Gossip Friday: The Waiting Game

From November 1938:

Technicalities legal procedure, it appeared today, may prevent Hollywood from hearing Carole Lombard and Clark Gable say “I do” until some time in 1940.

The actor’s $286,000 property settlement with his second wife, Maria Langham Gable, has been mutually approved but requires a court’s okay before Mrs. Gable can file suit for divorce.

Gable said his wife, from whom he has been separated for three years, would seek a divorce as soon as a ruling is obtained on the legality of the settlement.

He did not say he intends to marry the effervescent Lombard, but his friends declared they are sure he will as soon as he is legally free.

The settlement matter, when submitted to a superior court today, was put on the pre-trial calendar for December 21, when it will be assigned to a judge. A ruling before January 1 is unlikely, court attaches said.

If Mrs. Gable brings her action some time after the first of the year, and the divorce is granted, California law requires a full year elapse before the interlocutor decree becomes final. Then both will be free to marry again. Mrs. Gable might, however, file suit in another state, attorneys pointed out.

The Lombard-Gable marriage, when and if, will be her second and his third. She was formerly married to star William Powell and Gable’s first wife was Josephine Dillon, who operates a dramatic school here.