Gossip Friday: New Ranch
From December 1937:
We don’t know just how near Mrs. Ria Gable is to suing her famous husband for divorce, but to all appearances Clark and Carole Lombard are preparing for the eventuality. Carole has bought fifty acres in San Fernando Valley; fifteen of the acres are under cultivation and the rest will be left for Clark’s horses to wander over.
It’s our understanding that when and if he is ever free to marry Carole, they’ll put up a ranch house there.
Interesting that this was December 1937. This is the earliest I have heard of Carole buying the ranch. That would mean she owned it 15 months before they were even married. Plus there was already a house on the property that they renovated. As we all know, both Clark and Carole spent the rest of their lives on their beloved ranch.
New this week:
New pictures in the gallery
One Comment
Jennifer
I found some add’l info on this story (from Gable’s bio)
Well according to the book it states: As far as the settlement amount of Rhea’s divorce from
her lawyers,it was approx. $300,000 ($350,000) in Lombard’s bio.
Then Carole started shopping for a house. The couple might have been able to swing a deal with the rented house in Bel-Air, but Gable wanted something larger & more removed from the increasingly urban sprawl of L.A.
To Lombard, who grew up there, that meant trapising over to the other side of the Santa Monica Mts. & the Hollywood Hills to the S.F. Valley.
Through the studio grapevine Lombard heard that Raoul Walsh wanted to sell a 20 acre ranch in Encino that was no longer his primary residence. She & Gable had attented parties there and remembered its beautiful rustic setting, so they decided to take another look. The 2 small story house of whitewashed brick was built in 1926 but had been artificially weatherbeaten by movie set designer Malcolm Brown to appear much older. There was a barn, a stable, and a garage. The grounds were thick with trees-pepper, eucalyptus, avacado, plum, peach, apricot & fig. Etc….
Lombard dragged him around to point out out all the changes she wanted to make. (the house needed some work.) Gable said, “Ive always wanted a place like this. It will be the first home since I was a boy that I really can call my own”. “Ma, I think we’re gonna be very happy here!” But Walsh wanted $50k CASH for it, so Gable doubted he had that kind of cash for the house, so of course Lombard did not want to lose out, so she asked Walsh if a personal check would do. It did. And she became the proud owner of the property officially listed in Encino records as 4525 Petit Street. That of course as stated in the story above was in 1937. Im sure it was changed in both names come 3/1939!