16. From the Silver Screen to the Eighth Air Force
After he got signed up by MGM, Clark Gable attracted attention for a powerful performance in his first starring role in The Painted Desert. He built upon that success, and when MGM paired him with established female stars such as Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo, the combination steamed the screen and he became an insta-star. When America entered WWII, Gable had established himself as the silver screen’s biggest star and its greatest box office draw, and MGM’s most lucrative earner. He gave that up and took a break from Hollywood to go fight the Axis.
After his wife died in an air crash on her way back home from a war bonds tour, a devastated Gable decided to enlist. Despite MGM’s reluctance to let its most profitable star go, Gable enlisted in the US Army Air Forces in 1942, with the hope of becoming an aerial gunner. He was sent instead to OCS, which he completed in October 1942 and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant. On personal orders from the USAAF’s chief, general Hap Arnold, Gable was sent to the Eighth Air Force in England, to make a combat recruitment film for aerial gunners titled Combat America.
