{New Article} 1954: Gable and His Girls

This 1954 article was written by everybody in Hollywood’s favorite “frenemy,” the infamous Louella Parsons. Most of the articles of this period, between Clark’s ill-fated marriage to Sylvia Ashley and his subsequent union with Kay Williams, focus on all of Clark’s girlfriends and who will be the next Mrs. Gable.

The King laughed when I persisted in asking about beautiful blonde Grace Kelly (the new Hollywood sensation) with whom Clark was supposed to have been very much in love with they were making ‘Mogambo,’ and of Suzanne Dadolle, the French charmer of the odd name, with whom his name was later linked all over Europe.

Grace is supposed to have pined so deeply for Clark after their romance cooled that, ‘tis said, she threw herself headlong into an unfortunate romance with another handsome actor after she returned to Hollywood.

“Grace is only a kid,” Clark said, “but what a nice one! I used to go on safaris with two white hunters and the natives while we were working in Africa. One day Grace asked if she could go along. After that she made many trips with us.

“I said to her one day, ‘Why do you do this? These natives smell to high heaven; they’ve never had a bath. The safari is dangerous and uncomfortable for a girl raised in a city as you were with all the luxuries and conveniences.’

“And Grace would answer me impishly, ‘I expect to get married some day and have children and I want to tell my children—and later my grandchildren—Mommy went on a safari with Clark Gable! How can I know what such an adventure is like if I don’t have actual experience? It’s purely an adventure in research,’ she’d laugh.”

Clark went on, “You know Grace comes of a very fine family. Sometimes I was surprised that her parents let her travel so many miles to Africa without someone to look after her. But in many ways she’s a rugged individualist, a girl determined to lead her own life and a good actress.”

We all know Grace did quite all right for herself, without being the next Mrs. Gable!

And his love life down through the years has been equally exposed to the public gaze, even the great tragedy of losing the woman he loved with all his heart, Carole Lombard.

Clark had mentioned during our conversation that he is not selling his ranch in Encino, saying, “My roots are there and the happiest days of my life were spent in the house where Carole and lived for three wonderfully happy years.”

Clark never feels any hesitancy in mentioning Carole to me for in the old days we had been a happy foursome—Carole and Clark and Dr. Harry Martin and I. Our ranch was close to the Gables’ and the memory of those happy days we had shared came back to both of us as we talked.

As I have said many times, Carole was the one real love of Clark’s life. She spent all her time planning little surprises for him. She was a girl who would rather give than receive.

She was high-hearted and gay and very beautiful and luxury-loving. Yet when she gave her heart to Clark she went all the way, even to changing her way of life to share the things that interested him, outdoor life, hunting trips, skeet shooting, ranching, roughing it.

Clark was her man. If they had little arguments, they made them up quickly and the fun of kissing and making up and forgiving and forgetting was what helped make their marriage a good one.

No matter what Clark did, it was all right with Carole. She, too, had had other loves in her life—she had been married, not too long nor too happily to William Powell, and there had been her much publicized romance with the tragic Russ Colombo.

But Clark was Carole’s world.

I mention in detail their happy life together because I firmly believe that it was the memory of the great love he bore Carole that made impossible Clark’s chances of happiness with Lady Sylvia Ashley Fairbanks (to give most of her names), his last attempt at matrimony.

Where Carole had given, Sylvia, very spoiled by Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., before his death, asked or demanded. And they made the fatal mistake of living in the same house where Clark had known such happiness with Carole.

Sylvia, pampered and petted by Fairbanks and other husbands and loves in her life, expected the same attention from Clark. Her attitude was a great contrast to Carole’s constant thought of him and everything he wanted.

The last (and he says final) Mrs. Gable started redecorating the ranch house and changing it to her taste and her taste was very expensive. When the big bills started coming in, plus the fact that Gable hated Sylvia’s ultra-feminine changes, the storms which eventually blew up their marriage began.

Although people are quick to insult Sylvia, really she was just being who she was. Her and Clark just were not compatible. Carole, and later Kay, bent to Clark’s every whim. Sylvia was not the type to do so.

Clark says more than once in this article that he will not marry again. Of course, he did, less than a year later. Why the change of heart? You can read that here.

Read the article in its entirety in The Article Archive.