“I’ll never forget lunching at a popular restaurant with Ria [Langham]. A writer rushed up to the table and gushed, ‘I just saw you in Possessed. Joan, you were wonderful, inspired, the way you look at Clark [Gable], anyone can tell you’re crazy about him.’ I blanched, turned quickly to the writer and said, “May I present my good friend, Mrs. Clark Gable?”
Joan Crawford, The Films of Clark Gable
Joan Crawford, The Films of Clark Gable
Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in "Possessed"
Joan Crawford had good reason to be embarrassed. The writer had guessed correctly. Crawford later confessed to biographers that she was indeed having a torrid affair with Gable during the filming of Possessed. Said Crawford, “[W]e had a scene in which he came up behind me and undid a string of pearls I was wearing. The string of pearls dropped to the floor. Fade to black and use your imagination.”
The Mrs. Clark Gable to whom Joan Crawford referred was the second Mrs. Gable, a.k.a. Ria Langham, a wealthy Texas socialite. She was nearly two decades older than her husband. It was her guidance (aided by the MGM glamour machine) that transformed Gable from a roughhewn young man into a major movie star. Consider the photographs below. To the right is Clark Gable in 1925. To the left shows him in the early 1930s, still sans the mustache that became his trademark but clearly on his way to becoming a top box office star.
The Mrs. Clark Gable to whom Joan Crawford referred was the second Mrs. Gable, a.k.a. Ria Langham, a wealthy Texas socialite. She was nearly two decades older than her husband. It was her guidance (aided by the MGM glamour machine) that transformed Gable from a roughhewn young man into a major movie star. Consider the photographs below. To the right is Clark Gable in 1925. To the left shows him in the early 1930s, still sans the mustache that became his trademark but clearly on his way to becoming a top box office star.
 Clark Gable, Early 1930s |  Clark Gable, 1925 |
Crawford later acknowledged that the sexual attraction she and Gable shared was too hot not to cool down. They considered marriage but wisely decided against it—as devoted as she was to Gable, the love of Crawford’s life would always be not a real person but an image of one--her own, Joan Crawford the movie star. Clark Gable remained married to Ria Langham until 1939, by which time he was besotted with Carole Lombard. She became the third Mrs. Gable later that year. It was one of Hollywood's great love matches, but she died tragically in a 1942 airplane crash.
Image Credit: The Films of Clark Gable
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