News of the Stars

In Hollywood Clark Gable is called the king of actors, without a rival. He won this title long ago and has never once slipped backward, as is usually the way with actors in general; he is steady, sure of himself, and keeps up his youthful appearance despite his forty-five years. Gable is famous for the smile that is his alone, and among his habits is that he loves to doze at his ease in the hammock in his garden, in his white sport shirt, open a little at the neck.

When Clark Gable was asked where he was headed after this steady climb and after capturing the title of "king of actors," he answered: "I keep on climbing. However far a man advances, there remains before him wide room for further advancement; but once he is certain he has reached the summit, he begins, without a doubt, to decline and fall behind." The Arab poet said, to this same effect:

When a thing is complete, its decline begins —
expect its passing when men say, "It is complete!"

For this reason Gable insists on declaring that wide room for advancement still lies before him, and this is what keeps him at his lofty position.

Clark Gable declares that the cause of his success is his diligence and the serious study with which he approaches his acting roles. When he prepares to play a part, he devotes himself entirely to studying and perfecting that part, forgetting all the parties and evening gatherings that might attract his attention and take up some of his time, and he lets no opportunity for his artistic advancement pass him by.

The question is much asked in Hollywood today: is it likely that Clark Gable will marry again, after his great love with Carole Lombard? For a time past, Clark used to declare that he would never marry a second time, but lately he has softened and said that he might permit himself to think of a second marriage if he were blessed with a girl whose inclinations agreed with his own and near whom he felt a constant, tremendous happiness...

Gable says, finally, that every role entrusted to him and every one of his personal choices is a lesson guiding him toward the future he longs for — a future in which he has great faith.

Shirley Temple

For a time gone by, people used to talk about Shirley Temple and their various opinions of her, and children's fashion houses raced one another, some ten-odd years ago, to invent fashions and call them "Temple fashions"... But today the situation is very different from what it was in those days, and Shirley, after that long silence, likes to tell about herself, for the first time, in her own words.

She is now married to Jack Agar and is expecting her first child in the spring of the coming year. For that reason she will retire from acting while she gives birth and her child grows a little; then she intends to return to acting, the love of which has been rooted in her blood since her childhood...

She is careful of her reputation as a model wife and denies every rumor that may circulate about the failure of her marriage, and she hopes to act together with her husband Jack soon, despite his being so new to acting.

Shirley speaks with pride of her new home and of how she helped her husband arrange it, and she admits that, like all human beings, she is not free of many faults: she is quick to anger, sharp-tempered, and once angered is not easily appeased. She knows this fault of hers and tries to correct it, and her husband helps her in that.

Shirley hates going down to the shops to buy clothes, and when she sees no escape from it, she goes down to the shops but buys clothes quickly, without much deliberation. She loves to wear the tailleur by day and finds it suitable at all times.

Shirley looks upon her childhood as one looks upon a beautiful dream. Among the causes of her great success in those days was that her wise mother never once let her see what the many magazines wrote about her, but kept it from her until she should grow up and her mind mature, so that vanity — and then failure — would not creep into her... And now Shirley looks back on her distant past with a certain pride...

Shirley hopes for the union of the peoples in one great world, and this has been her feeling ever since she was a child, when she used to receive gifts of dolls from every corner of the earth. Shirley saw that all of them had two eyes, one nose, and one mouth — the only thing different was the dress!... Such is Shirley's view of the world she loves, the world to which she aspires to succeed in bringing pleasure, as she used to do when she was a child...

Judy Garland

Judy Garland does not recall that she was ever, on any day, a child like other children, going out with all the merriment that innocent childhood demands. Her parents were musicians, and they thrust Judy, at three years of age, into the atmosphere of the stage; and so she began her life in earnest, forever dreaming of becoming a brilliant star of lasting renown. Judy won a success she may be thanked for, and her life would have been happy but for the rivalry, at that time, of the child Deanna Durbin, who outshone her — a thing that bred in her a feeling of inferiority and a shrinking into herself. The roles Judy most loved to play were those of the model wife enjoying a happy married life.

It seemed to her that she had gained what she wished for by her marriage to the artist-director Vincente Minnelli, for he loved her dearly and she returned his love, secure in the complete understanding between them. Judy tried her utmost to guard this marriage from any danger that might threaten it, but at last she failed, and news of their disagreement spread through Hollywood circles... Yet even her closest friends do not know the cause of this discord...

What makes the situation hard for Judy is also the presence of the little girl, who has not yet completed her first year. Judy believed that this child would remain a pillar of her marriage, but her dreams did not come true. This failure in her family life, whose cause is still a closely kept secret, brought her long sleeplessness, so that dark shadows appeared under her wide eyes, and she grew so weak that we lately heard of her leaving acting in order to recover her health. And indeed her sleep has improved and her artistic energy has returned to her, and she has now come back to Hollywood, hoping to take up her work anew. May Judy Garland be granted what her kind heart desires.