Clark Gable and the Duke of Windsor

These two men who would be king, Clark Gable and Edward, the Duke of Windsor, met in Miguel Covarrubias's "Impossible Interview" early in their destinies, when they were still the princes of Hollywood and Wales, respectively, and the reigning heartthrobs of the Western world. Here they trade tips on the noblesse oblige of romance. Gable had spent the previous year starring opposite Shearer, Garbo, Crawford, and Harlow, and marrying his second wife, who was seventeen years his senior. Edward, of course, was still single—happily holding court at his Fort Belvedere bachelor pad— but was already under the singular sway of Mrs. Simpson. Then the two men's paths took their curiously opposite turns: Gable tragically lost his greatest love, his third wife, Carole Lombard, but would always be King of Hollywood; Edward got the girl, but lost the crown. This month, Philip Ziegler's King Edward VIII, written with unprecedented access to the royal archives, is published by Knopf.