Remembering Clark Gable

Clark Gable died 63 years ago today. He was 59 years old.

The Los Angeles Evening Herald Express, Thursday, November 17, 1960:

Marilyn Monroe Weeps for Gable

by Bus Engleman

It was my sad task to break the news of Clark Gable’s death to Marilyn Monroe, who co-starred with “The King of Hollywood” in the last picture he’ll ever make.

“Oh, God, what a tragedy,” Marilyn sobbed, almost unable to believe it.

I had gone to her apartment at 44 E, 57th St. at 4am and called her on the house phone. Her maid awakened her and she came to the phone sleepy voiced.

The news that the man she just finished working with in “The Misfits” was dead shocked her wide awake.

I could hear her sobbing and she murmured: “Please–give me a moment.” She called to her maid for a glass of water.

“This is a great shock to me,” she said finally, weeping. “I’m deeply sorry. Clark Gable was one of the finest men I ever met. He was one of the most decent human beings anyone could have encountered anywhere. He was an excellent guy to work with.

“Knowing him and working with him was a great personal joy. I send all my love and my deepest sympathy to his wife, Kay.”

There was the unmistakable ring of deep personal sorrow in her voice. “The Misfits” written by Marilyn’s estranged husband, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, was her first movie with Gable.

It was only completed recently, and hasn’t been released yet.

For the beautiful Hollywood sex queen, the ill-starred movie was double tragedy. Only a week ago, she announced that she and Mr. Miller will be divorced.

When I asked Marilyn if she would fly to Hollywood for Mr. Gable’s funeral, she broke into sobs again.

“I want to, I want to very badly, but I don’t know yet. I’ll have to find out if I can get away.”

“When he suffered the heart attack and was taken to the hospital,” she went on, “I wasn’t able to talk with him personally, but I have been in touch with him by wire.

“The last wire I received informed me that he was coming along well. And now you tell me he’s dead.

“Oh, God, what a tragedy.”

The memories apparently tumbled over her in fresh vividness, and the picture of vitally alive Clark Gable in death overwhelmed her.

“I’m…sorry…please…Goodbye.”

________

Of course, anyone who knew Clark Gable was hounded by the press. Not unlike nowadays, when co-stars of the recently deceased are stalked and harassed to show their grief online or else that means they never cared. It’s sick. One of the ones the press got a hold of was the first Mrs. Gable, Josephine Dillon.

Gable’s First Wife Tells Early Days of Star

by Frank Elmquist and Nieson Himmel

Moviedom’s monarch is dead and the one who mourned him most today was Josephine Dillon, the “dowager queen” who groomed him for his coronation.

Josephine Dillon is 75.

She’s wrinkled and she’s worn, but there’s a sparkle in her crown of memories when she recalls that she was Clark Gable’s first wife–the woman, 17 years her mate’s senior–who taught Gable how to walk, talk, and project that magic image the cameras captured.

Miss Dillon’s first reaction to news of Gable’s death was an expression of sympathy for the actor’s wife, Kay Spreckels Gable.

“She is a truly wonderful woman,” Miss Dillon said. “It was such a tragedy he couldn’t have lived to see the baby they were expecting in March.

“I think the reason Clark and Kay hit it off together so well was that they both have 400 years of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry behind them.

“They both know what it is to be brought up in poverty.”

In an exclusive interview with the Herald Express, Miss Dillon shattered two favorite filmland myths:

1. Gable, on his way to stardom, dumped her after she had spent her time and efforts in teaching him how to act.
2. In latter years she has become “a bitter, graying old bag whose only consolation in her declining years are a few pictures of the star who left her penniless when he fit the big time.”

“Our divorce in 1930 was my idea,” Miss Dillon said. “I’ve never told that to anyone before. Clark fought against my decision. I put my foot down, and got the divorce.”

Before the welcome demise of Confidential magazine, the specialist in Hollywood’s dirty linen, reported that Gable ignored Miss Dillon; that he had forgotten the woman who helped make him a $300,000 a year actor; that he never attempted to communicate with her.

The magazine, subsequently ordered by the courts to cleanse itself of such malicious gossip, pictured Miss Dillon, as the “decaying” star maker forsaken by Gable.

Young would-be actors and actresses who had been paying Miss Dillon for her part as their drama coach beat a hasty retreat from a woman they feared.

Driven by desperation and the need of financial aid to save er home, Miss Dillon telephoned the “King.”

Within days, Gable’s attorneys informed Miss Dillon that he had purchased the property and arranged a life estate to provide her the home rent free.

When Gable was first stricken by the heart attack which later claimed his life, Miss Dillon heard from the lawyers again. “Don’t worry,” they assured her, “should Clark die–and we hope not–there’s a clause in the estate which guarantees your occupancy of the house free as long as you live.”

Thus are myths exploded.

The students began coming back, once the Confidential “expose” was forgotten. Miss Dillon is again coaching at her home, 12746 Landale Ave., North Hollywood.

She has no regrets.

She has only fond memories and hopes for a bright future.

____

You can read that Confidential magazine article, “The Wife Clark Gable Forgot” here.

And that is true, he left her her house in his will. You can read his will here.

Rest in peace, dear Mr. Gable.