Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", which MGM did on June 3, 1938, from Sam Goldwyn for $75,000. Hits in 1939 included "The Wizard of Oz", "Boys Town" and "Gone with the Wind", starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. Although "Gone With the Wind" was produced by Selznick International Pictures, it was distributed by MGM as part of a deal for producer David O. Selznick, Mayer's son-in-law, to obtain the services of Gable as well as financial assistance to complete the film. While "The Wizard of Oz" was a critical hit, the film took 20
Clark Gable to attempt a film career. In 1924, with Dillon's financing, they went to Hollywood, where she became Gable's manager and first wife. He changed his stage name from W. C. Gable to Clark Gable. He found work as an extra in such silent films as Erich von Stroheim's "The Merry Widow" (1925), "The Plastic Age" (1925), which starred Clara Bow, "Forbidden Paradise" (1924), starring Pola Negri, plus a series of two-reel comedies called "The Pacemakers". He appeared as an extra in Fox's "The Johnstown Flood" (1926). Seventeen-year-old Carole Lombard, later his third wife, appeared as an extra in that film