold your fist high.

I guess we could also cancel every movie and novel told from the point of view of a British character living in a foreign land where the British Empire has conquered other people, only we don't.

Gone With the Wind is hardly uncritical about Scarlett and some of her views and attitudes.

[quote]When the grandson died John Clark refused to allow him to be buried in the Gable Family Plot or pay anything towards his funeral.

Clark isn't buried in the family plot either. He's interred in the Great Mausoleum next to Carole Lombard.

My Dad taught us to love Bix Beiderbecke and Coleman Hawkins and Glenn Miller by playing the records. My mother loved old movies and the TV was always on. I grew up listening to the original Broadway cast sing The Music Man because my folks drove to New York to see it in its first run and the cast album was played constantly. I guess my point is no one sat me down and said "watch this" or "listen to this" . It was just there. Osmosis.

Growing up in the 60s and 70s there were a lot of old movies on TV, there were a lot of old stars on the talk shows. For the most part, it wasn't a kids' or a teens' world. We just lived in it. Today kids have their own pop culture, which we only had in terms of what we listened to on the radio. The whole world of pop culture caters to kids. They're the consumers of it. We didn't go to rock/pop concerts (Taylor Swift). We didn't have out own channels. There was no Nickelodeon or Disney Channel. We went to movies like Three Days of the Condor, The Sting, Marathon Man, and Earthquake. Totally different universe.

*our

My mom said she never really understood the appeal of Clark Gable (she was more of a Tyrone Power or Gregory Peck fan). Thought he was great in GWTW, though. Just not her type.

R98 - 100% true. Cartoons were from 7am to 11am on a Saturday to give the parents a break (didn't realize that until my later years), but that was it.

Outside of PBS shows like Sesame Street and Electric Company or Romper Room, there wasn't a ton of programming for children.

Now kids and teenagers can live their whole lives without ever watching anything 10 years prior to their birth.

Who IS Clark Gable today?

R101 Thanks. I actually grew up before there was Sesame Street or Electric Company! Main show was Captain Kangaroo. Romper Room was on the local commercial station. On PBS (which was then called NET) there was Madame Slack teaching French.

In 1966 the FCC required children's educational-informational needs be met with certain programming and it was usually on early mornings.

[quote] Now kids and teenagers can live their whole lives without ever watching anything 10 years prior to their birth.

Good point.

[quote] Who IS Clark Gable today?

Stupid question

I would agree - a Clooney or Jon Hamm type is the Gable of today. Clooney has been a big star for about 30 yrs.

They used to compare Clooney to Cary Grant. I think it was because at the time he dressed well and had the (supposed) charming self-deprecating humor thing going on.

R98 and R101 have hit the cultural nail on the head - it was an adult's world back then, including most mass media. As a fellow 60s/70s kid I'll point out that in 1973, when I was 10, there were only about 40 years worth of sound film and 25 years worth of old tv shows to re-run -- and you could often see Chaplin and Keaton silent comedies on PBS.

We didn't realize we were actually seeing re-cycled vaudeville routines when we watched Abbott and Costello, Burns & Allen or the Marx Brothers. And even though many of the Old Hollywood in jokes in a Bugs Bunny cartoon didn't register, we were exposed to the prior 50 years of pop-culture by default on all those rainy weekends and after-school afternoons.

Maybe, since Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean (along with Betty Boop) have their likenesses on handbags, posters, and assorted gimcrackery in "Hollywood Nostalgia"-type shops in faux-villages built for commerce (Mystic Seaport, e.g., or Peddlers Village, PA).

But 85 years is a long time to ask of the collective cultural memory! Are we Boomers supposed to know the oeuvre of Rudolf Valentino or Deanna Durbin?

The part of your original remark I was referring to, R88:

[quote] when everything was so controlled with publicity and image

You don't think that applies to Taylor just as well as to Gable? If you don't--bless your heart.

Yes and in 100 years they'll still know who he is. But they'll have no idea who Ryan Reynolds and George Clooney were.

Why should they? Fewer than 1 in 6 Americans shared even one day on earth with Clark Gable who was born in the first year of the 20thC and died in 1961. That ratio is not going to improve in his favor.

He starred in 70+ feature films, but many of those in genres that are now deeply unfashionable or outdated or have problematic themes.

And neither is the polarity curve of "Gone with the Wind", Gables most famous role, on the ascent (however much it may be popular among my age peers at DL.). Four hour films based rather loosely on historical events are not experiencing a renaissance, and if they somehow were to do, it would not be in the cinema but on TV streaming services. History subjects, florid complicated romances, and casts of thousands are not on trend on the big screen in the foreseeable future.

Clark Gable will not disappear from history, but he will become more a footnote, more like Marion Davies whose lifespan was nearly the same (1897-1961 vs Gable's 1901-1961)

Why would they?

R77- We are not talking about 1924 we are taking about 1939- Not a 100 years ago. 85 years ago.

[quote] Worshiping 'stars' from about a century ago when everything was so controlled with publicity and image is just a sad pastime for old farts.

In contrast to today, where "stars" carefully control everything about themselves, especially their image, through social media, interviews with carefully vetted publications, and selected appearances. And as opposed to yesteryear, we have more "stars" today, who have no recognizable talent and whose sole claim to fame is their social media presence.

I gladly embrace your epithet, R77, because I appreciate the art and craft of film making from its beginnings until today.

I'll gladly rewatch the chemistry between Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in "It happened One Night" again and again, rather than view a TikTok sensation like "Hawk Tuah Gir" even once.

It make a lot more sense to say 'Do people today really know who Clark Gables was?'.

Clark Gable, not Gables.

R111, it is ridiculous to equate and compare individual artists' star power with "lifespan." Marion Davies made her last film in 1937. She was a product of that era. Gable's career ended with his death. If he had lived, he would have continued to make films, and newer generations would have been exposed to his work.

If we are dismissing anything that happened before we were alive, I fear history has a chance to repeat itself...

Miss Joan Crawford was making an appearance on the Merv talk show and Gable's name came up. The elegantly attired Miss Crawford turned to the audience and let it be known to all and sundry that "Clark Gable had balls!" Of course that was back in the day when stuff like that was bleeped so the riff raff wouldn't be offended. The studio audience screamed with laughter and Merv kind of lipped his lips.

It was revealed years later what she said, but most people read her lips with no problem.

R199, the riff-raff would be considered those who spoke like Joan Crawford.

Get out before I kill you!

If "people today" don't know who you are, you were more than likely someone quite significant. "People today" only know about trailer trash people.

I don't know why it's a measure that should be important to DL.

R107 There were also all those ABC Movies of the Week that often featured a mixture of older and younger stars. I guess a little later on there was The Love Boat. There were also many old-time stars guest starring on detective shows like Columbo. We all knew stars based on our TV watching, who may have been a little past their prime, and at the same time their old movies were playing on TV night and day.

He's been dead for 60 years. If he's known for anything it's for Gone with the Wind released in 1939.

A lot of young kids I know still watch I Love Lucy. Any of the Hollywood stars who appeared on the show are the only ones they know. William Holden, especially. Clark Gable made an appearance in the Caroline Appleby episode (Lucy in a mask) but who would have thought that appearing in a TV show would be a ticket to immortality. Gable should have done the Hollywood At Last Episode.

The Richard Widmark episode was written for Gable, but he couldn't do it for some reason and Widmark replaced him. Gable was a hunter (though I don't think he was a big game hunter). Widmark was not a hunter.

Lucy put on a Clark Gable mask to fool Carolyn Appleby, he was not in that episode.

Seeing GWTW at the movies was cool, back in the '70s. Sometimes I think about seeing The Ten Commandments in the '70s, when the movie was about 18 years old, wand I was about 16 -- and I wonder how things could have changed so much in less than 20 years. Back then, things seemed to change so fast, styles of movies, clothes, pop music.