We're All Dying, Aren't We? (2)

Gaylord  

Everything just happened wrong.
It'll do that, sometimes.
A movie set is like a ship, I guess.
Some are happy, some not.
I'll skip the party.
I've seen enough,
and I'm feeling kind of rough.

Trotsky? I won't bad-mouth the guy.
He knows so many things,
but he doesn't know women.

It was sad to watch him try.
When a woman decides, inside,
to pass on you, you're screwed.
Not even dynamite will do.
I told him, "Don't cling.
Stop thinking you can change things."
His intellect is all he had,
and he certainly deployed it.
But pain is part of the deal.
Can't none of us avoid it.
The little girl? We had a fling.
She's not like anybody thinks.
The brassy, buxom b***h
is some ad-man's creation.
She's a brittle little child.
Her skin is too thin.
You cut your hand, she feels it.
In my philosophy,
it's a simple equation:
they pay me, I show,
ready to go. I don't know
why they need these
analysts and therapists.
Business before show.
She asked a bunch of stuff,
couldn't get enough.
Wanted my suggestions.
Hungry to hear about Harlow,
got me over a barrel
on Yvonne De Carlo.

Even asked about Carole.
I said, "Easy, Harietta.
You'll never know a man better
by asking him questions."

 

Author's Note

(1) Gaylord: In “The Misfits”, Clark Gable plays the part of Gaylord Langham.
(2) I’ll skip the party: We are imagining Gable speaking, just as the shooting of the film has been completed. Feeling ill, he has decided not to attend the location “wrap party”. In real life, he suffered a massive and fatal heart attack the following day.
(3) I’ve seen enough: After 30 years as the world’s foremost leading man, Gable has worked with all the great screen actresses. Monroe will be the last.
(4) Trotsky: Gable has given Arthur Miller this nickname, partly because of his Jewishness, partly because of accusations of being a communist which have recently been leveled against the writer by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
(5) I won’t bad-mouth the guy: The consummate professional, and the very essence of masculine dignity, Gable refuses to criticize his colleagues in public.
(6) It was sad to watch him try: Miller developed the whole “Misfits” project as a way of showing Marilyn Monroe how much he loved her. It backfired on him. As she slid further into emotional chaos, she increasingly came to blame him and his screenplay for her unhappiness. His constant rewrites could not save his marriage. Nothing could.
(7) Harlow: In many ways, the Monroe prototype (the platinum-blonde sex goddess who died young), Jean Harlow was paired with Gable in six films between 1931 and her sudden death in 1936. It is hardly surprising that Monroe wanted to know about her.
(8) Yvonne De Carlo: Gable had played opposite De Carlo three years earlier, in “Band of Angels”. Paranoid and insecure, Monroe needs to know if there had been an on-set romance.
(9) Carole: Carole Lombard (1908-42) was Gable’s wife at the time of her death – and without doubt the love of his life. It is significant that he refers to other actresses by their surnames, but calls her “Carole”.
(10) Harietta: Gable has given Monroe a nickname (based on the character she’d played nine years earlier, in “As Young as You Feel”).