ARTS/ARTIFACTS; To Collectors, Gable Is Still a Star
By RITA REIF
Published: May 29, 1994 on New York Times

WILL CLARK GABLE'S white silk bathrobe attract the same feverish auction bidding as Judy Garland's red shoes from "The Wizard of Oz," Vivien Leigh's Oscar for "Gone With the Wind" or Elvis Presley's acoustic guitar?

King of Hollywood for 30 years, Gable continues to be an all-time favorite among collectors of movie memorabilia. To date, however, it has been slim pickings in the market for the star's artifacts. Those mementos that have surfaced usually bring less than $5,000. Only his leather-bound script from "Gone With the Wind" has brought more at auction: $77,000.

Now, 34 years after Gable's death at age 59 in 1960, much of what remains of his private possessions -- golf clubs, fishing gear, camping equipment, a picnic basket -- is being sold at Christie's East in Manhattan on Thursday. Identified in the catalogue as "property from the estate of Clark Gable," the pieces are being sold by John Clark Gable, who was born four months after his father's death. The actor's widow, Kay Spreckels Gable, died in 1983.

With the exception of autographed publicity photographs and several film scripts, the sale's 85 items are Gable's own stuff. Christie's expects that they will fetch a mere $67,700, less than the Gable record and well below the prices paid in recent years for such star-related memorabilia as Charlie Chaplin's hat and cane ($151,800), Garland's ruby slippers ($165,000), Presley's guitar ($151,700), Leigh's Academy Award ($563,500) and John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce ($2.3 million).

Why is Gable's son selling this legacy now?

"After the Los Angeles earthquake," says Nancy Cerbone, a collectibles specialist at Christie's, "the family realized that Gable's possessions would be safer away from Los Angeles. Rather than risk losing everything, they decided it would be better to sell."

While collectors usually prefer anything connected with a particular motion picture, some people have also paid handsomely for the personal trappings of those widely regarded as the Who's Who of Hollywood.

"Most stars never owned the items they wore in the movies," says Mark Wanamaker, a Los Angeles specialist in film memorabilia. "And they never took anything home unless they really liked the piece." Some of the highest prices paid in this field were for objects owned or used on camera by cult figures like James Dean, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo, in addition to Garland and Lennon.

"Men have most of the money," Mr. Wanamaker says, "and they're the ones who buy the art and collectibles."

In the last few years, it has been men who have acquired some of the costliest examples of Gable memorabilia.

"My wife is a great fan of 'Gone With the Wind,' " says Dick Purtan, the host of a Detroit radio morning show, who bought Gable's copy of the script of the 1939 classic at Sotheby's in New York in 1988. It is now on display at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

THE SECOND-MOST EXPENSIVE Gable object right now is probably the gray wool coat the actor wore as Rhett Butler toward the end of "Gone With the Wind." It was acquired in 1991 by Keith Hutson of Farmington, Mo., who owns a chain of Taco Bells. He bought it at the gift shop for collectibles of Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

"We bought it while on vacation in Hollywood," Mr. Hutson says. "My wife, Karen, is more of a collector than I am. When she saw the coat hanging in a Plexiglas case 20 feet up on a wall, she was very excited. And I realized that would be a neat collectible."

Undeterred by a big "Not for Sale" sign on the jacket, Mr. Hutson insisted that the shop get in touch with a Universal executive. "I don't usually take no for an answer," he says. Three hours and many phone calls later, the Hutsons owned the coat. While they will not say what they paid, the price is believed to have been between $10,000 and $15,000.

"It was more than I wanted to pay," Mr. Hutson says. "But it's worth five figures easily."

While nothing in Christie's auction approaches that price level, most items confirm the actor's he-man and rugged sportsman image. The monogrammed pieces of camping equipment, a shotgun case, a fishing-rod bag and some worn leather luggage are expected to bring, at most, $4,000 each. His gaming case, stamped with his initials and containing poker chips, playing cards, dice and a miniature roulette wheel, has an estimate of up to $1,500.

The most personal piece from Gable's wardrobe is the raw silk dressing gown, calf-length with a shawl collar and a black monogram. Carole Lombard gave him such a robe for the first Christmas after their marriage in 1939. Following her death in an airplane crash two years later, Gable had it copied over and over again. The version from the 1940's that is on the block could bring as much as $8,000.

While the sale represents the bulk of the Gable memorabilia owned by his son, Ms. Cerbone says he is not selling everything. He is keeping the Academy Award his father won for his portrayal of a brash newspaper reporter in Frank Capra's 1934 comedy "It Happened One Night."