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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: Memories of Clark Gable
From January 1961, (Sara Hamilton, Photoplay magazine’s gossip columnist): Hollywood without Clark Gable will never be the same. There never was and never will be anyone to take his place. With his passing an era is over, never to return. I can still see him standing on the porch of his Encino home, brown tweed jacket over his broad shoulders, looking more the hero of a romantic novel than he ever did on the screen. I remember the evening he said, with mock seriousness, “Now Sara, here’s $30. We’re going to The Dunes, outside Palm Springs, for a little gambling and I expect you to make us both a fortune,”…
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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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For Us, The King Will Never Die
Clark Gable died 62 years ago today at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles. A heart attack claimed The King of Hollywood at age 59. This pictorial layout appeared in Modern Screen magazine after his death: Clark Gable 1901-1960 For us the King will never die A poor boy…a nobody…with big ears and a magnetic charm, a he-man ruggedness…Clark lived his life, said little, and we loved him. lovers: In Clark’s life there were five wives and no scandals. But on the screen his amours were messy–and with the greats of filmland’s Golden Days. Shown in his arms are Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow and Vivien Leigh, the lovely…
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New Articles!
You’d think considering that Clark Gable has been dead for nearly 62 years that I would run out of material; that one day there would just be no articles left. That day is nowhere in the near future! There are five new articles in the Article Archive today, and I must admit that none of them are especially remarkable. So instead of devoting a post to each, here they are and they are quite diverse and span thirty years! 1933: Is the Future Threatening Gable? This article speculates whether Clark Gable’s fast ascension into super stardom will cause him to flicker out quickly. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t). Leslie Howard, himself,…
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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 3: Scarlett Never Got Rhett Butler Back
Continuing our series of articles from Clark Gable being interviewed at the Tampa International Airport in February 1958, here’s Part 3, in which he gives an answer to whether he thinks Rhett ever goes back to Scarlett, and he spoils the end of Run Silent Run Deep: Scarlett Never Got Rhett Butler Back By Panky Glamsch, Tribune Staff Writer Just as Rhett Butler never returned to Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, Clark Gable may never return to The Tribune Woman’s Department. But at least four women staff members will never be the same. The day it was announced The King would arrive at Tampa International Airport, the air was…
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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.
