{New Article} 1950: The King Takes a Lady

After Clark Gable suddenly up and married his fourth wife, Sylvia Ashley, there were a lot of articles praising the union (naturally, are they really going to say otherwise) and this here is one of those:

They came back to his Encino Ranch on December 21^st, the morning after their wedding, Clark Gable and Sylvia Hawkes Ashley Fairbanks Stanley, who has just become Clark’s fourth wife. And as they fled through the ranch gates, surrounded by knots of curious fans, Clark called out merrily, “I have never been happier.” Then, the big white ranch gate swung shut and a couple of burly, grinning cops from the Metro Studios mounted guard beside it.

Inside the rambling white house, under the shadow of the orange trees and the avocado orchard, however, servants bustled gaily about. “There will be changes made in the ranch,” Hollywood said. “It will be a good home again—with a woman to oversee all the little things that give a house warmth. Isn’t it wonderful?”

All Hollywood said it, that is, except such diverse ladies as Joan Harrison, who had been dating Gable only a week or ten days before; Paulette Goddard who, only a month before, had hoped, maybe, perhaps…she had the inside track; Marilyn Maxwell, Dolly O’Brien, Anita Colby, Elaine White. There was Virginia Grey, whom everybody said was the real girl in Gable’s life no matter what, and scores of others. A couple of the girls even gave out a couple of sour statements—and you really can’t blame them. Losing the King is really losing out big. The lady who captured him, however, said, charmingly, “Isn’t life wonderful?”

And she was very right. And if you want the whole truth about it; the most wonderful part of life, concerning Clark Gable and the former Sylvia Hawkes, former Lady Ashley, former Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks Senior, former Lady Stanley of Alderly, is that these two enchanting human beings got together. Because they are, honestly and truly, completely right for one another—which is what couldn’t be said for any other one of the girls whom Clark has dated since Carole Lombard’s tragic death. Clark and Sylvia are even alike in that each of them has had a great love that ended in the tragedy of death. Anyone who ever saw Clark and Carole together, and I’m among the lucky ones who frequently did, saw that blazing fire of love between them. The same was true of Sylvia and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

“They are honestly and truly completely right for one another…” Yeah I don’t think so. Let’s be honest, that line would have been uttered by the fan magazines no matter which of those ladies listed above had become the fourth Mrs. Gable. The same line was said in 1955 when Clark married Kay. I can’t fathom anyone seeing Sylvia and Clark and saying they are completely right for one another. Especially to talk about Carole in the same paragraph—Carole and Sylvia had few similarities.

Underneath, she’s the same type of person Clark is. She started out in life with nothing but her own determination to make a place for herself. Like Clark, she is kind and she is very sophisticated. Yet, at the same time, she loves a home and she never has wanted a career even though she started out as a model. She loves to hunt and fish and go sailing. She has the kind of bouncy exuberant health that makes her full of laughter and she can equally adapt herself to a Paris drawing room or the luxurious simplicity of the Gable ranch. What’s more, she’s no kid. Clark has always preferred maturity in his ladies and he will be able to put no more over on her than he put on Carole and that amuses and delights him.

Same type of person?? Clark’s determination to “make a place” for himself led him to be a laborer, to work in a tire plant, wildcatting oil, as a telephone lineman…to work himself up the ladder to being a respected movie star. Sylvia worked briefly in a salon, as a model and a showgirl, then married well, ultimately five times. That is the same type of person?

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

(#11 Article posted in 2019)