I been performing otoplasty ear sculpture for many years. There are many possible deformities that can result in ears sticking out too far or actual big ears. For my adult patients, the one constant has been emotional stress, especially growing up. My patients have told me many stories of teasing and social embarrassment from their big ears. Kids can be cruel and so can adults.

"Do Your Ears Hang Low" is an example of a song that can be tormenting for someone with big ears.

I recently was interviewed on national television and was talking with women reporters about otoplasty ear surgery." One of the reporters commented, "why would anyone be worried about their ears? Clark Gable had big ears and he did not have problems!" For that interview, I was in front of a television camera in a local television station talking to a national audience. The lady interviewers were in another city. There was no monitor to see their faces, read their expressions, just a voice in my earplug and the local camera crew. Not being able to see their faces or emotional expressions, I realized that interviewer just did not get it. People with big ears can face a major struggle with emotions and how society treats them.

Actually Clark Gable had problems with his first screenings to get a part in movies:

Gable liked to tell the story how Lionel Barrymore, for whom he had worked in the theater, suggested that he make a test for a film Barrymore was directing at MGM. As soon as Gable reported on the lot, hairdressers curled his hair, he as stripped and given a G-string, a prop man stuck a knife into it and put a hibiscus behind his ear. Barrymore told him to creep through some bushes, as if looking for a girl. There were no lines to speak. When Irving Thalberg viewed the test he called the director and said:

 

"You can't put this man in a picture. Look at him." Lionel Barrymore tried to stick up for his protege.

"He's young, but he'll be all right."

"Not for my money, he won't. Look at his big, batlike ears."

A little later Clark Gable was tested at Warner by Mervyn LeRoy, and overheard Jack Warner yell at him:

"Why do you throw away five hundred dollars of our money on a test for that big ape? Didn't you see those big ears when you talked to him?"

Gable also tested at Warner Brothers to play Edward G. Robinson's best friend in Little Caesar, but production chief Darryl F. Zanuck turned him down, saying "His ears are too big. He looks like an ape."

His ears made him look like a taxicab with both doors open.
- - - Howard Hughes (about Clark Gable)

Clark Gable Cartoons Emphasizing Ears This collection of characters and cartoons of Clark Gable all emphasize his ears as a dominant feature. Big ears tend to attract attention. My patients tell me when talking to a new person, their eyes keep migrating back to the ears breaking eye to eye contact.

A Letter to Clark Gable About Big Ears: Dear Clark Gable you are the artist star I like the most because you are so good and even because you have ears like mine so now my classmates don't tease me anymore since I said you have big ears too and you are a great actor. I'm an orphan and I've never met my daddy who died in the war and me and my mom are poor. So I tell you, since you surely are a good person that for Christmas I would like so much to have a wooden horse I could ride like you did in many movies. If you could do me this favour I thank you very, very much and I would love you even more.

Clark Gable Images Hiding Ears Clark Gable posters and public relation images seem to hide or camouflage his ears unlike the caricature above.

Hair style and hats can help hide big ears.

Clark Gable Images Hiding Ears Tilting the head off angle and not looking straight ahead can also hide ear projection.

View more pictures of Clark Gable. Big ears can be inherited, and passed on to children. Learn about the ears of Clark Gable's daughter.