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1961: The Secret Clark Gable and Kay Never Shared
The Secret Clark Gable and Kay Never Shared By Jim Hoffman Photoplay magazine, April 1961 Kay Gable didn’t know it when the long black limousine pulled away from the curb; she didn’t see her daughter, Joanie, lean forward and stare blindly into the on-rushing cars, she wasn’t aware of her son, Bunker, turning stiffly to take a last look at the iron gates of Forest Lawn Cemetery. All she knew was that Clark was dead—and that soon he would be entombed in a crypt next to the one where his beloved wife, Carole Lombard, was buried. As they left the funeral, all she felt was emptiness as the limousine…
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1961: After Tragedy, A Rising Star (Part 3)
After Tragedy, A Rising Star By Adela Rogers St. Johns The Orlando Sentinel, January 8, 1961 When he came back from the war, things ganged up on The King. This led him into a way of life utterly foreign to the Clark Gable his friends had known and to his only miserable marriage—Lady Sylvia Ashley, who had married her title. She was the daughter of a footman, had been a London showgirl, and was the widow of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. In the first shock of wild grief after his wife Carole was killed in an airplane crash, Gable enlisted and went overseas. While he was away fighting he was, as…
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1960: The Story Behind The Man (Part 1)
The Story Behind the Man By Adela Rogers St. Johns The Orlando Sentinel, December 25, 1960 The King, Spencer Tracy called him. But as the years went by and his star continued to rise, Clark Gable earned a title that began in jest The king is dead. Long live the king, because this big guy is really worth remembering. The title started, or course, as a gag, bestowed on Clark Gable by a pal named Spencer Tracy. One morning when they were making a picture together, Tracy saw Gable drive up to the MGM studio gate through a populace of cheering girls, women, tourists, boys on their way to school,…
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Gossip Friday: No Marriage
From January 1955 (Louella Parsons): A rumor from several sources today had Clark Gable and Kay Williams Spreckels, ex-wife of multi-millionaire Adolph Spreckels, in an elopement. A telephone call to the Gable home in the San Fernando Valley brought the information that Gable was week-ending at the ranch home of a friend and that he and Mrs. Spreckels were expected home for dinner. When questioned about a marriage, the servant who answered the phone said: “As far as I know, there isn’t any marriage.” A few days before Christmas, Mrs. Spreckels stopped at my house and when I asked if she and “The King,” as the popular Gable is known,…
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Gossip Friday: Still No Queen
From November 1954: Rumor or No: The King hasn’t chosen his Queen! When Clark Gable made a fast trip to the hospital to pick up his old friend Kay Williams Spreckels who had suffered a slight accident, many people jumped to the conclusion that romance was in the air. Actually, Clark maintains friendship of longstanding with Kay, as with Virginia Grey, and if he ever talked of marriage to either, no one says so. Clark, who will be fifty-three on February 1, has confided to intimates that there is only the slimmest chance that he’ll ever wed again. Furthermore, he is not going to dispose of his ranch on Petit…
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Gossip Friday: Thanksgiving in the Desert
From December 1959: The Thanksgiving holiday and the Polo Matches at Eldorado attracted many visitors to the Palm Desert area. Clark Gable and Kay Spreckles had lunch on the terrace at Shadow Mountain Club while the children played tennis. Hugh O’Brien escorted pretty redheaded Doris Hurley to the Polo Fields. Also on hand for Thanksgiving were Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lanz. Mr. Lanz is the creator of Woody Woodpecker and his wife is Woody’s voice. They were guests at the Shadow Terrace in Palm Desert.
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Happy 100th Birthday, Judy Garland!
Judy Garland, born Frances Gumm on June 10, 1922, would have been 100 years old today! Although Judy and Clark Gable never co-starred together, they were both on the MGM roster and Judy’s big break into stardom was because of her singing her adulation for a certain Mr. Gable. At the beginning of 1937, 14-year-old Judy was contracted to MGM but they didn’t really know what to do with her. She was extremely talented, yes, but was too young to sing romantic songs. Judy was set to appear on the radio show “Ole Maestro,” a radio variety program run by Ben Bernie. The vintage torch song “You Made Me Love…
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Clark Gable in Tampa Part 5: Mrs. Gable is Nice
For the last segment of our series of interviews Clark Gable gave at the Tampa International Airport in February 1958, it appears that as the female reporters were hounding Clark asking him mundane questions, a male reporter managed to talk to Kay Gable. Mrs. Gable is Nice, Male Reporter Says by Leland Hawes, Tribune Staff Writer I had Mrs. Gable all to myself–for 10 nice minutes while her crinkle-browed husband was nearly “skwushed” by a squad of inquiring reporters, female variety. A cool, cool blonde with blue, blue eyes, Kay Gable didn’t twitter an eyelash at the spectacle of her chunk-of-man surrounded by palpitating pulchritude. “It’s really rather refreshing to…
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Clark Gable in Tampa Part 1: Virility and Charm–And His Voice is Husky Yet Soft
Since it’s Clark Gable’s birthday month, we will be featuring a series of small articles that were printed in the Tampa Tribune in February 1958. It was around his birthday that Clark Gable and wife Kay Spreckels arrived at the Tampa International Airport, en route to a cruise to the West Indies. Is any of this earth shattering information? No. But if you wanted to know what Clark thought of chemise dresses, if he ever unclogged sinks at home, if he thinks women should know how to cook, if he thinks Rhett ever came back to Scarlett, what his favorite cake is and if he likes to die in movies,…
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Gossip Friday: So Much for that Resolution
From January 1955: Clark Gable’s resolution for 1955–to stay single. But if Kay Spreckels wants to change his mind–she’s the only gal who can do it. ____ And that she did, becoming the fifth Mrs. Gable in July of that year.
