1933: Get Well Soon, Clark Gable!

By Walter Ramsey

Modern Screen, September 1933

Retakes on “Hold Your Man” with Jean Harlow, when he was in desperate pain, only aggravated his condition

Clark Gable is very, very ill.

This is not an alarmist story.

Modern Screen is not prophesying that “Clark Gable will never make another picture!” We have, however, investigated in a very careful way, his present and probable future physical condition and the truth is:

It may be months and not “a few weeks—” as Hollywood is predicting—before Clark Gable will be able to face the cameras again.

There were many in the film colony who were quick to say, “Gable is leaving the cast of Joan Crawford’s ‘Dancing Lady’ because he doesn’t like his role. That business about being ‘sick’ is just a stall!” But it wasn’t a stall! Clark Gable isn’t bluffing—not this time. He is still dangerously ill at the moment this is being written.

On page fourteen is a feature that asks you a question: Would you like to see Clark Gable as Mae West’s screen lover? It’s an idea that Modern Screen is sure would please the fans and—well, the question is put up to you all to answer. This severe illness of his makes all the more interesting the question, “What will he do when he returns to the studios?”

Those who saw him hobble about the MGM lot a few days ago, in a painful effort to say goodbye for a long vacational recuperation, were all too well aware of his condition. The trouble, which at first attacked his back, has now spread to his legs and leaves him almost paralyzed.

It all started on a recent hunting expedition in the High Sierras. As you all know, Gable is a great lover of outdoor sports. Every moment he is free from the studio, he plans an outing trip, either hunting or fishing. Generally, these little vacations have turned into parties, with sometimes Wally Beery and his wife, Dr. Franklin Thorpe and his wife, Mary Astor, and many others going along with Clark and Mrs. Gable.

But on this particular expedition, Clark and Dr. Thorpe decided to go alone.

Clark has often said to me, “Sometime, I’m going on one of those hunting jaunts with just a pal—with no women to tell us to ‘be careful, to keep away from deep gullies and steep cliffs, to keep our socks dry’—and generally treat us as if we were a couple of small kids on a lark.” This, then, was to be the great chance—just Clark and the doctor alone.

It was great stuff, the first few days. No one to remind them to do this, and that, no one to watch them. They had quite a lark just doing the things they had always wanted to do—get up when they got ready, stay out hunting as far into the night as they cared to, and to the devil with the “dry socks” and all the other feminine last words!

One day, after a particularly hectic hunt, they returned to their camp dead tired. They had waded across streams and were steaming with perspiration—and they were tired. So tired, in fact, that they lay down to take a little nap—without changing their damp clothing. They slept for hours. Night came on. When the men awoke it had already turned cold. They “came to” with a sharp feeling of cold and dampness. But after the fashion of men, away from the influence of the Little Women, they paid scant attention to a slight cough, a cough that got deeper and deeper, obviously foretelling a cold in the lungs. “What was a cold?” they asked each other. But when another day dawned, and they were in no condition to resume their hunting, they decided to return to Hollywood—recover quickly—and come back for another tussle with the mountain lions.

By the time Clark reached home, he was suffering from severe pains in the back. He went to bed. The pains struck lower and lower. By the next day his legs were in such bad condition that it was almost impossible for him to move them.

It was perhaps the worst thing he could have done—but the director called him for retakes on “Hold Your Man” …and Gable went to the studio. He limped onto the set and, by the greatest will power, forced himself to go through some added scenes with Jean Harlow. The strain of such excruciating pain (you may be able to pick out those scenes when you see the picture) gave him a great battle as he tried valiantly to appear to walk naturally while the camera was grinding. After the final scene had been made, he collapsed and had to be rushed home in an ambulance.

Specialists were summoned. X-rays were made.

It was discovered that, besides his recently contracted illness, Gable was suffering from an inflamed appendix. It was decided that his physical condition made the necessary operation impossible. He might not be able to stand the shock.

“Don’t let my legs stop you, Doc,” smiled Clark. “Let’s have that operation.”

“Your condition,” replied the doctor, “will have to be improved almost one hundred percent before you can stand that operation. You don’t seem to realize how serious your case is.”

Clark didn’t smile anymore. These were words not to be laughed away. The studio was notified that their greatest male box office attraction must take a prolonged lay-off. At the end of a few months he would return to Hollywood, have another physical examination, and then, if his health would permit, the operation would be performed.

And so Clark, with Mrs. Gable and his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sherman, have just left for Lake Louise. It is hoped that Gable will find such relaxation and freedom from studio worries there that he will be able to return to Hollywood a number of weeks hence in a condition that will permit an operation, an operation that should have been performed before you read this.

The whole film colony was shocked to learn of his illness, and a great proportion of them are sending out a prayer for his speedy recovery. We, too, wish him every bit of luck he deserves…and hope that he will return to Hollywood soon in the best of health and spirits.

Fight back, Clark, we know you’ll beat the game as you always do!