Had the secret gotten out back in 1935, it would have irreparably damaged actress Loretta Young’s career. It likely would have ruined Clark Gable’s reputation as well. That secret? Loretta Young gave birth to a daughter, fathered by Gable, in secret, placed the baby in an orphanage, and then returned to adopt her. 

Loretta Young and Clark Gable gaze adoringly into each other’s in this still from the film 'The Call of the Wild' directed by William Wellman, 1935. (Photo by 20th Century Fox/Courtesy of Getty Images)

For years, neither Gable nor Young spoke of their brief encounter and the resulting child. Did the two Golden Age of Hollywood actors have a secret affair? Or was the child a product of date rape? Let’s find out in these colorized photos.

Co-Stars

In 1935, Clark Gable, who was 34 years old and married to Maria Langham, was cast as the lead in the Twentieth Century Pictures’ film, The Call of the Wild, starring opposite the 22-year-old Loretta Young. On screen, the two played a romantic couple, but off screen, they talked and flirted. For people working on the set of the movie, it looked as though Gable and Young may have been an item. Young, however, maintained that their relationship was strictly platonic. She said she would not have an affair with a married man, no matter how handsome, charming, and famous he was. It is also worth pointing out that young women in 1930s Hollywood often had “morality clauses” written into their contracts. Having affairs with married men and having children out of wedlock were grounds for canceling contracts. 

A Late-Night Train Ride

A colorized photo of the lovely Hollywood actress, Loretta Young (Getty Images)

Filming on The Call of the Wild took place in Washington State. When filming wrapped up, the cast boarded a train to California. Each person was given their own private berth for the overnight ride. According to the story, Loretta Young told later, toward the end of her life, Clark Gable slipped into her private berth on the train sometime that night. The term ‘date rape’ hadn’t been coined at this time. She was an elderly woman when she first heard the term. Her immediate reaction was, “That’s what happened between me and Clark.”

Does that mean their late-night encounter was not consensual? It could be that things simply got out of hand. It could be, as she seemed to hint at, that Young wanted to stop but Gable didn’t understand that ‘no means no’. After all, most men didn’t respect this in the 1930s. Or, it could have been a completely consensual encounter and Young felt guilty about it afterward. Either way, that wasn’t their biggest problem.

A Secret Child

Loretta Young and Clark Gable never had a Hollywood love story. Their relationship ended that night. Shortly after their encounter, Loretta Young discovered that she was pregnant with Clark Gable’s child. Both of them wanted to keep this information quiet for fear that it would tarnish their reputations and damage their careers. So, Young kept her pregnancy a secret. She stepped away from Hollywood and traveled to Europe, explaining that she was on a holiday. As she neared her due date, she quietly returned to California and gave birth to her daughter, Judith, on November 6, 1935, in Venice, California. Judith was placed with nuns at an orphanage and remained there for the first 19 months of her life while Loretta Young continued her Hollywood career.

In May of 1937, Loretta Young announced that she wanted to adopt a child. She went to the same orphanage and adopted Judith, her own child. Later, when Young married Tom Lewis, Judith was given his last name.