Clark Gable
Posted: May 17, 2026 Filed under: actors, America Since 1945, WW2 Leave a commentI saw this posted by someone (apologies to you, poster, I’ve lost track of you) as an example of an outstanding first page of a biography:
I lost the thread and it took me a minute to track it down again. In attempting to find it I read several first pages of biographies of Clark Gable. None of them begin with a punch like that, they start with stuff like “In 1982 a poll of film enthusiasts ranked their favorite stars of all time blahblah.”
This is from Jane Ellen Wayne, Clark Gable: Portrait of a Misfit. (You can read it for free. That casting couch allegation seems questionably documented but who knows. That isn’t the kind of event people keep meticulous records of.)
Wayne on Gable in World War 2:
More:
(In case WordPress won’t let me embed Clark Gable singing “Puttin on the Ritz.”)
Helytimes 