1954: The King Abdicates

The King Abdicates

Photoplay magazine, May 1954

Clark Gable walked slowly to his car, passed the gateman who touched his hat as usual in a good-night salute, across the familiar road that separated the MGM gate from the stars’ and executives’ parking lot. He didn’t glance back.
Clark Gable was walking off the MGM lot for the last time, leaving behind him twenty-three years of one of the most brilliant careers in motion-picture history. During these years he made more money for his studio than any other single star.
In a real sense, Clark Gable has been the man who never grew old. Sure gray has come to his temples, as it would to any of us who had lived out twenty-three years of our working life. But his portrayal in “Mogambo” was as exciting as his first performance more than a score of years ago.
On this last day at the studio, it was as if his fellow workers had turned their back on an era – no farewell speeches, no lavish banquet to mark the passing of the King from their ranks. Not even as much as a farewell handshake from the stars whose firmament he ruled from such undisputed heights. It was a lonesome walk through that studio gate, but a dignified one. It marked a passing of a glamorous era of rule by one man–God Bless the King. Long Live the King!