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{In The News} Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley Agree to Divorce (1952)
Finally the end is near and as 1952 arrived, it looked like the divorce would finally be settled between Clark Gable and Wife #4. (Here are Part 1 and Part 2 of their divorce battle) February 7, 1952: Mrs. Clark Gable (Lady Sylvia Ashley) has been ambulanced to Doctors Hospital. I know Gable visited her in her ninth-floor suite. But they tell me that’s only a manifestation of a gentleman’s courtesy and that he plans to fly to Florida and Dolly O’Brien, though other friends expect him to return to, perhaps marry, Virginia Grey, in Hollywood. These are rumors with no substantiation that I could rivet down. February 15, 1952:…
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{In The News} Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley’s Divorce Battle Continues
Continuing the saga of Clark Gable’s divorce from his fourth wife, Sylvia Ashley as detailed in the newspapers… (Here’s Part 1) Sylvia returned from her self-imposed exile and Clark wanted this marriage to end, and quickly. From August 21, 1951: Gable on Vacation Glenbrook, Nev., Aug. 21—Movie Idol Clark Gable was in Nevada today on what he insists is a “vacation” despite rumors that he is seeking a “quickie” divorce from his wife, the former Lady Sylvia Ashley. Same date: Gable at Lake Tahoe; Divorce Plan Denied Reno, Nev., Aug. 20—Actor Clark Gable, the latest in the string of Hollywood celebrities to visit Lake Tahoe this summer arrived…
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{In the News} Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley’s Divorce Battle Begins
As I have been documenting on the site’s Facebook page, my office is a mess. I moved nearly two years ago. This move meant that finally I have an office of my own–a space that is completely mine, that I can make a classic film haven from one end to the other. But as is the case with most wives and mothers I imagine, everyone else’s spaces and the neutral spaces took precedent. And so here we are nearly two years later and my classic film haven still looks like a bomb went off. Going through piles and piles of items is aggravating, but it is also exciting. “Oh yeah!…
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Gossip Friday: Present and In Style
From May 1950: For the first time in his life, glamour king Clark Gable attended a fashion show—and willingly yet. It was the big Adrian to- do which he has every year for the husbands of the gals he gowns and Mr. G. docilely escorted his bride to the shindig.
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Gossip Friday: Avoiding the Former Mrs.
From November 1953: The former Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Lady Ashley, etcetera, used the name Mrs. Clark Gable for her London social engagements and created no end of embarrassment for her ex-husband when he arrived in London en route to Hollywood and accepted party invitations. The “Mogambo” star had to send his regrets to several titled households when he cancelled out at the last minute because Sylvia Gable was to be among those present.
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Gossip Friday: No Brooding Lancelot
From September 1951: Clark Gable will be too busy to brood, even if he were inclined to, over the divorce from Sylvia. He’ll do his first costume picture since “Gone with the Wind,” called “King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,” in which he’ll portray Lancelot, and talk is that the King will also star in a series of rough and romantic adventure dramas this fall. ____ Well, that film didn’t come to fruition at all! And I think at 50 Clark was a bit old to be Lancelot anyway…
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{New Article} 1953: Gable Wants to Marry Again
This article is an interesting piece, since in the majority of interviews with Clark after the abrupt end of his marriage with Sylvia have him stating he will never marry again ever, that perhaps him and marriage weren’t compatible. There are some interesting quotes from Clark littered throughout: “That was unfortunate. The faults weren’t all on one side, you know. It might have lasted, I suppose. I don’t ever go into marriage thinking ahead to divorce.” (on the split from Sylvia) “Sure, I’ve been unhappy, too, at times. After marriage has failed, for example. But you can’t go on being miserable. Some people may say I’m crusty,but I take life…
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{Photos} 1951: Clark Gable Takes His Lady on Location
In 1951, Clark Gable and his new wife, Sylvia Ashley, headed into the Colorado wilderness to film Across the Wide Missouri. This pictorial was in LOOK magazine: Along with 325 actors and technicians, the Clark Gables lived and worked for six weeks in a little movie boom-town especially built in the Colorado Rockies for Across the Wide Missouri. As newlyweds, the Gables were given a secluded two-room log cabin. At first Mrs. Gable, the former Lady Sylvia Ashley, set out to do all the cooking–but finally settled for a lone coffee-maker. The Gables, like the rest of the crew, in a mammoth tent dining hall accomadating the entire…
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{Hollywood} Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Since there is no real “starting point” so to speak for my trip, and we visited five cemeteries, I figured best to start with one of them…. I like graveyards. My husband says that’s weird. I don’t think it is–and thankfully I brought a friend along to Los Angeles who feels the same way.There is something peaceful about visiting them, something about seeing that even though they are gone, people still have a small space on this planet. And, besides, this is the closest I will ever get to all the classic film stars! Hollywood Forever, originally titled Hollywood Memorial, was founded in 1899. It is typically the cemetery that people think of…
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Gossip Friday: Missing Sylvia
From September 1950: Clark Gable kept the trans-Atlanic phone purring with his constant calls to London where wife, Sylvia, was called on business regarding her holdings in Britain. Clark couldn’t accompany her since he was smack in the middle of a film, but he certainly made his presence felt via calls and cables. New this week: Film page for Across the Wide Missouri New article from Screen Album in the Article Archive New pictures in the gallery