{New Article} 1952: The Inside Story Behind Clark Gable’s Feuds

This article, published while Clark Gable was in the midst of divorcing his fourth wife, Sylvia Ashley, promises some kind of inside information about juicy feuds involving the King of Hollywood. Not really though. These “feuds” are just between him and his soon-to-be-ex-wife, no big surprise there, and MGM, his home studio of 30+ years. Oh and he also doesn’t like Greer Garson. Not really juicy.

The amount of the financial settlement Sylvia Gable is to receive, however, was not decided upon. Certainly, it will be much less than $500,000. The chances are she will settle for $50,000 and legal expenses amounting perhaps to $25,000 more.

When Clark was asked directly if a property settlement had been made, he said, “We discussed it, but the details haven’t been worked out yet. I must say though that Sylvia seemed very willing to co-operate. She was much more cooperative than she was seven or eight months ago. We both feel that it wouldn’t be good for either of us to be involved in a drawn-out legal fight. We think the whole matter can be settled in a nice, peaceful way.”

Maybe it can. That depends on whether or not Clark will meet Sylvia’s minimum financial demands. It took him four years to work out a property settlement with Ria Langham, and he finally saw it through because he was desperately anxious to marry Carole Lombard.

This time, Clark isn’t desperately anxious to marry anyone, although Sylvia may be…

In any event, after April 26^th, when the divorce will probably be settled, Clark may make it his business to see that his path never again crosses Lady Sylvia’s.

From that date on, he plans to concentrate on his career. His feud with Sylvia will have been settled and the only hassle left to conquer will be the professional one with his studio.

Last November, the studio suspended him, taking him off his $7,500-a-week salary because he refused to star in “Somebody Loves Me,” opposite Ava Gardner.

Clark loves working with Ava—in fact would rather play opposite her than any other actress on the lot—but didn’t love the script, and therefore turned it down.

“Next thing I know,” he says, “they put me on suspension. For four months running, I didn’t receive any scripts or anything. To be perfectly frank. I didn’t see much point in working if I can’t act in some pretty good stories. I know that good scripts just don’t grow on trees, but other actors get good yarns—fellows like Cooper and Peck and Stewart. Why can’t I?”

Clark feels that if he can make one or two outside films a year—that is, away from the studio—he not only will have a better choice of material, but he’ll be able to keep more money.

“More than half my salary,” he explains, “goes for taxes, and while I’m not griping, it would be a healthy thing to get a piece of some picture.”

Clark has reference to the system Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper have worked out, whereby they star in a film and reap a percentage of the profits. Stewart cleaned up over half a million on “Winchester 73” in this manner.

Recently, Gable left his old agent, Bert Allenberg, to sign with the Music Corporation of America. MCA is Stewart’s agent, also Gregory Peck’s, and both of these boys have prospered well.

Now in all fairness to the studio. It must be said that MGM has tried to buy the best story material available for the King. Writers have been hired and paid enormous sums just to develop plot ideas for him. As one Metro spokesman pointed out, “We try to make the best motion pictures possible. Gable is a big star today because Metro made him one. We spent a fortune developing that guy. He’s made millions for the studio—no doubt about that but the way some people talk you’d think we were going out of our way to put him in a series of lops. Every film Gable has been in starts out as a potential winner. No one ever hopes to make a bad picture or even a passable one. We want all of ours to be hits. Except you can’t win all the time.”

I’ve always said it’s too bad that Clark didn’t have the opportunity to do a Hitchcock like Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, or any number of the great comedies those two got to do in the late 1940’s into the 1950’s. I’m doubtful at the remark that they tried to put Clark in the absolute best pictures. At this point, since he’d come back from the war, he’d been in such humdrum fare as Homecoming, Any Number Can Play, Key to the City, Across the Wide Missouri,  and Lone Star. While some of those are not terrible, they are not exactly Notorious, The Bishop’s Wife, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Rope, Harvey or Winchester 73.

He feels that since his return from the Air Force in 1945, he has acted in only two good properties, “The Hucksters” and “Command Decision.”

His first post-war film, “Adventure,” was a flop, and as a result of it Clark and Greer Garson, who starred opposite him, don’t feel too friendly towards each other.

When Clark reported on the set for the first day’s shooting of “adventure,” he learned quickly that Greer regarded herself as metro’s number-one star. She had won an Academy Award for “Mrs. Miniver,” her films were making money hand over fist, and good old Clark—well he was the veteran come home, who had to be taken care of. Gable resented Greer’s quasi-maternal attitude, her benevolent willingness to have him as her co-star.

When “Adventure” was released it was so bad they couldn’t find a producer on the lot who would take credit for it. Gable was hurt. His first comeback effort had laid an egg. Miss Garson’s friends attributed the egg to Gable. Clark’s pals attributed the egg to Greer.

Today, Gable and Garson hardly talk to each other, and chances of their working together are practically nil.

If you ask Clark about his feud with Greer, however, he says, “She’s a wonderful girl, great talent. If the right story came along, I’d be honored to play opposite her.”

I don’t think Adventure is awful–I wouldn’t even put it in the bottom five Gable films–it’s just okay. The main problem is the script is all over the place and he has no chemistry with Garson at all.

You can read more about Clark’s “feuds” in the Article Archive.

(Article #30 posted in 2019)