Mary Astor & George S. Kaufman, 1936
“His first initial is G, and I fell like a ton of bricks. I met him Friday. Saturday he called for me at the Ambassador and we went to the Casino for lunch and had a very gay time! Monday—we ducked out of the boring party. It was very hot so we got a cab and drove around the park a few times and the park was, well, the park, and he held my hand and said he’d like to kiss me but didn’t.
Tuesday night we had a dinner at ‘21’ and on the way to see Run Little Chillun he did kiss me—and I don’t think either of us remember much what the show was about. We played kneesies during the first two acts, my hand wasn’t in my own lap during the third. It’s been years since I’ve felt up a man in public, but I just got carried away.
Afterwards we had a drink someplace and then went to a little flat in 73rd Street where we could be alone, and it was all very thrilling and beautiful. Once George lays down his glasses, he is quite a different man. His powers of recuperation are amazing, and we made love all night long. It all worked perfectly, and we shared our fourth climax at dawn. I didn’t see much of anybody else the rest of the time—we saw every show in town, had grand fun together and went frequently to 73rd Street where he fucked the living daylights out of me.”
—Excerpts published in Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, from the diary of actress Mary Astor, whose affair with the playwright and critic George S. Kaufman was exposed during her 1936 custody battle. She claimed the snippets leaked to the tabloids were inaccurate. We’ll never know: A judge in 1952 had it burned. (New York Magazine)
Claudette Colbert won the Best Actress award for playing Ellie Andrews in the screwball romantic comedy It Happened One Night opposite Clark Gable in 1935. Colbert’s husband at the time was struggling actor Norman Foster. The awards were held on Feb. 27th of 1935. By August of that year the pair had obtained a divorce in Mexico.
Claudette Colbert co-starring in Young Man of Manhattan with her first husband Norman Foster, 1930
Mrs. Spencer Tracy and daughter Susie pay a visit to the famous star on the set of I Take This Woman. January, 1939.
Although Tracy had numerous public extramarital affairs, including his long term relationship with Katharine Hepburn, he never divorced his wife.
Spencer Tracy couldn´t attend the 1938 Academy Awards so his wife, Louise Treadwell, accepted his Oscar for Captains Courageous
Irving Thalberg was the boy wonder producer who helped create and then run MGM and Norma Shearer was one of the studio’s most popular stars. Shearer is widely seen as being the first American actress who made it chic and acceptable to appear single and not a virgin on screen. The two formed a close friendship which became romantic, Shearer converted to Judaisim and married Thalberg in 1927. They remained married until his untimely death at age 37.
(Source: filmingwhilefeminist)
Clark Gable and his second wife Ria Langham
Clark Gable and his second wife Ria Langham
