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Gossip Friday: How “Apeeling”
From May 1951: Clark Gable forgetting his cares (which mostly concern the poor pictures they’ve been giving him) by taking his bride to Ciro’s to look at the lady with a “peel,” Lili St. Cyr. ___ Lili, for those who don’t know, was a famous striptease artist. Yowza.
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{New Article} 1950: The King Takes a Lady
After Clark Gable suddenly up and married his fourth wife, Sylvia Ashley, there were a lot of articles praising the union (naturally, are they really going to say otherwise) and this here is one of those: They came back to his Encino Ranch on December 21st, the morning after their wedding, Clark Gable and Sylvia Hawkes Ashley Fairbanks Stanley, who has just become Clark’s fourth wife. And as they fled through the ranch gates, surrounded by knots of curious fans, Clark called out merrily, “I have never been happier.” Then, the big white ranch gate swung shut and a couple of burly, grinning cops from the Metro Studios mounted guard…
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Gossip Friday: Sylvia and Louella Go Visiting
From August 1950, Louella Parsons: I went with Sylvia Gable to the MGM lot the very first time she lunched with Clark at the studio–and I’ve never enjoyed a round of the sets more. Sylvia picked me up at my house and was all a-flutter and afraid we would be late. “I’ve been to the studio only once, at night,” she told me, “but I’ve never had lunch with Clark when he is making a picture. I don’t want to be the kind of wife who hangs around when her husband is working.” Clark was waiting for us in the commissary and every eye in the place was on those…
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{New Article} 1950: Love Walked In
Here is another article Modern Screen magazine ran just a few months after the article I posted yesterday. This one goes into more (fluffy fluffy fluffy) detail about Clark and Sylvia’s “great romance.” For the actor he is, Clark Gable put on a bad performance these past few years. Loneliness stood out on him like a neon sign. The evenings he spent at his Encino ranch home, he’d wander from room to room, pick up a book and drop it, pick up a phone and decide not to call, sink into a chair and stare at nothing. The nights he went out the newshounds followed him to parties and theaters…
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{New Article} 1950: Fit For a King
This article was published in March 1950, one in a sea of articles heralding Clark Gable’s fourth marriage to Sylvia Ashley. They sat opposite me at Amelio’s, one of those restaurants in San Francisco where the steaks are tender and titanic. I tried not to stare. Clark and Sylvia Gable had been married only 48 hours. In another two, they would head for pier 32, and board the S.S. Lurline for Honolulu and their honeymoon. As I say, I tried not to stare. But after all, I’m a woman with a woman’s curiosity, and I couldn’t help myself. There, sitting opposite me was Clark Gable, the King, the most celebrated…
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Gossip Friday: Happy New Year in Hawaii
From June 1950: December 31, 1949 was our last vacation day in Hawaii, and some friends and I decided to make it one we’d never forget. At 1:00am, after seeing the New Year in, we took one last spin along Waikiki Beach, hoping to meet some celebrities we could talk about back home. Suddenly a sparkling 1950 car drive up alongside ours, and a handsome person stretched out his head and yelled, “Happy New Year!” Surprised as we were, we quickly answered, “Happy New Year Clark Gable…Happy New Year, Mrs. Gable!” Winifred Chinem Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Gossip Friday: Secret Elopement
From March 1950, Louella Parsons: I can tell my readers that the lovely blonde Lady Sylvia Ashley Fairbanks Stanley had no idea that she was going to marry “King” Clark Gable 48 hours before she did on Tuesday, December 20. The previous Saturday she and Clark had lunched with Minna Wallis, who’d re-introduced them at a dinner months ago. That night they had dinner with Charles Feldman and agreed to dine with him again Tuesday. Tuesday morning, the telephone rang and Sylvia said to Charlie, “Something has happened. We cannot have dinner with you, but you’ll hear from us later.” That “something” was her elopement with Gable! Charlie didn’t know…
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{In The News} The Later Years of Sylvia Ashley (1955-1977)
We’ve recently explored Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley’s Divorce Battle (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) and Clark and Sylvia in the two years following their divorce. What happened to Sylvia in the last two decades of her life? When we last left her, it was December 1954 and she had just married Georgian Prince Dmitri Djordjadze. News blurbs pop up less and less about her as the years go on, but here’s what I found. (Note: Some articles spell her husband’s name Dmitri and some Dimitri. I just type them as they are written.) September 22, 1955: (New York) Seen: Sylvia Ashley Fairbanks Gable Djordjadze (once and English…
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Gossip Friday: Fashionably Interested
From April 1950: The invitations to Adrian’s spring fashion show read, “So many men have asked me, ‘Why can’t we come to your fashion show and see what our wives are buying?’–that he invited the gents. Even so, seeing Clark Gable sitting beside his bride, Sylvia, who carefully marked all of Adrian’s best numbers down, was something I thought I’d never live to witness! Yes, there was king Gable, looking as interested as all get-out–and seeing him was worth paying admission for. At first I thought Clark was blushing, but it was only a deep sunburn!
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{In The News} Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley Post-Divorce, 1952-1954
(Here are Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this series) Soon after the divorce decree was handed down, Clark hit the high seas for Europe. May 7, 1952: Clark Gable Sails for Europe, Denies Romantic Thoughts New York–Clark Gable sailed for Europe Tuesday for six months of picture making. “I’m not thinking of any romantic attachment yet,” Gable said aboard the liner Liberte. “I’m still married.” The screen star explained that the divorce obtained by the former Lady Sylvia Ashley last month at Santa Monica, Cal., does not become final for a year. Here’s a piece that came out around this time about the girl everyone thought would…
