Young, who had begun her acting career as a four-year-old child, was one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars when she met Gable in 1935.
The nine-week shoot for Call of the Wild took place near Mount Baker, on a stretch of wild countryside three hours drive from Seattle.
According to Lewis, Young was prone to ‘falling a little bit in love’ with her co-stars and spent much of the shoot flirting with Gable who, in return, called her ‘my girl’.
But flirtatious though Young might have been, she was a strict Catholic who had been badly hurt a few years earlier after eloping with and then divorcing her first husband Grant Withers.
She also enjoyed a lengthy – if unconsummated – affair with Spencer Tracey, a fellow Catholic who, although separated from his wife, was unable to divorce.