laughing sinners

“He was a king wherever he went. He walked like one, he behaved like one, and he was the most masculine male I have ever met in my life.”

– Joan Crawford (on The David Frost Show, 1970)

Fandom-speaking, I want everyone to know that I ship these two legends. They are my OTP (one true pair).

Joan Crawford and Clark Gable were never married, yet they remain one of Hollywood’s most remembered couples. Theirs was a love affair that was brighter than the sun, hotter than fire, wild as a jungle animal, and on-again/off-again as a flickering light.

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Their first movie together was the 1931 picture Dance, Fools, Dance. Speaking about the first time she met Clark, Joan said, “It was like an electric current went through my body… my knees buckled… if he hadn’t held me by the shoulders, I’d have dropped.”

(What might have been…)

After Dance, Fools, Dance, they made seven more pictures— Laughing Sinners (1931), Possessed (1931), Dancing Lady (1933), Chained (1934), Forsaking All Others (1934), Love On The Run (1936) and Strange Cargo (1940)— all under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. For the whole duration of the Thriving Thirties, Crawford and Gable (as they are famously called) became the brightest stars of MGM… and the public were crazy for their intense chemistry.

Joan was once quoted that Clark was the love of her life. Even though they both had many affairs, marriages and divorces (just not with each other), they remained close until his death in 1960.

In a way, they were very similar— both were strong, independent actors who won’t let anyone dominate them. Maybe this was one of the reasons why marriage never became an option for them… which is a good thing, I think. In my opinion, it’s better that they had an affair that created friendship, than a marriage ruining one.