Question: Gable's and Bogart's popularity?

[FedoraFan112390]

A question: Around what years did the popularity of Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart as money-making leading men approximate? I've heard that Gable was MGM's highest grossing star consistently between 1939 and 1953 but I'm not sure if that's accurate. Also, both seem to be icons of the 1940s--Was there ever any competition made between them in the press or media of the day?

 

[Atomic Age]

Gable's star making film was Red Dust in 1932. Gable was probably at his peak in 1939 with Gone With the Wind. However once the war started he joined the Army Air Corps, he didn't make another movie again until late 1945. The movie was called Adventure, and it was a bomb, damaging his reputation as the King of Hollywood. Though he would have a number hit movies, he would never again have the kind of success that he had in the 1930's, where every movie he made was a smash.

On the other hand Bogart spent the 1930's playing villains and gangsters. Many people feel that the turning point for him was High Sierra (1941), where though he was still playing a criminal, he was sympathetic. Shortly after he made The Maltese Falcon (1941), his first true role as a hero, though a somewhat ambiguous one. Casablanca was made the next year, and suddenly Bogart was a romantic leading man. He was a top leading man, eventually even producing his own films, until his death in 1957.

Doug

 

[FedoraFan112390]

Well here's one site which has Gable's top grossing films, adjusted for inflation:
#1 Gone With The Wind(1939) 1.68 billion
#2 Boom Town(1940) 286.20 million
3 San Francisco(1936) 264.70 million
4 Adventure(1945) 218.60 million
5 Mutiny on the Bounty(1935) 208.30 million
Hucksters(1947) 205.90 million
Homecoming(1948)177.30 million
#8 The Tall Men(1955) 168.50 million
#9 Honky Tonk(1941) 165.40 million
#10 Somewhere I'll Find You(1942) 163.00 million

It would seem that he was a VERY bankable star up through the mid/late '50s. He had some hits and misses overall throughout his run but it seems he remained the "King of Hollywood."

On the other hand, Bogart to me seems to have made some great films in the early-mid 40s, but was trailing off by the 50s with two exceptions being The African Queen and Barefoot Contessa.

 

[Atomic Age]

Well to be fair, Bogart wasn't doing bad in his late career with The Caine Mutiny(1954) making 330.70 million in 2011 dollars, Sabrina (1954) making 151.80 million, The African Queen (1951) making 144.70 million, Key Largo (1948) making 143.90 million.

Doug

 

[rue]

Yes, but even today Gable is known as the King of Hollywood and Bogart, as great as he was, is not.

 

[Atomic Age]

In 1997, Entertainment Weekly magazine named Bogart the number one movie legend of all time. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the Greatest Male Star of All Time.

Doug

 

[rue]

I realize that, but if you ask "Who is known as the King of Hollywood?" they will say Gable. It's nothing against Bogart

 

[Atomic Age]

I realize that, but if you ask "Who is known as the King of Hollywood?" they will say Gable. It's nothing against Bogart

I suspect that if any one ever called him "the king of hollywood", Bogart would have responded with some colorful language.

Doug

 

[rue]

lol I hear Gable wasn't too fond of it either.

 

[Atomic Age]

lol I hear Gable wasn't too fond of it either.

Probably not!

Doug

 

[LizzieMaine]

Bogart benefited posthumously from a huge surge of popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, when his pictures were all the rage with college film societies -- his antihero persona really appealed to the college kids of the time, and this really cemented the Cult of Bogart. Gable's screen persona didn't experience a similar boost. I suspect it's those boomer kids, now grown up, who ensured Bogart's place ahead of Gable on the Entertainment Weekly and AFI lists.