Happy Birthday, Dear Mr. Gable

William Clark Gable was born 122 years ago today, on February 1, 1901, in Cadiz, Ohio. The only child of William and Adeline Gable, he was born at 5:30am during an intense snowstorm. Clark’s father was quite proud of his newborn son, as he recalled later, “The kid, I always call him that, was a real he-man from the start. He was a regular blacksmith from the time he was born.”

The future King of Hollywood had humble beginnings. As detailed in “The King” by Charles Samuels:

By one of those oddities of history that delight both scholars and simpletons Clark Gable was born just as Queen Victoria’s funeral was taking place. There were even more soothsayers around then than now, but none of them seemed aware that the most exciting sex symbol of modern times was entering the world precisely as the doughtiest advocate of restrained behavior in the boudoir was leaving it.

As a result, no dignitaries, wise men or great journalists were on hand to welcome Mr. Gable on his very first appearance at Cadiz, Ohio, at 3:30am on February 1, 1901. Nevertheless, being an actor, he managed a debut in circumstances melodramatic enough to impress a whole wine cellar-ful of Barrymores.

Outside was raging a whirling sort of snowstorm that old folks keep saying we never have anymore. His father, William H. Gable, was an oil wildcatter, had battles his way through the snow-choked streets to the home of Dr. John S. Campbell. On waking him p, Mr. Gable said the sort of thing expectant fathers have been saying to sleepy physicians for years.

“Hurry up, for God’s sake, Doc! Addie’s time has come!”

…Dressing in no time he followed her husband out into the snowy night. The Gables lived in two small rooms on the upper floor of a two-story clapboard house on Charleston Street. You reached these rooms by climbing a flight of stairs built outside the house. With the wind howling threats through their earmuffs, the two men started up.

…The delivery was the nightmare Doc Campbell had feared. But like many another turn-of-the-century doctor, he was especially adept and resourceful at delivering babies.

At three-thirty on that blustery, frost-bitten morning, Dr. Campbell walked into the kitchen and told Mr. Gable, “It’s a boy, Will, and is he a whopper! I’d say that weight is more than nine pounds!”

..So it was that a great star was born during a mad storm, in great agony and apprehension.

Thirty years later William Clark Gable became the most romantic star show business ever produced. From then until the day he died, at fifty nine, he was loved by millions of women, admired by their husbands and millions of other men, and worshipped by children.

There is a good deal worth pondering in the long-lived universal popularity of this Hollywood idol. Gable was not the greatest actor in the world, nor the best looking. He had impeccable manners, but in his contacts with the public he never pretended to be anything else but an ordinary Joe. This itself can, of course, be an act. But the odd truth is that Gable did not have to act that role. He was in most respects an ordinary Joe.

Happy Birthday to the King of Hollywood, much more than an ordinary Joe!