1950: Hollywood’s $64 Question (Part 1)
Hollywood’s $64 Question: Will the Gables Live Happily Ever After?
by Sheilah Graham
Associated Newspaper Article
January 12, 1950
Hollywood, Cal. Jan.11—Clark Gable and his new bride, the former Lady Sylvia Stanley, return Jan. 18 from their honeymoon in Honolulu, where they are living in the cottage previously occupied by the newlywed Jimmy Stewarts. And a skeptical Hollywood is already wondering: Will the beautiful, fair-haired, new queen, and the long-time popular king of the cinema be able to live happily ever after?
At first appraisal Clark and Sylvia didn’t appear to have a thing in common. The big, husky Clark is the personification of the great outdoors. Slender Sylvia is like a hothouse orchid whose pale petals open only in the soupy sunshine of all the nightclubs in the world—from Paris to Palm Beach, Singapore to Saranac.
And the big current $64 question is, how’s she gonna like it down on the Gable farm in Encino? And if not, will Clark have to like what she likes—or else?
Gather around, kiddies, I have a surprise for you. I think they’re both going to like it fine. Because Clark, more and more, has been getting bored by those great lonely outdoor spaces.
Lady Sylvia, who’s been wife of two peers of the British realm and the two biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, isn’t entirely what she seems to be. In one section of her heart, she’s quite a home girl, and just as much of an outdoor huntin’ and fishin’ female as the late Carole Lombard—Clark’s third wife. And just as much fun to be with.
“She adores children,” I am told by Sylvia’s best friend in Hollywood—Agent Minna Wallis. “Sylvia just can’t do enough for her nephew and niece (Timothy, 17, and Loretta, 14, son and daughter of her sister, Vera Bleck—who stood up for her with husband Basil at the surprise wedding a few weeks back), or for the children of her friends.
“Why, on the Saturday before the Tuesday elopement, Sylvia and I had lunch at Romanoff’s, then spent the whole afternoon at a crowded store, so Sylvia could buy special dolls for Christmas presents for the children of some friends.”
That same night Sylvia had the fateful dinner date with Clark at Charles Feldman’s house. And Miss Wallis suggested:
“Why don’t you come to my house? You can freshen up with some of my electrical equipment.”
Most girls having a date with Clark Gable spend a whole week getting ready for it. Sylvia just said: “No, I’ll go home to the each house (inherited from her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks) and I’ll just have tie to change, I suppose,” she added. “I should really wear something nice.”
Without taking much trouble at all, she was the most stunning looking woman at the party.
It was the next day, Sunday, that Clark popped the question he had failed to ask of beauties like Marilyn Maxwell, Paulette Goddard, Iris Bynum, Anita Colby, Virginia Grey, Elaine White, Joan Harrison and that fabulous, sophisticated grandmother, Dolly O’Brien.
When Clark was married to Carole, he wanted children madly. So did Carole. They both underwent extensive tests to prove they were capable of parenthood.
“Just relax,” Carole’s doctor told her, “and you’ll have a baby.”
Gable has always been relaxed. So has Lady Sylvia. And she has always been a gal who gets what she wants. I don’t know how old she is—the record varies from 39 to 45. But if she wants a baby, adopted or her own, you can bet she’ll have one.
Starting life in England as a pub keeper’s daughter, then mannequin, then chorus girl in London’s glittering “Midnight Follies,” then crashing into British aristocracy twice—first on Feb. 3, 1927, with the very protected Lord Ashley, young heir to the Earl of Shaftesbury, later in 1945 to grab off the politically intelligent Lord Stanley of Alderly—having a baby, even at 45—won’t be too difficult, I think.
But Clark and Sylvia have so many plans right now that I’m not sure they’ll have time immediately.
“I want to go all around the world,” Clark said recently, “especially I want to see the Orient.”
His honeymoon trip to Honolulu was the first time he’d ever been there. And I believe that his war service as a flyer in England was the first time he was ever abroad. Last year he went to the south of France for a rendezvous with Dolly O’Brien. But he came home immediately when his father died.
Sylvia, a mixture of quiet home girl and sought-after sophisticate, never stays anywhere too long. She owns an exquisite small house in South street in London’s fashionable Mayfair. And when Clark finishes his up and coming picture, “To Please a Lady,” he will please his new special lady by making a beeline for London—where she is popular with people like Winston Churchill, Lord Beaverbrook and Brendan Bracken.
Clark, whose father was a lumberjack, will be drenched with the crème de la crème of British bigwigs and I’m sure they will like him. They haven’t forgotten all those flying missions over Germany during the war. Or his modest behavior as just one of the boys at the air base in England.
But to get back to the famous farm in Encino. When the honeymoon in Honolulu is over, Mr. and Mrs. Gable will start their married life in the English-type farmhouse, surrounded by 20 acres of fruit trees and protected from the tourists by an electric-eye gate.
It’s a modest house, by any standard—just three bedrooms—one for him, one for her, and a guest room. Clark’s room features a large double bed, with heavy masculine type furniture.
Sylvia’s room, which used to be Carole Lombard’s, is more feminine, with blond furniture and light draperies. She also has a big double bed. There is a small swimming pool, three horses, three dogs and three cars. The Gables are both flower fanciers, and they plan to plant at least a thousand new roses when they return. Sylvia has gone on record as saying, “I love the house.” But personally I think they will sell it soon. I’ll tell you why, tomorrow.