Gossip Friday: Clark Gable Takes a Bride

Seventy years ago today, on July 11,1955, Clark Gable married Kay Williams Spreckels in Minden, Nevada.

July 12, 1955:

Clark Gable, 54-year-old screen veteran, and Kay Williams Spreckels, 37, actress and former wife of California sugar heir Adolph Spreckels II, were married Monday in a surprise double-ring ceremony.

It was Gable’s fifth marriage, Miss Williams’ third.

The ceremony in the home of Justice of the Peace G. Walter Fisher claimed an on-again, off-again romance that has linked their names in gossip columns for about 10 years.

Gable, appearing very formal in a dark blue suit, and his bride, wearing a chic tan suit, were uncommunicative before and after the ceremony. Fisher said the actor said only “I do” and both were unusually quiet.

“Afterwards, Mr. Gable took her in his arms and kissed her,” he said. “I don’t know for how long, but pretty long. Maybe two or three seconds. A good kiss.”

There was speculation that the couple might have gone for their honeymoon to Glenbrook, a small resort community on Lake Tahoe where Gable has a cottage.

Gable was first married in 1924 to Josephine Dillon, a Hollywood drama coach. They were divorced after six years. By that time Gable was a box office hit.

His next wife was Ria Langham, 11 years his senior. They were divorced in 1939. Shortly thereafter he and movie actress Carole Lombard were wed. Three years later she was killed in a plane crash while returning home from a war bond selling campaign.

In 1949, he married Lady Sylvia Ashley, widow of movie star Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. She divorced him April 21, 1952.

Miss Williams first was wed to Martin de Alzaga Unzue. She divorced him and married Spreckels in 1945. She divorced the San Francisco sugar heir in 1953, after accusing him of beating her with her own slipper–a charge for which he served a jail term.

She has two children by Spreckels, Adolph III, 6, and Joan, 4.