{New Article} 1934: Clark Gable’s Real Family Life!

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing new-to-the-site articles from the year 1934.

We’ll start out with this one, which proclaims with an exclamation point that it’s about Clark Gable’s Real Family Life! A rather deceptive title.

Clark at this time was a superstar; 1934 saw him win national acclaim for his performance in It Happened One Night, and his films with Joan Crawford that year had been hits.  His studio, MGM, was not too pleased that their manly man star that had women falling at his feet came with a much older, matronly wife with two kids in tow.  But that’s what they had to work with, so if Clark Gable was going to be a husband and a stepfather, he was going to be the pristine example of both!

The first thing that struck me as funny about this article is that Ria is not mentioned until the very end, and even then Clark just says “Georgianna and her mother.” Does that sound like a happily married man to you? Like a man in love with his wife? The title of the article is “Clark Gable’s Real Family Life!” and his real family life doesn’t involve his wife? I always wonder if the fans of the time saw through this charade at the time. It sure is crystal clear when you’re looking backwards.

At any rate, Georgianna isn’t mentioned much either (albeit more than Ria!). Really this article is all about Ria’s son, Alfred “Al” Lucas.

Actually, the comradeship involves Gable and Alfred more than Gable and Georgianna, because, while Clark is fond of his stepdaughter, his real affection is devoted to Al. Between the two of them there is an almost father-and-son-like quality to their mutual admiration. It is with Alfred that Gable spends the greater portion of his spare time.

One remark that Gable uttered, when I went out to his house to talk with him about the children, struck me as being almost a “believe it or not.” Clark said that neither the son nor the daughter has the slightest interest in motion pictures except as a mode of entertainment!

“Georgianna has been inside the studio fewer than half a dozen times,” Gable told me. “Alfred has been there only twice. One of his visits was for the express purpose of meeting me, to go with me on a fishing trip. The other time, he came to watch the photographing of a intricate process shot for a picture called ‘Night Flight.’ Al wants to be an aeronautical engineer, in fact, he is already studying toward that end. He came to the studio because he was anxious to observe at close quarters our studio method of making technical shots of airplane maneuvers.”

“He is interest in aeronautical engineering?” I echoed. “You mean, he doesn’t want to follow in your footsteps, he doesn’t want to become a screen star?”

“He wants to be an engineer,” Gable repeated. “He doesn’t like motion pictures. He particularly dislikes all the ballyhoo that goes with the business. Do you know, he refuses to pose for photographs with me, because he doesn’t want his face plastered all over! He has seen people crowd around me in public places, demanding autographs. He doesn’t want to be Clark Gable’s son and have to stand for the same pawing. At school, few save his better friends know that he is the stepson of a motion picture actor.

“Al and I knew each other before I was plumped into all this fame stuff that has happened to me. A few years ago, we often went downtown together, attended previews together, or went to the various popular restaurants around Hollywood. He won’t go with me now, because he has seen the autograph-seekers surround me. He doesn’t like it. He has told me he doesn’t like it. So he refuses to accompany me to public places except when it is unavoidable.

“He has no awe for me as a screen star. He isn’t at all interested in the fact that I’m an actor. I honestly believe he’d be happier if I were not an actor; if I were just an ordinary business man not surrounded by the halo and fuss that the public creates around its screen favorites.

Al never talks to me about pictures. For that matter, neither does Georgianna. When I return home from the studio nights, Al and I engage in his problems. He never asks, ‘What is Greta Garbo like?’ or ‘What is Joan Crawford like?’—because he isn’t interested. Instead, he invites me to help him solve his troubles. He brings out his engineering books and paraphernalia, and first thing I know, we’re sprawled together on the floor of his workshop.

“Now, I don’t know beans about engineering! I never could figure out mathematical problems. I’m a total loss at construction posers. I can’t even nail two boards together and know they’ll stay nailed. So pretty soon, Al is telling me things, explaining intricate matters to me. At times, I guess he things I’m a pretty dumb egg. Yeah and insofar as engineering is concerned, I guess I am. And no smart cracks, you!

“Al is all boy, thank God! Oh, I’d be fond of him, even if he were not. But I might not be as proud of him, and likely as not we wouldn’t be the pals we are. I’m pretty much of an out-of-doors fellow. So is he. He rides, swims, plays tennis and golf, and fishes and hunts with the best of us. He learned to swim when he was four years old. He simply jumped in the water, and he had to swim or down.

It’s funny, he mentions them going to previews with him a few times in this article and he never mentions Ria at all. He mentions the boy being in the hospital, being attacked by a dog…and in all these anecdotes there is no mention of the boy’s mother. No “Ria and I took him to the hospital…” it’s odd.

I am not really sure how realistic a portrayal this is of Al and Clark’s relationship. This reeks of MGM publicity, putting Clark up on a pedestal as this great stepfather and reiterating that he’s a manly man and that’s why he’s more interested in his stepson than stepdaughter. He might not be as proud of him if he weren’t “all boy”?

Both Al and Georgianna had nice things to say about Clark in later years, but I never got the idea that he was a father figure to them. Around this time Clark was at the top of his game, making several pictures a year and not to mention stepping out with several actresses, so I’m guessing he probably didn’t spend much time on the floor learning about engineering with his stepson.

You can read more of Clark talking about his stepson in The Article Archive.

What happened to little Al Lucas, anyway? He served in the Air Force in World War II and died in 2001.