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Gossip Friday: A Strange Quartet
From November 1938: Carole Lombard-William Powell-Clark Gable-Rhea Gable–how do the members of this quartet regard and treat each other in the narrow confines of Hollywood? Lombard and Powell are perhaps greater friends now than when they were husband and wife. When they first started making “My Man Godfrey,” their dressing rooms were at opposite sides of the set. Halfway through the picture they were halfway nearer each other. By the time “My Man Godfrey” was in a “canned” condition, their two rooms were side by side! And the ex-Mr. and Mrs. dined together at least five times a week, and it looked as though Bill had nosed out Mr. Gable…
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Gossip Friday: Difference of Temperament
From June 1936: The possibility of a divorce between Clark Gable and his estranged wife is reported. He has brought a suit against her, demanding that she abide by a property agreement made when they separated in November. Rhea Gable is Clark Gable’s second wife. They met first in New York when he was a struggling young leading man and she was a widow, Mrs. Langham. Tall, slim and dark, Mrs. Gable is several years older than her husband (now 34) and is known as one of Hollywood’s most gracious hostesses. Their separation has up to now been amicable, with both avoiding publicity. No scandal attaches to the separation. Difference…
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Gossip Friday: A Brief Divorcee?
From March 1939: Mrs. Clark Gable, who is in Las Vegas awaiting her divorce, may marry as soon as her former husband does. Hal Strotz, the former Mrs. Jay Gould’s widower, flew to Las Vegas to spend the weekend as Mrs. Gable’s guest. He telephones to her every day and, according to her close friends, is devoted to Ria. Her divorce will become final on March 6 and, while there is no official word that she will become Mrs. Strotz, things look serious between her and her admirer.
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Gossip Friday: Reconciliation?
From November 1935: Hollywood–Reconciliation of Clark Gable, romantic film hero, and his second wife hinged today upon developments after the actor returns here in two weeks. “I think it is entirely possible they may patch up their differences,” said Ivon D. Parker, Gable’s business representative, who with his brother, Claude, handles all the couple’s legal affairs. Mr. Parker admitted Gable would go to a hotel here, not to his Hollywood home, where Mrs. Gable will remain. Romantic speculation stirred in New York by Gable’s appearance at a hockey game with Miss Mary Taylor, Park Avenue society girl and fashion model. “They’ve done that before,” Mr. Parker recalled, adding that Mrs.…
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Gossip Friday: Interested Observers
From September 1936: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard decided to patch up their quarrel for the sake of the joint box they owned for last week’s Pacific southwest tennis tournament. Another interested observer at the matches was Mrs. Rhea Gable, who spent most of the time looking sadly at the husband from whom she is separated and his blonde companion.
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85 Years Ago, Clark Gable is Set Free
On March 8 1939, Clark Gable’s second wife, Maria “Ria” Franklin Gable, and her atrocious hat, obtained a divorce in Reno, Nevada. Clark and Ria’s marriage had been “in name only” for years. Clark had left the family home to live at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in the fall of 1935 and famously began a romance with Carole Lombard the following year. Ria had been confident Clark would not divorce her, stating to reporters that Clark had never mentioned divorce. As the years wore on and the romance between Clark and Carole blossomed, the press began to loudly criticize Ria for clinging on and not allowing Carole to become Mrs.…
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Gossip Friday: A Hollywood Myth
From December 1931: For a while, Mrs. Clark Gable was sort of a Hollywood myth. Nobody had seen her, nobody knew her. But evidently this attractive lady has decided to step into the light and is now frequently seen at the Brown Derby or the Embassy Club. Still, none of the magazines can get a picture of her for publication. Clark absolutely refuses; he says it’s not fair to her to mix her up in publicity stories. If you didn’t already know that there’s a Mrs. In the Gable family we’re sorry we disillusioned you. He certainly has what it takes to set the girls’ hearts aflutter from Podunk to…
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Gossip Friday: Patched Up Their Quarrel
From October 1936: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard decided to patch up their quarrel for the sake of the joint box they owned for last week’s Pacific southwest tennis tournament. Another interested observer at the matches was Mrs. Rhea Gable, who spent most of the time looking sadly at the husband from whom she is separated, and his blonde companion.
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Gossip Friday: Awaiting Divorce
From January 1939: Reno, Nevada–Knitting needles, walking shoes and a pile of books amused Mrs. Maria Gable today as she awaited the time six weeks hence when she can divorce film star Clark Gable on the mildest grounds possible in Nevada–extreme mental cruelty. The amiable society woman; who came here Saturday and leased the seven-room home of her bachelor attorney, Frank J. McNamee Jr., said, “I am perfectly contented. I plan to live quietly, doing a lot of reading I’ve wanted to do for a long time, knit, take some walks and make a few trips around.” Gable, Hollywood friends say, will wed Comedienne Carole Lombard as soon as he…
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Gossip Friday: Just Give Up
From June 1951 (Sheilah Graham): No one, not even the columnists who were constantly linking Clark Gable with this girl and that grandmother, really expected him to try marriage again. I knew wife number one, Josephine Dillon, when I first came to Hollywood. It was Jo who nurtured the acting ambitions of young Clark. When talking to me about him, she was kind of detached, like an aunt discussing a favorite but far-away nephew. I was in New York when Clark’s second wife Rhea announced the separation. So was Clark, who sprinted all over Manhattan dodging reporters. The tragic death of wife number three, Carole Lombard, seemed to write “End”…
