Book Description
Clark Gable arrived in Hollywood after a rough-and-tumble youth, and his breezy, big-boned, everyman persona quickly made him the town’s king. He was a gambler among gamblers, a heavy drinker in the days when everyone drank seemingly all the time, and a lover to legions of the most attractive women in the most glamorous business in the world, including the great love of his life, Carole Lombard.

In this well-researched and revealing biography, Warren G. Harris gives an exceptionally acute portrait of one of the most memorable actors in the history of motion pictures—whose intimates included such legends as Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, Loretta Young, David O. Selznick, Jean Harlow, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Spencer Tracy, and Grace Kelly—as well as a vivid sense of the glamour and excess of mid-century Hollywood. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Plagiarism?
He lifted whole passages from Lyn Tornabene's bio "Long Live the King" but did not list her in the bibliography.

Clark Gable
Book was in excellent condition and a wonderful read. Gable led an interesting life and it was revealed with great detail. If you interested in biographies on celebrities from MGM era, this is a book to read.

Hard to Figure
As long as I live, I'll never understand people's motivations.What could possibly have motivated Harris in his writing of this book?He must have spent a tremendous amount of time and effort critically watching Gable and Lombard movies and researching their lives.Yet, after all that, he writes what amounts to a shoddily written, crass and unprofessional 400 page gossip column. He envinces not the slightest bit of interest in movies as art or entertainment.Every Gable movie is perfunctatorily described and quickly forgotten. No mention whatsoever is made of what Harris actually thinks of any movie's artistic or entertainment merits. This is actually the second Gable bio he's written.I haven't read Gable & Lombard & it has a perfect chance of never being read by me.Harris doesn't even like Gable or Lombard.He describes Gable as a lazy, insensitive, amoral manchild who used older women to break into show business and then passively achieved and kept worldwide fame with his good looks and screen persona. Clark Gable, lottery winner.To be fair, nobody claims Gable was any Spenser Tracy or Lawrence Olivier but give the guy a little credit for being at least a competent actor and moderately savvy celebrity. Harris describes Lombard as little more than a dimwitted & vulgar slut. In fact, Harris describes most of the actor/actresses as a bunch of bed hopping drunks with very little delineation. Celebrity bios do tend to be a bit condescending and gossipy but it is amazing this thing was even published.

NOT DEFINITIVE BUT ITS O.K.
This is not a definitive biography of Gable by any means.Its merely o.k.The writer portrays Gable in a variety of ways from male/whore/pimp to broken down/shattered/griefstricken to a man obssessed with his masculinity and sexual prowess.Gable may have been the epitome of masculinity in the movies and it is this that earned him the title of "King".The writer attempts to portray Gable as a martyr throughout the entire book.The fact of the matter is that the truth lies somewhere in between.Gable was a womanizer and it is a well-known fact that he would have sex with anything with skirts on.It is also a well-known fact that Gable, by his own admission, was not THAT GREAT an actor.He was competent most of the time.He was brilliant in "It Happened One Night", "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Gone With the Wind".It is no coincidence that he was Oscar nominated only for those performances.It is also a well-known fact that Gable had a homosexual encounter with William Haines (MGM's biggest male star of the silents)in order to advance his career.It is also a well-known fact that Gable used his first two wives to further his career, cheated on them and ultimately divorced them.But it is also well-known that they used him too.The writer wants to portray Gable as a saint.Saint he was not.The book has its merits.It reads well (albeit with inacurracies) and is interesting, if you can overlook the gossip, tabloid style with which it is written.

Misinformation
I just bought this book and noticed that Warren Harris list Clark Gable character in "Cain and Mabel" as "Joe Cain" instead of "Larry Cain" which is the actual name of the character.

How many other things are wrong in this book? ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

INSANITY
A well-known definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over, yet all the while expecting a different result.Well, David Bret, British chronicler of such celebrity lives as Valentino, Morrissey, Elvis, Errol Flynn, Joan Crawford, and Edith Piaf, has done it again. As in Camus' famous essay on the myth of Sisyphus, he's pushed the rock all the way to the summit of the mountain, only to have it stop, teeter, and then roll back down to the bottom, crushing him along the way. Once again, despite all his attempts to win some sort of respectability, he has provided the world with yet another model of how not to go about writing a biography. He seems to think that by continually assailing the book stalls with questionable attempts at recreating past lives, he may yet acquire, by sheer attrition, a favourable reputation.

He is sadly deluded.His whole enterprise banks on the fact that when dealing with the dead, there are no laws of criminal libel.The dead have no rights or recourse of redress to their reputations.However, there should, and must be, a law against criminal ineptitude. Libeling the dead aside, Bret's books characteristicallyexhibit the equally serious offences of terrible writing, frequent misprints, misspellings,
misstatements of fact, bad taste, and - worst of all - an almost supernatural lack of acquaintance with correct research methods.All of which means that if you are a serious-minded person who wants to discover something about a major film starof the past, buy CLARK GABLE:TORMENTED STARS at your own peril.You will learn almost nothing about William Clark Gable, figure of Hollywood history, but everything about David Bret, frustrated celebrity hanger-on and would-be literary mover and
shaker.In this case there will be some moving and shaking, but it will be the moving and shaking of the reader's head in disgust, followed by its removal to the nearest toilet for vomiting.

Despite the claims of his misguided publisher, this is not a biography.Like his other books, it is a diary of his own homoerotic imaginings projected onto a dead celebrity.The dust jacket of the book claims: "Bret draws on a wealth of unpublished material to examine every aspect of Clark Gable's career and personal life, telling story as it has never been told before . . . ." Okay, at least the second part is true.Nobody has yet - for good reason - had the audacity to claim that Hollywood man's man Clark Gable, at the beginning of his film career, was a male prostitute, and that he had numerous prolonged affairs with men. The first part, however, is patently misleading. CLARK GABLE: TORMENTED STARS is a tired rehash of material from other books and fan magazines, mangled by Mr. Bret's personal proclivities, and peppered with his trademark salacious tidbits of sexual shock-talk.And if the book draws upon any material that's "unpublished," it's only unpublished because Mr. Bret has just recently thought it up.

Why a publishing house that cared a fig about its reputation would touch anything with David Bret's name on it continues to be one of the unsolved mysteries of our day.With a little digging perhaps the mystery might be solved, but then the question becomes:Who cares?Why bother?

My sympathies go out to John Clark Gable and to any others who might be hurt by this vile, bungling, utterly contemptible piece of trash.

Unworthy
David Bret's biography of Clark Gable was unworthy of its subject.What could have been a juicy, but interesting biography is instead a complete waste of time.Gable, one of Hollywood's most enduring stars, is missing from this book.After reading the book I seem to have learned absolutely nothing about Gable.Bret offers little if any insight into what Gable was like as a person.He instead spends countless pages describing his movies and when he does get around to any insights they are brief and rushed descriptions.
The worst aspect of this book is the writing.Often I found myself having to reread entire sections because of the illogical sequencing---within a paragraph!Bret would often reference someone or something that he forgot to clarify beforehand.It was maddening.
The book also seems to have not been edited; there were many basic spelling and grammar errors that an elementary student would have caught.

It's trash ! - Please don't buy this trash!
Reading David Bret's latest homosexual fantasy is equivalent to listening to a dance hall girl sing a bawdy tune out of key. She bellows like a donkey giving birth whilst suffering her death throes, but the entire spectacle is too unseemly for any civilized person to tolerate, and ultimately the only solution is to drag the fat and blemished queen from the stage, stick a gag in her mouth, and kick her out of town.

But let's examine the facts: The ability to construct a readable sentence does not necessarily qualify the author as a professional writer. David Bret has published many books, and this fantasy about Clark Gable is his latest, but he is not a writer. He is certainly also not much of a researcher, and I suspect he's not much of a man.

The facts? There are no discernible facts in "Clark Gable: Tormented Star." However, Bret does manage to spell Clark Gable's name correctly. This is a small victory for a hack well known for his misspellings, falsified chronology, undocumented quotes and preference for gossip and fantasy. This is not a scholarly work. Its audience will be well deserved; i.e.; those readers at the lower rung of the evolutionary scale who thrive on sexual perversion and smarmy innuendo.

As is the case with Charles Higham, Bret's unofficial counterpart in sleaze, there are no laws preventing him from publishing his gay fantasy about a dead actor and passing it off on an unsuspecting public as "fact." He has the right to make money from such profitable ventures. What he has forgotten is this: frauds are always unmasked and the society that allows him his malicious career will also hold him accountable. David Bret is welcome to his dirty money and his dirty little career. He's earned every penny.

And I am holding him publicly accountable for creating malicious lies and pawning them off to an unsuspecting public.

David Bret has performed a lobotomy on research techniques and left its brain-damaged husk behind for someone else to clean up. This book reads like something created by a juvenile fantasizing about his hero, but if only his hero were a homosexual. The end result leaves me feeling that I have encountered a con-man in a zoot suit, and after breezing into my room, he slips out into the darkness with my last dollar in his sweaty little palm. I want my money back.

AOne Star Rating Is One Star Too Much
The first reviewer accurately described this book as trash. I couldn't agree more for exactly the same reasons. If the people who were discussed in this book were alive today, the author David Brett and his publisher would be put out of business after all the lawsuits were settled against them. Nothing in this book is factual AND new. What is new is so highly inflamatory and questionable that it amazes me that it ever appeared in print as non-fiction.
Having read Brett's last two books on Joan Crawford and Valentino, I honestly expected exactly what I got. Fortunately, for the price of a cup of coffee I read this at my local bookstore and didn't waste my money. Brett is incapable of throwing a book together without relying heavily on movie magazine articles and other people's research and/or previously published pieces. That is where his 'facts' begin and end. Then he conjures up some good stories which involve people who have long been dead and cannot sue him for slander. Unfortunately, Brett can't even get his dates right and has a serious problem with places, too. He refers to Gable attending an event at the 'Bilton'. Guess he meant to say the 'Biltmore'. As for Gable's ranch in Encino, it becomes 'Encinal'. Brett also points out that Franchot Tone and Joan Crawford were originally going to be included in an article about Hollywood's Unmarried Couples except he failed to realize that they had already been married for quite some time. Brett also states that Clark Gable rests between Carole Lombard and Kay Gable at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Great Mausoleum. Totally false as Kay Gable was interred a few tiers away from Clark.
The lowest blow comes in the last chapter when Brett questions Gable's son's paternity and the morals of Kay Gable.
Please don't buy this book. I'd hate to see anyone make money off of this trash.

It's cold so use it to build a fire!
I had a tough time finishing it (and skipped over very long details of dialogue from movies) - don't waste your money.It is absolutely the worst book I've read, and I'm a big reader.First, there is a lack of new information - he actually copies much from better bios.Second and worst yet, the "new" info is seriously questionable.I really want the name of the person who stood by and watched Mr. Gable wash himself (on a private area) so hard that he bled.No, not kidding.That's just an example.And although this "writer" accepts Loretta Young as truthful, he actually questions Kay Gable when it comes to who fathered named children.What have Kayley Gable and her brother ever done to David Bret?Gave it one point for use as firewood.I'm a bit ashamed of Amazon for charging me so much for it, and now the price is reduced, again!Still too much! ... Read more

Product Description
On November 16, 1960, Clark Gable died. Jean Garceau, his personal secretary for 20 years, knew him well. In this biography, published the year after his death, she tells his story in a captivating and warmly personal manner. ... Read more

Book Description
"Clark Gable is a man de-classed. You can't guess in any way where he came from or what he was." Frank Taylor, producer of Gable's last film, The Misfits (1961), said this of the man who, to many people, will forever be Southern gentleman Rhett Butler of Gone with the Wind. This work tells Gable's life story, from his birth in 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to his death in 1960 in Hollywood. It chronicles his stage career, and of course gives information on every one of his films. His family background, his development as a person, the many romances including five marriages and his relationships with friends and co-workers are all explored in detail. The sources used and the bibliography are fully annotated. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best of all Gable biographies
In my research for Warm and Wonderful Stepmothers of Famous People (also carried by amazon.com), I looked through virtually all Gable biographies, including the one by Harris. This is the best by far. It has everything but is not gossipy, is very well-written--I found myself reading much more of it than my needs required. Chrystopher Spicer liked his subject yet was thorough and objective--all necessary for a good biography, and with all the biographies I've used in research for my books, I should know. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great book!
Gable's Women is a wonderful book! It gives a real insight to the man. A must read for any fan! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

What a man!They don't make them like him anymore!
As you can tell, I am a big Gable fan.Alas, he died the year I was born.I bought this book about a year ago at a used bookstore in Orlando, Florida and love it.There is a wonderful foreward by Charles Champlain followed by an informative and interesting biography of Clark and then two reminiscences of people that knew him before he became a superstar. One memoir is by a woman named Franz Dorfler who loved him deeply.Following Dorfler's fond recollection, we read one by Paul Fix, who recalled the days Gable was a stage actor.It is intriging to see Gable through two people that knew him well long before he became the indisputed King of Hollywood.The book has beautiful, big, black and white photos on nearly every page.It also details every film he was in, from his bit part in small films to the classic films of the thirties and forties, example, "Mutiny on the Bounty", "Gone with the Wind", "It Happened One Night", "Adventure" etc.For anyone out there who is a Gable fan of any degree, this is a MUST to own.I refer to it often, sometimes just to stare at his beautiful face and masculine build. It's definetly a keeper!

A must for all Gable fans!
I've seen a lot of Gable filmographies, but this one is definitely the best.Great photos, too.Get it if you can!

Lots of facts and adorable photos of Clark Gable.
I already knew most of the facts, but it's the type of book that you just buy to swoon over the photos of Clark. He's the best actor ever! There's sections for all his movies and Broadway performances, complete with photos and reviews. He's just so gorgeous! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Helpful Biography
If you're looking for a detailed biography of the life of this Hollywood couple, this book is not for you. This is a short read that will give you an idea of what Gable & Lombard's relationship was like, and offers a brief glimpse into the lives of each. For an in-depth view into the two stars' lives, I recommend separate biographies for each, instead of this book which is only good for the merely interested reader.

What a disappointment!
I have ordered this book thinking it would be the perfect companion to the Gable & Lombard video (that great film directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring James Bronlin and Jill Clayburgh).
But...what a disappointment! The book has no life, I mean, no grace, no charm, Mr. Warren G. Harris seems unable to focus in the mood of the 1930s. Enjoy the movie, forget the book.

Avoid at all costs!
This is one of the worst books ever written in this or any other genre. It's an insult to Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, not a tribute to them. Avoid at all all costs!

This book is one of the best books ever!
This book is for all those Gable and Lombard fans. This book is a true hollywood love story.It gives a complete history of Gable and Lombard affair with some humor added in.You should buy it or check it out of your library today!

My favorite book
A fun-to-read book especially if you admire Carole Lombard like I do.She died before I was born, but I think she is the woman I most admire and look to as a hero ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Boring and out of date
I found this book to be a sort of boring story of the life of Clark Gable. Also there has been information about Clark Gable that makes this book out of date.

The book hardly mentions Loretta Young and in the early 1990's it came out that Clark Gable and Loretta Young had a secret love child. Instead of this I would recommend the biography by Warren Harris instead. It is more up to date

Lombard almost lives again
This is an excellent book, with perhaps the best word portrait of Lombard in existence, and with that portrait, one understands better the man Gable was after January 16, 1942.The text gives a well developed dimensional portrait of Gable that explores the darker sides of the man - and gives credible support to the Hollywood conviction that Carole Lombard died because of Gable's womanizing, specifically citing Lana Turner (Gable had just started work on 'Somewhere I'll Find You' with Turner when Lombard left on her war bond tour).

Nope, it ain't about Elvis
Clark Gable was The King long before Elvis started shaking his booty and long before Elvis even had a booty to shake! It's refreshing, in this biography, to read what a humble man this gorgeous, virile man had. Farfrom being the Rhett Butler-egomaniac, Gable actually thought he wasn't"that good-looking!" "I'm just a lucky slob from Ohio,"Gable is quoted in the book as telling an interviewer.

Known largely forhis on-stage role as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, also starringVivien Leigh -- and his off-screen romance with Carole Lombard, Gable wooedmore women than he ever could have bedded, what with those "comehither" eyes and dimples. Every woman who watched Gone With the Windwould have changed places with Vivien in a second in the famous"rape" scene where he roughly sweeps Scarlett in his arms andcarries the kicking and screaming wife up the stairs. Of course, anyone whoknows anything about love, Scarlett and that movie knows it surely wasn'trape!

Tornabene's book explores Gable's extreme professionalism as anactor and bits and pieces of the private life he chose to hide while alive.He was even described by the media as "boring" because hewouldn't talk about his private life!

Interesting in the book is thatthis journalist decided to make a most humble move and talk to apscyhologist about the research to gain a different view of Clark Gable, asresearch alone provided pieces to the Gable puzzle but not the entirepicture. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Tom Tierney Paper Dolls
I was pleased to receive and have the Clark Gable Paper Dolls in Full Color.They were shipped and received in very quick order, arriving in perfect condition.My Tom Tierney collection is growing.

CLARK GABLE
THIS IS A STURDY LOOK AT A GRAET MOVIE ACTOR.A perfect companion to the joan crawford book, as both books include their film "possessed"."Gone with the wind" is also well covered.All three figures look like him, the second one is very impressive. With a welcome tribute to his love for Lombarde with their only film together.WELL DONE SIR. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Charisma& Charm trumps all.
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 otherlegitimate actors, he was seduced by the $$$ to be made inHollywood. 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 Clarkvery 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. Thismade 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 wasprobably 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.

A detailed movie star bio
Started reading this book after the death of Katharine Hepburn. Gable is another one of those great stars I know and love only from GWTW and black and white movies on TCM. I knew little of his personal life, except for his storybook marriage to Carole Lombard. This book filled me in on his background. I had no idea he worked so hard on the craft he made look so effortless. Nor did I know how complicated he was. Knowing this will make me appreciate his work that much more. Does it bother me that the biographer writes as if she was in the room for some of the conversations? Not really. This is, after all, a movie star biography, not a history book. If Gable had been a politician or statesman, it might concern me more.

Not the most interesting
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 thisor the book on Grace had any pictures to speak of and any author who cannotbe resourceful enough to get pictures to include in the biography is lazyor did not try hard enough...others have been able to so why can't she?Soyou definitely can't say I am her biggest fan.

Flighty bio written for the vicarious
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 filledwith irrelevant gossip, much of it more suitable for a luncheon oflate-middle aged hens rather than a serious biography.The author'sinterviews with Joan Crawford(one of Gable's many lovers) dominate too manysections of the bio; much of what Miss Crawford says is taken at face valuewith little to counter-balance her assertions.Most undefensible is theauthor's portrayal of intimate conversations as if she were there with amicrophone and tape recorder.Many of the precise"conversations" alleged by the author were between two peoplelong since dead.How would Jane Ellen Wayne know precise conversationsbetween Louis B. Mayer and Clark Gable?Both have been dead for overthirty years.Did the author interview either man from beyond the grave? This technique of the author is most dishonest.However, this biographyhas some very good points.Gable's early life and rise are covered ingreat detail. The author's desriptions of the big studio milleu of pre-TVHollywood are interesting.The author paints a thorough personalityportrait of Gable- his calculated decisions, his high sex drive, hisalcoholism, his love of the outdoors, his tight wallet.Gable's marriageto Carole Lombard is handled rather well.Oddly, the Gable-Lombardmarriage reminds one of the marriage of the current First Couple in theWhite House, only Carole Lombard is better looking and much, much betterhumoured than Hillary R. Clinton and Clark Gable is much more manly thanBill Clinton. Clark Gable is worthy of a fine biography; Jane Ellen Wayne'sis not it, however. ... Read more