that year. Neither did his date.
Around this time Gable began pursuing an actress named Carole Lombard. Initially Lombard had no interest in Gable outside of friendship. Her rejections to his advances made Gable crazy. Her penchant for practical jokes, like releasing two doves in his apartment as a peace offering after an argument, made him crazier. Once, as a payback gag, Gable gave her a live cougar cub when she asked him to bring her back a wildcat from one of his hunting trips. Their flirting and pursuit of the heart was a cat-and-mouse game usually reserved for the movies.
It was clear why Clark Gable lusted after Carole Lombard. She was a blonde firecracker with the ability to swear a serious blue streak. She took her acting very seriously and enjoyed sports. She was eight years younger than Gable and would eventually become his wife. It would be the third marriage for Gable and the second for Lombard.
“He’d screw anything. A girl didn’t have to be pretty or even clean.
In the meantime Gable found himself in such high demand he began working in Radio Theater. The work was easier than movies or stage acting, and he was able to up his pay again to $6,500. Gable had no intention of leaving the movies behind. This was simply a side business. And why not take the money if it’s easy?
Back at MGM studios Gable was teaming up with Joan Crawford yet again in Love on the Run. Crawford’s career was in a serious slump, and the studio saw appearing with Gable as the only way to pull her back out. Love on the Run would also costar Crawford’s real-life husband, Franchot Tone. Gable and Tone had previously worked together on Mutiny on the Bounty and got along well. It would be Tone and Crawford, the husband and wife, who would cause the tension. Tone was frustrated over being cast as a supporting actor to his wife … again.
She was a blonde firecracker with the ability to swear a serious blue streak.
Gable’s affair with Carole Lombard grew more serious. His other affairs soon dried up and died. Gable’s wife Ria, no longer happy being a wife in name only, began collecting what she needed for a divorce. The Gable/Lombard love connection had been receiving press attention, and Ria couldn’t take it any more.
If Clark Gable needed any more trouble it came in the form of a forty-seven-year-old Essex woman named Violet Norton. Norton had hired a private detective who showed up at the gates of MGM studios. The private dick also came with a story that Gable had impregnated Norton in 1922 while using the alias Frank Billings. As author David Brent points out in his book, Clark Gable, “Clark had not been issued with a passport until 1930,” and “[additionally] he had never been to England.” The case went to trial by jury, and Gable’s former lover, Franz Dorfler, testified Gable was living on her parents’ farm during 1922–1923, making it impossible for him to have fathered a child in another country. The jury found Gable innocent, and the accuser, Violet Norton, was deported. Perhaps Clark Gable coined the term “Eurotrash.”
Carole Lombard, Gable’s third wife, was the love of his life.
What no one knew was that Clark Gable did father a child outside of his marriage. His affair with actress Loretta Young produced a daughter, who Gable visited just once. With no father or husband in the picture, Loretta Young traveled to San Francisco and put the child up for adoption. Young would later adopt her own child, hiding the truth from everyone. When the child grew older and asked where her father was, Young told her he was dead.
Clark Gable was a man’s man.
The love triangle between Ria Gable, Clark Gable, and Carole Lombard was in full swing. Gable would have divorced Ria Gable earlier to make Lombard his wife but he detested the idea of losing money in a divorce settlement. Then, while Gone With the Wind was in preproduction, a tabloid ran an article on all three of them. MGM was once again stuck in the middle of a Clark Gable love affair, but this time religious groups were writing complaint letters in response to the article. Carole Lombard was a free agent in the studio system. Gable, on the other hand, was bound by his contract. He was given the option to divorce Ria Gable and marry Lombard or end his relationship with the young actress.
In the early part of 1939 the divorce between Ria and Clark Gable was finalized. He would pay half his current pension, and she would agree to not slow down the process—though the idea of causing her now ex-husband unnecessary complications pleased her. During a brief break in filming Gone With the Wind, Gable and Lombard eloped, telling no one until after the fact. The two were ecstatic. They truly seemed to be soul mates.
Even though the two loved each other deeply, Clark Gable would again be unfaithful. Lombard was aware Gable still carried on sexual relations with other women. She acknowledged she couldn’t stop him if she wanted to. So as long as his extramarital affairs were only physical, she allowed it.
In the midst of all the marriage drama, Gone With the Wind began preproduction in 1938. The Civil War period novel, written by Margaret Mitchell, was a smash hit and stayed on the best-seller lists for three-and-a-half years. The studios wanted Gable to play Rhett Butler. The fans wanted to see Gable play Rhett Butler. Gable had no interest in playing Rhett Butler. He almost passed on the movie entirely—the movie that continued to make him a movie star for generations after his death. What made Gable decide to act in Gone With the Wind was simple: money. He was given a bonus of $50,000 on top of his going contract rate.
During the early stages of filming, Gable was having a hard time on the set. He felt the character of Rhett Butler did not fit the mold of characters he was used to playing. Characters that made him famous. Clark Gable was a man’s man. Women pursued him. He didn’t pursue women. Clark Gable didn’t cry, but Rhett Butler did. Tensions were also high between Gable and director George Cukor. The studio intervened and removed Cukor from the job, replacing him with Wizard of Oz director Victor Fleming. Gossip began to circulate Gable was a homophobe and had the homosexual director fired. Later the gossip mutated into Clark Gable being a homosexual. After a brief regrouping, production on Gone With the Wind resumed. The tension eased, and Gable became more comfortable with his part.
Come Oscar time, Gable was nominated for best actor but would lose to Robert Donat for his role in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Hattie McDaniel who played Mammy was nominated and won best supporting actress. McDaniel was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award. Gone With the Wind would also take home best picture, beating out The Wizard of Oz. Victor Fleming, who was also a director on The Wizard of Oz, won best director. By the end of the night, Gone With the Wind won a record of eight awards.
Though Gable did not walk away with a second golden statue, Gone With the Wind broke all box office records. As a result Gable’s contract was renegotiated for an additional three years. His pay went up to $7,500 a week and would rise to $10,000 a week in the contract’s final year.
Gable was crushed.
Earning more than ever, Gable went on to star in Boom Town and Comrade X (both 1940). Both films would feature Hedy Lamarr as Gable’s love interest. Lamarr was a rising sexpot, and Carole Lombard was known to stop by the set to supervise shoots. Clark Gable had become so famous, and his pay so high, that he no longer needed to make movies back to back. In 1941 Gable appeared in only two films, They Met in Bombay and Honky Tonk.
The Gables had it all. They were famous, wealthy, and, for the most part, made their own work schedule. The couple had bought a small ranch and were enjoying the life of luxury. While not working, the biggest disturbance the husband and wife faced was the occasional fan who overstepped their boundaries. Then news arrived of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. would be entering World War II, and Lombard encouraged Gable to enlist. Gable, while patriotic in spirit, had no intention of leaving his plush lifestyle. While Clark did not volunteer to fight in the war, the
