{New Article} 1950: This Was the Lonely Heart

Much to Clark’s chagrin, the media was apt to describing his life as lonely and sad after Carole’s death and he returned from war. No doubt he was lonely, but it’s rather hard for a man to move on when the press is constantly calling him out for being so and lamenting his lost love. Then he found Sylvia and they all cried how wonderful it was and how perfect they were together. Then when they divorced, they all said of course they didn’t work out, they were too different. Such is the press.

This article is after Clark married Sylvia and was still in newlywed bliss.

Many men survived the loss of loved ones, but maybe they had been young once. Clark was never young. This is something most people don’t realize. He never had a time when he was dating girls; he worked and studied and put love out of his life. His previous two marriages were what he believed love to be, perhaps. But only his marriage to Carole was the real thing.

As the world knows, he finished his picture, Somewhere I’ll Find You, and then went into the Army as a private. He was sent to Officers’ Candidate School to train with 18 and 19-year-olds in Florida. If he hadn’t been quite a hunk of man, it would have done him in. It was tough training. Later, in London, he went on seventeen air missions. He was a gunner, and he stood up all the time on those missions—a tough thing for a man his age to do all the long flights over Germany.

He was lonely then, with a loneliness no one could penetrate despite the always-present Gable charm that endeared him to everyone.

What is that charm? How can a guy who is Clark Gable not act like Clark Gable? How come he sticks his head under the hood of anyone’s automobile and tinkers with the engine? Several years back, he parked his long, streamlined, custom-built car before a grocery store and went in. Two young, awestruck kids in a jalopy got out and looked at the car. They didn’t know it was his and were looking at the dashboard and exclaiming over it when Gable came out of the store. Instead of blowing his top or getting excited about prowlers, he grinned and asked them if they’d like to trade cars. It was a joke, of course, and the two kids embarrassedly grinned back—for they recognized him. He stood there, although it was pouring rain, and talked with them for a good half hour. This is a guy who doesn’t have to come down off a throne and mingle with the people. He is the people.

I really love that last sentence: “This is a guy who doesn’t have to come down off a throne and mingle with the people. He is the people.” What a fantastic description of him! I love that. Also it is a good point to say that Clark was never really young and carefree. He struggled and didn’t have a lot of time for goofing off.

And what about Sylvia? Where Gable is King through his own hard work and efforts, so she has attained her position through a hard core of determination, too. She also lost the great love of her life, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Clark’s experiences and hers are strangely parallel. He came from common, good stock and worked his way up to the top; she came from common, good stock and did the same thing.

Then, with varied backgrounds, of a similar age, they met. And it had to be. It had to be because Clark has been lonely for a long time, because—although he has escorted cuties and brilliant, brittle socialites by the score—he has not met up with a woman of maturity whose experiences were of the same cloth as his own. Sylvia admires Carole and doesn’t want to infringe upon the past; just as Clark admires Fairbanks and will let Sylvia keep her memories.

Personal things reveal how lonely he has been, how much he has clung to the past. He has never changed a thing in Carole’s room from the time she died until now. Today, if the house she decorated for him with such loving pride is to be sold, it is far better to bury memories than live with them long year after year. There isn’t a place on the property that doesn’t hold a memory of Carole. The fruit trees they planted together, their rose garden, the big outsize furniture. Down through the groves of trees, there must be many nights when Clark hears Carole’s warm laughter, her throaty stevedore’s vocabulary, her wonderful gaiety.

I have always maintained that Clark never wanted to sell the ranch because he wanted to be haunted by Carole’s memory. He didn’t want to abandon it; it became part of him.

Clark and Sylvia did come from similar humble backgrounds but Clark worked his way up while Sylvia…married her way up.

You can read the entire article in The Article Archive.