Recounts the life and career of a larger-than-life Hollywood legend, including his ruthless ambition and his affairs with stars such as Joan Crawford and Carole Lombard. By the author of Marilyn's Men.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In her 10th book about cinema celebrities, Wayne ( Marilyn's Men ) makes judgmental and often unverified statements apparently intended to refute Joan Crawford and other interviewees who praise the actor's professionalism and remember him with devotion. Dubbed "King of Hollywood" 23 years before his death in 1960 at age 59, Gable, who was raised in a small town in Ohio, landed in the movie capital during the 1920s. A big, rough, unhandsome youth who seemed an unlikely prospect for stardom, he had a magnetism that soon made him an unrivalled favorite of both male and female film fans. Whether performing in It Happened One Night , Mutiny on the Bounty , Gone with the Wind or less epic fare, the star drew SRO crowds. To the author, however, Gable was a drunken lecher whose recklessness cost the lives of Americans who served with him in the Air Force during WW II after his wife, Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash. This accusation is as unsupported as most of the gossip served up in this biography-by-indictment, which gives small credit to the hardworking actor mourned by many when his life ended almost simultaneously with the completion of The Misfits.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
The King of Tragedy is discovered behind the King of Hollywood--by the Queen of Trash Bios. In her tenth Hollywood bio, Wayne (Gable's Women, 1987; Crawford's Men, 1988; Ava's Men, 1990; Grace Kelly's Men, 1991, etc.) goes beyond paste-up to embark on self-plagiary. She makes no mention of Gable's Women and simply jumps into rewriting herself, adding clips from familiar scenes about Gable from her bios of his lovers Crawford, Gardner, and Kelly. Is this a new book? Well, maybe, but no page smells fresh. Once more we get the famous fights, the seethings and soothings, dramatized in Wayne's own dialogue, as between Gable and Crawford: ``I'm sick and tired of this Rhett business.'' ``Not if I play Scarlett. We're dynamite together.'' ``Yeah.'' ``You'll insist?'' ``Carole [Lombard] wants the part, too.'' ``Scarlett's not a blonde, for Christ's sake!'' ``I wouldn't know because I haven't read the goddamn book!'' Wayne's Gable is ``an alcoholic, a bland love, a scoundrel, an egotist, and an opportunist who hit the casting couch for a homosexual encounter with a well-known leading man to get into films.'' And he has a tragic mother-complex. The gay encounter, with a friend of gay director George Cukor, later resulted in Gable having Cukor replaced on Gone with the Wind when Gable didn't want his past dug up. But we've read this story in Gable's Women, just as we've read and reread about the star's affairs with Ava, Joan, and Grace, and about his run-in with Marilyn (in Marilyn's Men, 1992). Even Lombard's knitting of a special little sleeve for Gable lacks zip. Wayneland recycled. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Flighty bio written for the vicarious,
By A Customer
This review is from: Clark Gable: Portrait of a Misfit (Transaction Large Print Books) (Hardcover)
This biography is saddled with many flaws. It often reads like one of those silly romance novels one sees at the literature sections of such famous bookshops as Walmart, K-Mart, Walgreens and B.Daltons. It is filled with irrelevant gossip, much of it more suitable for a luncheon of late-middle aged hens rather than a serious biography. The author's interviews with Joan Crawford(one of Gable's many lovers) dominate too many sections of the bio; much of what Miss Crawford says is taken at face value with little to counter-balance her assertions. Most undefensible is the author's portrayal of intimate conversations as if she were there with a microphone and tape recorder. Many of the precise "conversations" alleged by the author were between two people long since dead. How would Jane Ellen Wayne know precise conversations between Louis B. Mayer and Clark Gable? Both have been dead for over thirty years. Did the author interview either man from beyond the grave? This technique of the author is most dishonest. However, this biography has some very good points. Gable's early life and rise are covered in great detail. The author's desriptions of the big studio milleu of pre-TV Hollywood are interesting. The author paints a thorough personality portrait of Gable- his calculated decisions, his high sex drive, his alcoholism, his love of the outdoors, his tight wallet. Gable's marriage to Carole Lombard is handled rather well. Oddly, the Gable-Lombard marriage reminds one of the marriage of the current First Couple in the White House, only Carole Lombard is better looking and much, much better humoured than Hillary R. Clinton and Clark Gable is much more manly than Bill Clinton. Clark Gable is worthy of a fine biography; Jane Ellen Wayne's is not it, however.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not the most interesting,
By Sara (Gold Coast, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Clark Gable: Portrait of a Misfit (Hardcover)
I didn't really like the book and the author seems to reiterate information from her different books into others. I had just borrowed the book from the library as well as the book on Grace Kelly and neither this or the book on Grace had any pictures to speak of and any author who cannot be resourceful enough to get pictures to include in the biography is lazy or did not try hard enough...others have been able to so why can't she? So you definitely can't say I am her biggest fan.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Charisma & Charm trumps all.,
By
This review is from: Clark Gable: Portrait of a Misfit (Hardcover)
Hollywood's moral values were not those of the rest of the country even in the 1920's & 30's. Anywhere else Clark Gable is a cheating swine. Nobody knew this at the time because big brother MGM protected it's own from unpleasantness leaking out to his adoring public. His acting ability & magnetism allowed him to have any women anytime he wanted, if you believe the author Jane Ellen Wayne. She blows hot, cold & lukewarm on her subject. I guess that passes for objectivity.
Gable was a whinner, over-sexed & never satisfied. His first two marriages to older mentors were shams. They served their purpose & were discarded. He cheated on them both regularly. His rise to stardom was slow & tedious, like the first two tapes of this audio version. But then it picked up. He was committed at first to the live stage. But, like many other legitimate actors, he was seduced by the $$$ to be made in Hollywood. His timing was excellent. Many silent era stars could not make the transition to talkies. His voice was very masculine & very sexy. He cleaned up his act with a new set of teeth & physique. He life was owned by MGM. He never had the backbone to defy Louis B. Mayer. He hated him & griped constantly, but did what he was told. MGM in turn, made him their biggest star, & his fans could not get enough of him. He was dubbed the King of Hollywood & never relinquished that title. He was a working actor & made many very good movies such as "It Happened One Night", "Saratoga", five with Jean Harlow, & of course "Gone With the Wind". The turning point in Gable's life was his marriage to THE love of his life, Carole Lombard. She died a hero's death as she returned to California from a bond drive early in the war. She was flying back rather than taking the train & her plane crashed in the mountains near Las Vegas. She had decided to fly because either she missed Clark very much (they were in love with each other) or she suspected him of cheating on her. Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, or ??? Take your pick. He was fooling around on the only women he ever really loved. He never recovered from her death or the guilt he felt. This made him a more serious, introspective & maybe better actor. He saw action in the Army Air Corps in World War II but was pulled out of the line of fire when it became more of a hassle keeping Hollywood's greatest star from harm than it was worth. A remake of the 1932 movie "Red Dust' was renamed "Magambo' with Ava Gardner & a young Grace Kelly was probably his most ballyhooed post war movie. Others such as "Run Silent Run Deep" were also pretty decent. A lifetime of abusing his body plus a lot of booze & cigarettes were taking their toll. The great male actors were dying in the 50's. Bogart, Cooper, Flynn, all gone. Gable died shortly after making "The Misfits" with Marilyn Monroe, also her last movie. His only child was born to his fifth wife, Kay Speckles, shortly after his death.
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