Happy Anniversary, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were wed 83 years ago today, on March 29, 1939, in Kingman, Arizona.

Fans and press alike had been waiting impatiently for the nuptials ever since Clark’s second wife Ria Langham was granted a divorce on March 7.

From the Associated Press:

Gable, Carole Lombard Elope, Wed in Arizona

 

Kingman, Ariz, March 29.—Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, two of the brightest of all Hollywood’s film stars, were married here late today by Rev. Kenneth M. Engle of the First Methodist-Episcopal Church.

The couple walked into the marriage license bureau about an hour before the ceremony and so startled the clerk, Miss Viola Olsen, she could hardly speak.

“I recognized Mr. Gable at once,” she said later, “but I certainly was surprised to see them.

Gable drove his automobile from Hollywood, but he and Miss Lombard did not inform their friends of their elopement plans. Miss Lombard wore a gray flannel ensemble, Gable a blue suit.

Howard Cate, principal of Kingman High School, and Mrs. Engle, the minister’s wife, were the only witnesses to the ceremony.

Cate said Gable told him he and his bride would motor on to Boulder City, Nev., tonight and spend tomorrow at Boulder Dam. They probably will return to Hollywood Friday, as Gable must resume work on “Gone with the Wind,” in which he plays the role of Rhett Butler.

It was Gable’s third marriage and Miss Lombard’s second. She married William Powell, actor, in 1931 and divorced him in 1933.

Gable’s second wife obtained a divorce in Las Vegas, Nev., March 7 after establishing the necessary six weeks’ residence. Some time previously, Gable reached a $286,000 property settlement with the second Mrs. Gable, the former Maria Langham.

Gable’s true name is William C. Gable and Miss Lombard’s was Jane Peters, but her present name has been legalized. He is 38 years old and she is 31.

They met in 1932 when they appeared together in the film “No Man of Her Own,” and then met socially at a 1933 party after she divorced Powell.

Miss Lombard calls Gable “Moose” or “Pappy.” He calls her “The Madam.”

Gable and his second wife, Maria, separated in 1935. Late in that year, a friend arranged a party at which the couple was to sit at her table. When Clark saw he was seated opposite his estranged mate he refused to take his place and instead spent the evening at the bar and dancing with Miss Lombard.

After that, he escorted Miss Lombard to another party and they kept company pretty constantly thereafter.

 

 

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard at Bride’s Home

 

Hollywood, March 30—Fun-loving Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who rote the long-anticipated happy ending to the story of their courtship in a little Arizona town yesterday, returned early today to the bride’s Bel-Air home.

Exhausted by their 750-mile trip, they retired, to wait until later to move into the home on his one-mule San Fernando Valley ranch which Gable redecorated in preparation for the wedding.

Friends were not surprised when news of the ceremony reached here last night, although their absence from the film capital during the day had gone unnoticed. The marriage had been expected daily since the screen’s No. 1 masculine star was given his freedom earlier by his second wife, Maria.

Gable, 38, and his blonde bride, 31, a top-ranking comedienne, scorned the time-tried Hollywood elopement plot. They chose Kingman, Ariz., a desert railroad community, for the rites in preference to filmdom’s more favored Gretna Gardens, Yuma, Ariz., and Las Vegas, Nev. They traveled by automobile instead of by plane, as have most other elopers.

They confided to Howard Cate, Kingman high school principal and a witness when the knot was tired by the Rev. Kenneth M. Engle of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, that they intended to go to Las Vegas or Boulder City Nev., spending today at Boulder Dam.

But a few hours later they were eating dinner in Needles, Calif. and were reported seen at other small communities on the highway across the Mojave Desert, enroute home.

They stopped briefly at a state checking station in Daggett, where an inspector said Gable was sleeping soundly, Miss Lombard appeared drowsy and their companion, Otto Winkler, publicity man, was driving.

Gable was due back on the Selznick lot late today to continue work as Rhett Butler in “Gone with the Wind.” Friends said the couple expected to defer a honeymoon until summer, when both are free of picture engagements.