Gable and Lombard: The Middle Ages

So everyone knows Carole Lombard and Clark Gable made No Man of Her Own in 1932 and then in 1936 at the Mayfair Ball it was love at first sight, blah blah blah. But what about in between?

June 7, 1933: Original Caption- The Marble Game Comes Into Favor, at Connie Talmadge’s Party. Santa Monica, Calif.: Left to right Carol Lombard [sic], Clark Gable and Constance Talmadge Netcher, playing the popular marble game during the recent party held in Mrs. Netcher’s Santa Monica home.

It’s nice to know the two were still chummy years before their courtship. Carole was still married to William Powell when this photo was taken though she would start divorce proceedings the following month. Lombard and Gable would criss-cross in the same circuit and would be at several functions together over the next few years including Lionel Barrymore’s 61st birthday in February 1934, parties thrown by the Countess di Frasso and one thrown by Lombard herself.

So what was it about that one white night?

Original Caption: 2/24/36: According to rows – starting from front…Miss Marion Davies; Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Carole Lombard and Prince Serge Obelensky; 2nd row–Douglas Fairbanks Sr.; 3rd row–Mrs. James Bodrero, of Santa Barbara; Mrs. Donald Ogden Stewart with arms about Clifton Webb; 4th row–Clark Gable, Miss Dorothy Fell of New York and Mrs. Joan Payson (sister of Jock Whitney); 5th row–Countess Di Frasso in robe, Susan Rosenberg and Donald Ogden Stewart; 6th row–Virginia Bruce, Delmar Daves and Jean Negulesco.

This photo is dated as 2/24/1936 but given that the Countess di Frasso is in the same nun attire she has on in previous photos from Jock Whitney’s high noon party (which you can see in the photo archives), it might be from that one on the 7th. Or it maybe she just really likes going nun!