In its Golden Age, Hollywood used to specialize in what were jokingly called “three-hanky” pictures, tearjerkers so romantic and tragic audiences needed multiple handkerchiefs to dry their misty eyes. But even those films lack the drama of the true story of that era’s much-ballyhooed “King of Hollywood,” Clark Gable, and his equally famous Queen, Carole Lombard.
When they met while filming No Man of Her Own in 1932, it wasn’t exactly hearts and flowers at first sight. Notorious prankster Lombard–a vivacious, platinum-blonde 24-year-old known as “Hollywood’s Madcap Playgirl Number One”–gave her co-star a ham with his picture on it at the end of filming. Gable–31, rugged, charming and well on his way to becoming the top box office attraction in the world–reciprocated by gifting her with a pair of overstuffed ballet slippers, as he found her a pampered prima donna.
But the couple warmed up to each other a few years later and soon began a discreet affair–discreet because the parsimonious Gable was married to a much-older woman and was very worried about shelling out for a hefty divorce settlement. But even after the tabloids exposed the couple to the public, their popularity skyrocketed. For a massive paycheck–and only for the paycheck–Gable accepted the role that would finally allow him to untie the knot: playing Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind. Soon Gable, who gave up his womanizing ways, and Lombard, who put her zany antics aside, were happily ensconced in a San Fernando Valley home dubbed the House of Two Gables.
But there would be no Hollywood happy ending. In 1942, the fervently patriotic Lombard was flying home from a war bond rally in her home state of Indiana (in which she sold a still-unequaled $1 million in bonds) when her plane crashed into a mountain outside of Las Vegas. All aboard were killed instantly–making her technically the first female killed in action in World War II. The only remains found in the rubble were ruby and diamond pendants her husband had given her that Christmas.
Inconsolable, Gable–overage and previously indifferent to wartime politics–joined the Army Air Corps. As a heroic pilot he showed a marked disregard for his own safety, earning the rank of major and winning the Distinguished Flying Cross. He wore her melted rings alongside his dog tags in mission after mission over Nazi Germany, and for the rest of his life.
As if Gone With the Wind didn’t leave his fans weepy enough …although he would subsequently return to Hollywood and remarry (twice, to Lombard-esque blondes), Gable never recovered from the loss of his love, keeping her room exactly as she left it. Finally, the King and Queen were reunited in 1960 when his last wife, in a generous move, laid him to rest alongside the real love of his life in the Forest Lawn cemetery–a fitting coda to the epic Gable/Lombard love story.
