2.45am: nocturnal wanderings of the ageing mind

“What’s his name? What’s his name? Big ears and moustache. The dashing star of Gone With The Wind. There was Vivien Leigh who married Olivier. Leslie Howard – not to be confused with Robert Donat of Goodbye, Mr Chips who was different to Michael Redgrave in The Browning Version.
What was his name? Red Dust with Jean Harlow; Mutiny on the Bounty with Charles Laughton who directed The Night of the Hunter with Robert Mitchum; whose last film was with Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits.
What was his name? There was Scarlett O’Hara and Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Oscar.
He starred with Sophia Loren but it wasn’t Houseboat – she was with Cary Grant who was in To Catch a Thief with Grace Kelly. Played a journalist in something with Doris Day. What was his name?
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Rhett Butler. Clark Gable, of course.
Clark Gable, Clark Gable. I mustn’t forget him again. It’ll be my PIN number next and then my name.
I’ll use his initials the same way store chain House of Fraser reminds me that Harrison Ford was the star of the Indiana Jones movies. Harvey Keitel is Hong Kong. Alliance & Leicester is Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics.
So Clark Gable could be another bank Cheltenham & Gloucester. Or ci-garette. Or Clark Kent, Superman who was played by – now what was his name?”