{New Article} 1953: Gable Wants to Marry Again

This article is an interesting piece, since in the majority of interviews with Clark after the abrupt end of his marriage with Sylvia have him stating he will never marry again ever, that perhaps him and marriage weren’t compatible.

There are some interesting quotes from Clark littered throughout:

“That was unfortunate. The faults weren’t all on one side, you know. It might have lasted, I suppose. I don’t ever go into marriage thinking ahead to divorce.” (on the split from Sylvia)

“Sure, I’ve been unhappy, too, at times. After marriage has failed, for example. But you can’t go on being miserable. Some people may say I’m crusty,but I take life easily. I like to get way and relax with a few of the boys and fish and ride.”

“Just don’t ask me for advice on staying married. I wouldn’t know the secret. I must have learned something about marriage since I went into it the first time—that was in 1924—but I couldn’t tell you just what.”

“I’m happy if I have a jacket and a clean pair of trousers; some people worry about clothes or money or how the next race is going to finish. If I do bet on a race, I consider the money’s spent before the race is run.”

The article also touches on the rampant rumors that Clark and Gene Tierney were getting romantic on the set of Never Let Me Go–rumors both denied and I have always doubted as well.

I love this description of him:

 I captured the impression of an intensely alive, magnetic, attractive man—healthy, hearty, high-humored, and with a zest for living that makes him a very exciting companion. There’s nothing detached or vague about Clark. His penetrating blue eyes engaged mine and sparkled as his inimitable husky voice recounted some of his many adventures.

An interesting little anecdote from this article that made me raise an eyebrow:

I happened to ask when he’d first travelled to Europe, supposing it had been during his war service as head of a combat photography unit. “No,” he corrected, “my first time over was in 1928, when I got a sudden yearning to see Holland.” He interrupted himself to mention, “I’m half-Dutch, you know, and I had a hankering to see where part of my roots grew. Anyway, I got to Holland, didn’t speak the language or know what to look for and I was so darned green that I stayed only a few days and headed right back for the United States like a bewildered hick.”

I found that particularly interesting because one of the things that made him win his court case in 1937–against a British woman who claimed he had fathered her child in 1922–was that he had not been issued a United States passport at all before 1935. I suppose he could have been a stowaway, as he was not exactly riding in first class at that point, but there was a big deal made about the fact that Clark had never left the country before his South American PR trip in 1935. Hmmm.

You can read the article in its entirety in The Article Archive.