Clark Gable in Tampa Part 5: Mrs. Gable is Nice

For the last segment of our series of interviews Clark Gable gave at the Tampa International Airport in February 1958, it appears that as the female reporters were hounding Clark asking him mundane questions, a male reporter managed to talk to Kay Gable.

Mrs. Gable is Nice, Male Reporter Says

by Leland Hawes, Tribune Staff Writer

I had Mrs. Gable all to myself–for 10 nice minutes while her crinkle-browed husband was nearly “skwushed” by a squad of inquiring reporters, female variety.

A cool, cool blonde with blue, blue eyes, Kay Gable didn’t twitter an eyelash at the spectacle of her chunk-of-man surrounded by palpitating pulchritude.

“It’s really rather refreshing to see so many young women interested,” she said, in a calm and confident tone. “He’s just the cozy, comfortable type,” she added.

It was soon obvious that to stay comfy-cozy with Gable, his wife must lead a rugged, outdoor life.

Just the week before, the couple had returned from a “jump-shooting” expedition in Mexico.

The jumping evidently consisted of jumping out of bed at 4 o’clock in the morning, huddling in a duck blind until 6 when the ducks come over, shooting, then going out and jumping in the mud.

“I was wet up to here,” the star’s shapely wife demonstrated, crisscrossing her slender neck.

But she shot 27 teal the first day (there’s no limit in Mexico).

“The professor was very proud of me,” she beamed. “We gave all the ducks to the natives because we couldn’t bring them back over the border.”

Mrs. Gable wasn’t all hunting stories, though. She couldn’t resist plugging his latest pictures–TEACHER’S PET, in which he portrayed a newspaper city editor, and RUN SILENT RUN DEEP, where he was a submarine commander.

“I don’t usually go on the set, but I wanted to see what a city newsroom really looked like, so I went on the set of TEACHER’S PET,” she related.

It was an authentic representation of the newsroom of the New York Herald-Tribune, thanks to “wonderful technical advisers,” she explained.

The submarine picture was responsible for a closely-cropped haircut, which she pointed out as Gable continued to answer questions amiably across the way at the airport.

“It looks as if I cut his hair myself,” she said with a grin.

Mrs. Gable looked mighty nice to me, but the gals told me later to describe her clothes as: “A chic black suit with the chemise look, a black calot hat, a big purse, and white kid shoes.”

She got a little restless towards the end of the interview, but not because of any irritation at the attentions being showered on friend-husband.

Her youngsters were awaiting a “safe arrival” long-distance call in Los Angeles–a boy, 8 years old, and a girl, 7. She was anxious to find a telephone.

So what does the sophisticated blonde wife of one of the nation’s screen idols call out, over the bobbing heads of numerous females?
“Hey Paw! I’m going to phone home!”

He wasn’t far behind.