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 nomination for The Dark Angel. Gable did not win an Oscar 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.
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