{New Article} 1947: Tee for Two

I’ve typed many an article for this website (see for yourself) and will admit that the majority of fan magazine pieces are fluff. Especially in the early 1930’s–they are long winded, written in an almost comical romantic prose, and have little to no substance. This trend started to change after World War II, and most of the articles you get are actual interviews, some better than others.

This one from 1947 is actually an entertaining little piece, written by Clark’s frequent golfing buddy Ed Sullivan. In it you’ll find a rare nugget indeed: a Clark quote about Carole Lombard. After her death, his quotes about her are few and far between.

“Sure, it’s been lonely for me,” agreed Clark Gable. “Losing Carole left a gap in my life 1,000 miles wide; it was as though the best part of me died. It’s been pretty tough since then.”

He sipped at his Tom Collins.

“They say it never rains but it pours. On the plane with Carole was a very close friend of ours, Otto Winkler, who was assigned as my publicity man at MGM. I liked him tremendously, relied upon his advice and perception. He died with her. Then I had another friend, Harry Fleischmann. We used to go on fishing trips together. A few months later, he died, so there were three deaths within a space of a few months that wiped out the core of my existence. It hasn’t been easy to reconstruct it, but I’ve done the best I knew how.”

Hmmmm…I find it odd he didn’t mention Carole’s mother, Elizabeth Peters, who died in the plane crash along with Carole and Otto.  She was like a mother to him. That would be four deaths, Clark!

I asked Gable if, as the public generally believed, he was a desperately lonely figure.

“I’d say definitely no,” he answered, after thinking it over. “For a time, I was at loose ends, but luckily, I never sold our house. So when I came back from war, that fact sort of gave me roots. The place had run down while I was away, and the work of fixing it up again occupied me, and then, as it started looking attractive, I got a terrific thrill of pride in it. Had I come back here and gone to live in a hotel, I am convinced now that it would have demoralized me.”

After Carole died, there were news blurbs all over the place that Clark was going to sell the ranch; it went on for a decade. But he never did. I have always believed it was his way of keeping a part of Carole with him every day.

During my month’s stay in Hollywood this past summer, I played a lot of golf with Clark Gable, and golf is an X-ray that shows up the most minute flaws in a person. Arrogance, cheating, temper, selfishness, ruthlessness, all come to the surface during the heat of a golf match, no matter how insignificant the financial stakes.

Gable and I played about 12 rounds together, stood on the same practice tee and went through the same exasperating experiences, played at different courses with different companions; so, just as he could give you a very accurate analysis of me, I got to know him.

Adolphe Menjou, one of our golfing pals in Hollywood, fears neither the Devil nor Daniel Webster. His frankness in exploding some of the legends of Hollywood curls the hair on your head. He is engaged in a 24-hour-a-day attack on smugness of any kind. I asked him once what sort of a person Rudolph Valentino had been. “Completely impossible,” said Menjou with his typical frankness. I am outlining this character sketch of Menjou so that you will appreciate the opinion he gave me of Clark Gable one day while we were playing at the California Country Club.

“Gable is the finest gentleman this industry has ever seen,” Menjou said. “I have known him for a good many years, and I have worked with him in many pictures, and there is no actor out here who even approaches his stature as a human being.”

I love that Menjou quote!

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