ON BOARDNOVEMBER 2017
The King of Hollywood is
35 in this photo, taken in
1936, the year he became
romantically involved with Carole
Lombard. The ravishing actress was
part of his crew for a sailboat race
to Catalina Island. Gable, who a
year earlier had starred as Captain
Alan Gaskell in the movie China
Seas, started the event badly – his
yacht had run aground and he was
swearing like the saltiest of sailors
while trying to make repairs when
Hollywood gossip columnist
Louella Parsons dropped by.
“Clark is nuts about motorboats,
and barely uses the sailboat,”
Lombard confided to Parsons,
“but [Hollywood director] Victor
Fleming has been boning him up on
sailing.” Gable gave the columnist
one of his famous crooked smiles
and said: “Sweetheart, we may
just surprise everybody!” He did,
making it into the lead before a
broken rudder meant he had to
forfeit. Gable’s affinity with boats –
his favored motorboat, 85ft Tar Baby,
later became available for charter
in the BVIs and the US – plus his
romance with Lombard inspired the
1992 comedy Captain Ron, in which
a family inherits a sailboat that once
belonged to the actor, complete
with Gable’s and Lombard ’s initials
inscribed on the bedpost. In real
life, the marriage ended tragically
in 1942 with Lombard ’s death, aged
33, in a plane crash.
Clark
Gable
IMAGE Getty Images/Silver
Screen Collection
EYE OPENER
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