Description: A portrait of Clark Gable associated with his MGM film "The Hucksters". Clark Gable was born in 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio. His mother died shortly after his birth, so Gable lived with his grandparents until his father remarried in 1907. His step mother, Jennie Dunlap, encouraged him to read and learn music. When his father, William, bought a farm, he wanted Gable to work the farm, but Jennie convinced him not to. Instead, Gable worked in theater companies in New York and Kansas. Gable moved to Portland, Oregon, where he met Josephine Dillon, an acting teacher. She took an interest in Gable, gave him acting lessons and fixed his hair and teeth. They moved to Hollywood together and were married in 1924. Gable struggled to find acting roles because of his large ears. His break came from his supporting role in The Painted Desert (1931), which impressed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) executives into signing Gable. Over the next several years Gable became a Hollywood leading man. He appeared in movies such as Red Dust (1932), Dancing Lady (1933), It Happened One Night (1934), and many others. In 1939, he appeared in what was perhaps his most famous role as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. Gable married his third wife, Carole Lombard, in 1939, but the actress was killed in a plane crash in 1942. After her death, Gable left Holylwood to join the Army Air Corps, where he served as a tail gunner in World War II. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. After the war, he returned to acting. Some of his well known films include The Hucksters (1947), Mogambo (1953), and The Misfits (1961), in which Marilyn Monroe costarred. Gable died from a heart attack on November 16, 1960. By his death Gable had starred in sixty-five films. The Hucksters follows the story of war veteran Victor Albee Norman (Gable), who goes to New York to look for work in advertising. After landing a job at the Kimberly Advertising Agency, he is assigned to work with the Evans Beauty Soap company, run by the unconventional Mr. Evan Llewellyn Evans (Sydney Greenstreet), where he meets Kay Dorrance (Deborah Kerr). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07665
Subjects: Actors; Motion picture film--History; Motion picture industry
 

Description: A photographer shoots film footage of the Grand Canyon in June 1984. Photographer Joe Munroe, who took the picture, lived in Ohio from 1945 to 1954. He was also a filmmaker, and made two films about the Grand Canyon: "Showcase of the Ages" and "Dare the Wildest River." His film career coincided with his interest in rafting the rivers of the western United States, and he led sixteen rafting trips down the Colorado River while directing these films. His cinema work, which incorporates the agricultural and environmental themes important to his entire career, has won numerous awards. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05885
Subjects: Photographers; Grand Canyon (Ariz.)--History--Pictorial works; Motion picture film--History
Places: Grand Canyon (Arizona)
 

Description: Zane Grey pictured on horseback on the set of the film version of Riders of the Purple Sage, 1918. Grey, born Pearl Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939), was an American author born in Zanesville, Ohio. He wrote popular adventure books and stories of the American frontier. After marrying his wife, Lina Elise (Dolly) Grey (1883-1957), the couple settled Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania. In addition to raising their three children, Lina became Grey's manager and supporter, and edited his manuscripts. Grey self-published his first book "Betty Zane" in 1903 only to become the bestselling fiction author in the world during his lifetime, his most respected work being Riders of the Purple Sage, published in 1912. In 1918 the Greys moved to California where the author formed his own motion picture company. Grey was a very prolific writer. During his 37 years of writing career, Grey published close to 70 novels, 12 non-fiction books, 250 short works, and 4 boy's books. Over 100 Western movies were made using his novels as source material, and he is considered to be one of the major literary influences on the film industry in Hollywood. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: P49_B05F08_01
Subjects: Grey, Zane, 1872-1939; Authors, American--Ohio; Motion picture film--History; Western films; Horses
Places: California
 

Description: Walter Lauffer working at film bench in his darkroom, ca. 1920. He appears to be splicing or editing film reels. Lauffer was a photographer, filmmaker and outdoorsman from Mt. Gilead, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05122
Subjects: Photography--Ohio; Art, American--Ohio; Photography - Studios and dark rooms; Motion picture film--History
Places: Mount Gilead (Ohio); Morrow County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing a man in a cage with two young bears. He appears to be holding a camera and may be recording footage for use in a film. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05642
Subjects: Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture; Motion picture film--History; Cameras; Bears
 

Description: This photograph shows Ohio author Zane Grey (1872-1939) with Archie Stout, Billie Dove and George Irving on the Colorado set of the movie "Wild Horse Mesa," ca. 1925. The movie was based on Grey's novel "Wild Horse Mesa," which told the story of a rancher trying to make money by capturing and selling wild horses, and the local Navajo tribe trying to stop him. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02681
Subjects: Authors, American--Ohio; Grey, Zane, 1872-1939; Literary Ohio; Motion picture film--History