{New Article} 1932: Would You Like to Be Mrs. Gable?

Does that seem like an easy question to answer? Surely not! This is mostly just a fluffy article detailing how hard it is to be Mrs. Gable since you are constantly haunted by feelings of self-doubt and jealousy while thousands of women pine after your man. It really could have been written about any of the married male stars of that era.

Imagine the glowing sense of possession you would feel when you said “I want you to meet my husband…” and the thrill of pleasure that would go through you as some woman looked up into the face of Clark Gable.

Imagine sharing a home with Clark Gable. Let your mind dwell upon that! Imagine choosing chairs and tables and drapes and rugs with him, intimate things that you and he were to share together so long as you both shall live. Imagine discussing the servant problem with him, ordering his favorite things for sinner, sending his clothes to the cleaner, pouring his coffee in the mornings! Imagine having him tuck you into the roadster for a long ride in the hills or along the beach where he loves to watch the sun set and know that you would be coming home together, to sit before the fire, talking of little, homely things only he—and you—could know.

Imagine the secret smile his wife must know when she sees him making transient love to Joan Crawford, or Garbo, or Norma Shearer. That intimate knowledge that “This is only make-believe while his love for me is real.”

Oh, it would be tumultuous, it would be exciting, it would be prideful and dream-shot to be the wife of Clark Gable. Wouldn’t it? Or—would it?

It’s interesting to note that this article is from 1932, when Clark had only had a handful of notable roles. Years before It Happened One Night or Gone with the Wind, Clark was already the dream husband of thousands! And I can’t help but snicker at his wife gazing at the screen with him and Joan Crawford and “knowing it’s only make believe.” In 1932, Clark wasn’t sleeping with his wife and was sleeping with Joan Crawford!!

This same sort of thing takes place everywhere they go. When the attended openings, Clark is all but knocked down by autograph seekers. Young, flower-like girls stand watching him, with half-opened buds of mouths and misty eyes staring at their incarnate dream. Some few will crane curious heads to look at Mrs. Gable. A voice or so will murmur, “I don’t know what he ever saw in her…”

Which isn’t any reflection on Mrs. Gable. It wouldn’t be any reflection on you. So high runs the temperature of fan fever that Gable could be married to Lorelei, to Venus, to Garbo and Crawford and Shearer rolled into one and still those thousands of other women would shake deprecatory heads and say, “I don’t know what he ever saw in her…”

I find this passage interesting just because I don’t think that when Clark married Carole Lombard ANYBODY said “I don’t know what he ever saw in her!” Indeed!

Noteworthy as well is the article alluding to problems in the Gable marriage, which wasn’t even a year old at this point. This is very much in contrast to articles from the time of their separation in 1935, when the authors cried out, “How could this perfect union be ending?” It seems Clark and Ria’s marriage was always dogged by rumors.

You can read the article in its entirety in The Article Archive.