and Dillon moved to Los Angeles together to chase their acting dream. In December of 1924, they married. Clark Gable was twenty-three years old. Josephine Dillon was forty-one.
In his early Hollywood years, Gable mainly appeared as an extra in silent movies and worked his way into more prominent roles in live theater. During one of his tours with live theater, Gable began an affair with a wealthy actress named Pauline Frederick. Like Gable’s wife, Frederick was much older than he was–eighteen years older. Though his wife seemed willing to look the other way, Gable moved out of their home. This would be the beginning of the end for their marriage.
Gable continued to tour and struck up another affair with an older woman, Ria Langham, a wealthy widow who was seventeen years older than Gable. Langham felt Gable had what it takes to be famous and offered to support him in New York City with the stipulation that he marry her. One problem: Clark Gable’s current wife wasn’t ready to let go, and to prove her support and love for her husband, she made a bee line to the big city to track down roles. Using this to his advantage, the future King of Hollywood didn’t bother giving Josephine Dillon the final boot until he was situated.
Ria Langham was seventeen years older than Gable.
With Dillon out of the picture, Ria Langham moved to New York to be with her man. She kept her word by buying him expensive clothes and paying his bills to live in expensive apartments. Gable attempted to keep his end of the bargain, but Dillon stretched out the divorce for as long as possible … can’t really blame her.
With Dillon finally out of the picture, Gable and Langham claimed to have married on March 31, 1930. The legitimacy of their nuptials would eventually be scrutinized, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Though Gable was in a committed relationship—if not already married—that didn’t stop him from romancing his female costars.
Gable continued acting in live productions as he made his way back to California. It didn’t hurt to have sugar mama Ria Langham on his side. Once in California, a new talent agent was hired, and motion picture work finally began to drizzle in. His earliest work was as an extra or very minor roles. Nonetheless, he had his foot in the door, appearing in movies like The Painted Desert, The Easiest Way, The Finger Points, and Night Nurse (all filmed in 1931).
With his relentless grab for the golden ring, Gable convinced MGM he was a capable actor. MGM signed Gable to a year contract for $650 a week. If studio bosses decided they liked what they saw, his contract would be renewed with a pay increase at the end of the year. Little did anyone know he would out perform all expectations and grow into a movie star big enough to match his physique.
Critics began to take notice, commenting on his magnetic personality and solid acting ability. Work was picking up and parts were getting bigger. By the end of 1931 he would also act in Dance, Fools, Dance, The Secret Six, and A Free Soul among others. All the hard work, hard living, and occasional shady maneuver had paid off. Clark Gable got his first starring role in a motion picture. He landed the lead in Sporting Blood.
Around this time Gable’s second wife, Ria Langham, began voicing her displeasure with her “husband,” rising star Clark Gable. She was suspicious of his relationships with various women and rightfully so. It’s not like the man was single when she started dating him. She also began talking about how she and Gable weren’t actually married. The studio had no desire to be involved in the scandal, and Gable didn’t want to lose his studio contract. To make everyone happy, an appointment was made in a judge’s chamber where the two said/resaid their vows.
Gable went back to working on Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise and Possessed (both 1931). Ria went on as Mrs. Clark Gable. While shooting Possessed, Gable began a love affair with Joan Crawford. In Warren G. Harris’s biography of Clark Gable, he quotes Crawford as saying, “In the picture, Clark and I were madly in love. When the scenes ended, the emotion didn’t.” To add fuel to the fire of forbidden love, Gable and Crawford were both married. Again the studio feared scandal, and future projects with the two actors working together were axed. Filming for Possessed wrapped, and Gable kept on working without missing a beat, appearing in Hell Divers (1931) and Polly of the Circus (1932).
Not caring or having not learned his lesson, Gable began an affair with his Polly of the Circus costar, Marion Davies, who was also married. During the affair with Davies, Gable’s contract came up for renewal. Through contacts, Davies was able to raise Gable’s pay to $1,500 a week.
Gable continued to have many affairs that he attempted to keep secret. Billy Grad, an MGM executive, said of Gable, “He’d screw anything. A girl didn’t have to be pretty or even clean.” Gable spent 1933 working on The White Sister, Hold Your Man, Night Flight, and Dancing Lady. Dancing Lady would be the first time Gable and Crawford worked together since their adulterous relationship almost went public while filming Possessed. Dancing Lady was anything but a good time for Gable, who missed weeks of shooting due to illness and Crawford ending their liaison to take up with a different costar.
Always looking forward, Gable recovered and began work on It Happened One Night (1934). Initially Gable wanted nothing to do with the project, but it ultimately led to a big surprise and an even bigger boost to his career. From there, Gable went on to star in Men in White (1934) where he again romanced his costar. This time it was Elizabeth Allen, who was already well known in her homeland, Great Britain. And in case you were wondering—she was married.
Time rolled on and Gable moved to his next project, playing a thug named Blackie Gallagher in Manhattan Melodrama (1934). Catapulting Manhattan Melodrama from Hollywood blockbuster into the realm of pop culture was a man named John Dillinger: The man who went on bank robbing sprees and landed a slot on the most wanted list was a huge Clark Gable fan. He never missed one of Gable’s movies even if it meant he had to risk being captured. It turns out the risk was greater than Dillinger had imagined, and authorities gunned him down after he left a screening of Manhattan Melodrama.
Bank robber John Dillinger was a huge fan of Clark Gable.
In Clark Gable’s next movie, Chained, he would costar with Joan Crawford again. While filming, the two rekindled their affair except this time it was casual and purely physical. Chained was well received, and the studio placed them together again in Forsaking All Others. Gable moved on to work on Call of the Wild, where once again he struck up an affair with costar Loretta Young. Sure, he was still romancing Elizabeth Allen, just finished with Joan Crawford (again), and ignoring his second wife, the independently wealthy Ria Langham. But Clark Gable had fame now, and if he saw something he wanted, he went after it.
If he saw something he wanted, he went after it.
During all this work and bedding, Gable was notified he was nominated for an Academy Award. It was a best actor nomination for his role in It Happened One Night. Gable attended the Academy Awards and collected his statue. As a result of this win, his pay rose from $2,000 to $4,000 a week. Pay increase and award in hand, Gable went to work on Mutiny on the Bounty, where he argued nonstop with some actors and partied wildly with others.
After the premier of Mutiny on the Bounty, Gable moved out of the house he shared with Langham, who told reporters no other woman was involved. This was a half truth since multiple women were involved. Not wanting to lose half of what he had worked for, Clark Gable held off on getting divorced and instead opted to pay Langham a monthly fee for living expenses. Gable would go on making movies and sleeping with starlets. Ria would go on getting to enjoy the perks of being married to a movie star.
Clark Gable then received his second best actor Academy Award nomination—this time for Mutiny on the Bounty. Gable attended the ceremony, taking as his date Merle Oberon, who received a best actress
