Happy Birthday, Clark Gable

Clark Gable was born William Clarke Gable to William and Adeline Gable in Cadiz, Ohio, 124 years ago today, February 1, 1901. He only lived to be 59 and has been dead longer than he lived, but if this website is any indication, he is not forgotten.

85 years ago, when Clark was turning 39, he had quite the memorable birthday. He and his wife of less than one year, Carole Lombard, had taken off on a hunting trip to Mexico. Shortly after, they caused a media frenzy when it was declared that the two stars were MISSING!

The Gables’ personal secretary, Jean Garceau, recalled: “The Gables loved to go to their special hideaway, La Grulla Gun Club in the mountains below Ensenada, which is about sixty-five miles south of the Mexican border. The gun club had very poor phone service and it was almost impossible to get a call through to them.

“Late in January, Clark and Carole and [their friends] the Fleischmanns went down to La Grulla in Clark’s station wagon. They didn’t get any duck, so decided to go farther south to Hattie Hamilton’s Club to try for Brandt geese.

“Hattie and her sister were two elderly women and their club was a primitive place, with a dining room where they served meals of a sort. A few tiny cabins were scattered about which they rented to hunters.

“The party stayed there two or three days, but bagged no birds. On February 1, Clark’s birthday, they decided to head back to La Grulla. When they departed that morning, Hattie produced a fearful and wonderful-looking birthday cake she’d made for Clark.

“‘It looked pretty terrible but we had to take it along,’ Nan [Fleischmann] says. ‘As we left our cabins, Carole snatched up one of those thick white candles they furnish you for light and stuck it in the cake as a gag.’

“They’d driven only a few miles when it began to rain, which soon became a downpour. The station wagon got stuck in the mud on the narrow mountain road. Try as they would, Clark and Harry couldn’t get it out, so the party decided to make the best of it until the rain stopped.

“An old Mexican happened along with two cooked lobsters he was taking to his village. When he realized their predicament, he insisted on giving them the lobsters, and the foursome settled down to a birthday dinner of lobster and cake. Carole lit the candle and they all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Clark.

“‘The lobsters were tough and stringy and the cake was wicked, but we ate all of it,’ Carole told me later.

“When the Gable party did not return to La Grulla on schedule, someone sent word to Ensenada and the news that they were missing was phoned to Hollywood. There were big black headlines, and the phone at the ranch rang incessantly as newsmen tried to check with me on the story.

“The studio and I tried to get in touch with the Gun Club but the phone service was, as usual, so poor that we couldn’t get through. Howard Strickling told Otto Winkler to fly down at once and investigate.

Meanwhile, the foursome in the station wagon had climbed into sleeping bags, and slept the night through. Next morning the rain stopped, and two men came along in a truck and pulled them out of the mud. They returned to La Grulla just as a very worried Otto Winkler was about to start out with a search party.”

Here are some of the headlines:

February 2:

CLARK GABLE AND CAROLE LOMBARD “MISSING”

Studio Officials Are Not Alarmed

Ensenada (Mexico)–Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, his wife, have not been reported since they started yesterday morning for a drive of 115 miles from Ensenada.

Normally the journey would take about six hours.

Heavy rains are believed to have washed away part of the roads, and studio officials have set out to try to find them.

The couple were on holiday, having been a month duck hunting in Lower California.

The studio officials say they are “not concerned” about them as they often visit ranch houses and their wagon car is well equipped.

Yesterday was Mr. Gable’s birthday.

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married in March last year. Mr. Gable, who is 39, has been married twice before, and Miss Lombard, who is 31, was formerly married to William Powell.

The two stars first met on film work in 1932.

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CLARK GABLE AND WIFE MISSING BUT THOUGHT SAFE

Hollywood–MGM studio spokesmen said today they were trying to telephone Clark Gable and his wife, Carole Lombard, at a gun club in Lower California, where they said the “Gables are reported to be safe and sound.”

[They] apparently got caught in a storm in lower California and spent the night in their station wagon, but none of their friends here worried about their safety.

Mr. and Mrs. Gable left here for a three weeks’ vacation at the Hamilton rancho, 115 miles south of Ensenada.

When they failed to arrive the friends flew over the distance without sighting the car, but made no attempt to land at the ranch. Lack of telephone facilities prevented a check. The couple was believed to have spent yesterday in the station wagon or in one of several villages along the way.

CLARK GABLE AND WIFE SAFE, SOUGHT SAFETY IN GUN CLUB

Ensenada–Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, film stars, were reported safe today at the La Brea gun club, 24 miles south of here, after the famous couple were feared to have been stalled or lost in the gale-swept country of rugged lower California.

John Husson, proprietor of the El Morro cottages in Ensenada, drove to the gun club this morning and reported seeing Gable, who said, “No, we didn’t get stuck, but the roads were so terrible that it took us eleven and a half hours to make the trip.”

Gable and his wife left Hattie Hamilton’s ranch, 115 miles south of here, for Ensenada by yesterday at 8am, they had expected to arrive at Ensenada by mid-afternoon yesterday. When no word was received of their arrival, friends and MGM studio representatives were anxious.

February 3:

CLARK GABLE AND ACTRESS WIFE SPEND NIGHT IN STATION WAGON IN STORM

Hollywood–Clark Gable and his actress wife, Carole Lombard, apparently got caught in a storm in Baja, California and spent the night in their station wagon, but none of their friends here worried about their safety.

“Those Mexican roads south of Ensenada can get awfully muddy in no time at all,” said Dean Dorn, MGM studio publicity man, “and it’s likely their car got suck.

“But the station wagon is fixed with bunks, guns and supplies for their camping trip, and if they did get mired they are undoubtedly in no distress.”