CLARK GABLE - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 16618

CLARK GABLE
Vintage photograph of actor Clark Gable with producer Joseph M. Schenck and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., two of Hollywood's influential studio heads
Photograph signed: "Clark Gable". B/w, 10x8, affixed to slightly smaller sheet. On verso, two pencil notes signed: "Herman M. Darvick". The first, written on verso of the photograph, reads: "Gable genuine". The second, dated 1981, is written on the mounting sheet. In full: "In my opinion,/the Gable signature/is genuine." At lower margin, in unidentified hand: "Center: Joseph Schenck/'20's Producer, discovered/Marilyn Monroe". The signatures, likely secretarial, of Schenck and Fairbanks are written beneath their images. CLARK GABLE (1901-1960) won his only Academy Award for Best Actor in 1934 for his role as newspaper reporter Peter Warne in It Happened One Night. His other memorable roles included his Oscar-nominated performances as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind (1939), which resulted in Gable being named "The King of Hollywood". In the 1940s, Gable appeared in 15 films, including documentaries he made during his service in WWII (he joined Army Air Corps, where he served as a tail gunner, after his third wife, Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash in 1942). Gable died on November 16, 1960 at age 59 just two days after the completion of his final film, The Misfits (released in 1961). DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS (1883-1939), who had starred in comedies and westerns in the 1910s, co-founded United Artists with Charles Chaplin and his future wife, "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, in 1919. The following year, Pickford and Fairbanks, who were known as "Hollywood's King and Queen of the Silents", were married. Fairbanks, who appeared in popular "swashbucklers" during the 1920s, was awarded a posthumous 1939 Academy Award "for his unique and outstanding contribution to the international development of the motion picture." Russian-born JOSEPH SCHENCK (1878-1961) got into the movie business in 1912 and was Chairman of United Artists by 1927. In 1930, Schenck established 20th Century Productions with Darryl F. Zanuck, and he became Chairman of 20th Century-Fox in 1935, when the company merged with Fox Film Corp. In 1947, Schenck became friends with a young actress named Marilyn Monroe and cast her in a small part in Fox's Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948). When her contract was dropped by Fox, Schenck persuaded Harry Cohn to give the starlet a contract at Columbia Pictures. Schenck was awarded a special Academy Award in 1952 for his contributions to the film industry. Lightly creased. Minor surface scratch (not visible head on) at the lower loop of the "G" in Gable. Upper left corner torn away. Otherwise, fine condition.