News Clippings
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{In The News} Clark Gable Marries Kay Spreckels 1955-1960
We pick up from our last installment and head into 1955, the year Clark and Kay married. January 3, 1955: Clark Gable Denies Kay Spreckels Romance Hollywood–Actor Clark Gable today denied rumors circulating in Hollywood that he plans to marry Kay Williams Spreckels, former wife of sugar heir Adolph B. Spreckels II. “There is absolutely nothing to it,” Gable said. “Kay and I have been friends for 15 years and that’s all.” Mrs. Spreckels also denied the report. Same date: Filmland Waits Gable’s Return To Find Out Whether He Eloped Hollywood awaited Clark Gable’s return to work on his current picture “Soldier of Fortune” today to find out whether…
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{In the News} Kay Williams Divorces Adolph Spreckels, Dates Clark Gable Again 1951-1954
When we last left Kay, she was married to Adolph Spreckels Jr. and had just given birth to their second child. September 13, 1951: Fifth Wife Sues Spreckels Heir Los Angeles–The fifth wife of Adolph B. Spreckels II, 39-year-old heir to a sugar fortune, has sued him for divorce, alleging cruelty. The former Kay Williams, 33, who married Spreckels six years ago, asked the court in her suit yesterday to oust her estranged mate from the Bel Air mansion they occupy. She claims Spreckels persists in staying there although they became estranged September 5. Mrs. Spreckels, former actress, alleged in her complaint that her husband used physical violence on her…
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{In the News} Kay Williams Marries Adolph Spreckels 1945-1951
Picking up with where we left off, Kay and Clark Gable are broken up and so Kay has moved on.. September 7, 1945: Kay Williams Is Bride Hollywood–Blond actress Kay Williams, who last year was reported engaged to Clark Gable, today was honeymooning with sugar heir Adolph Spreckels, Jr., of San Francisco. Same date: Film actress Kay Williams and Adolph Spreckels, Jr., sugar fortune heir, were married last night at the home of a Wickenburg justice of the peace. Adolph Spreckels Jr. was the grandson of Claus Spreckels, founder of the Spreckels sugar company. Now that she married Adolph Jr., you thought that was the last we’d see of her…
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{In the News} Kay Williams Dates Clark Gable (For The First Time) 1944-1945
When we last left Kay, she’d been awarded a divorce from her second husband, Argentine millionaire Macoco. Before we get into 1944, I want to address some inconsistencies about when Clark Gable and Kay Williams first got together. In her book, “Clark Gable: A Personal Portrait,” Kay details the following: I turned down the initial invitation to meet [Clark]. It was in 1942, shortly after I arrived in Hollywood. I had a stock contract at MGM, the same studio where Gable was the reigning star. I was living in a small apartment in Westwood when one day I received a call from Benny Thau, an MGM executive and technically, one…
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{In the News} Kay Williams 1937-1943
Just as I did for Clark Gable’s fourth wife, Sylvia Ashley, I’ve rounded up newspaper blurbs about his fifth wife, Kay Williams. Kathleen “Kay” Williams was born on August 7, 1916 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Her father left the family when Kay was very young and so she, her brother Vincent and sister Elizabeth were raised solely by her mother, Joan, on a peach farm. Kay knew her good looks could get her more than Erie could offer, and so she took off for New York at age 17 to become a fashion model in New York. She was soon heralded as “The Most Beautiful Model in the World” and appeared…
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{In The News} The Later Years of Sylvia Ashley (1955-1977)
We’ve recently explored Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley’s Divorce Battle (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) and Clark and Sylvia in the two years following their divorce. What happened to Sylvia in the last two decades of her life? When we last left her, it was December 1954 and she had just married Georgian Prince Dmitri Djordjadze. News blurbs pop up less and less about her as the years go on, but here’s what I found. (Note: Some articles spell her husband’s name Dmitri and some Dimitri. I just type them as they are written.) September 22, 1955: (New York) Seen: Sylvia Ashley Fairbanks Gable Djordjadze (once and English…
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{In The News} Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley Post-Divorce, 1952-1954
(Here are Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this series) Soon after the divorce decree was handed down, Clark hit the high seas for Europe. May 7, 1952: Clark Gable Sails for Europe, Denies Romantic Thoughts New York–Clark Gable sailed for Europe Tuesday for six months of picture making. “I’m not thinking of any romantic attachment yet,” Gable said aboard the liner Liberte. “I’m still married.” The screen star explained that the divorce obtained by the former Lady Sylvia Ashley last month at Santa Monica, Cal., does not become final for a year. Here’s a piece that came out around this time about the girl everyone thought would…
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{In The News} Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley Agree to Divorce (1952)
Finally the end is near and as 1952 arrived, it looked like the divorce would finally be settled between Clark Gable and Wife #4. (Here are Part 1 and Part 2 of their divorce battle) February 7, 1952: Mrs. Clark Gable (Lady Sylvia Ashley) has been ambulanced to Doctors Hospital. I know Gable visited her in her ninth-floor suite. But they tell me that’s only a manifestation of a gentleman’s courtesy and that he plans to fly to Florida and Dolly O’Brien, though other friends expect him to return to, perhaps marry, Virginia Grey, in Hollywood. These are rumors with no substantiation that I could rivet down. February 15, 1952:…
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{In The News} Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley’s Divorce Battle Continues
Continuing the saga of Clark Gable’s divorce from his fourth wife, Sylvia Ashley as detailed in the newspapers… (Here’s Part 1) Sylvia returned from her self-imposed exile and Clark wanted this marriage to end, and quickly. From August 21, 1951: Gable on Vacation Glenbrook, Nev., Aug. 21—Movie Idol Clark Gable was in Nevada today on what he insists is a “vacation” despite rumors that he is seeking a “quickie” divorce from his wife, the former Lady Sylvia Ashley. Same date: Gable at Lake Tahoe; Divorce Plan Denied Reno, Nev., Aug. 20—Actor Clark Gable, the latest in the string of Hollywood celebrities to visit Lake Tahoe this summer arrived…
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{In the News} Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley’s Divorce Battle Begins
As I have been documenting on the site’s Facebook page, my office is a mess. I moved nearly two years ago. This move meant that finally I have an office of my own–a space that is completely mine, that I can make a classic film haven from one end to the other. But as is the case with most wives and mothers I imagine, everyone else’s spaces and the neutral spaces took precedent. And so here we are nearly two years later and my classic film haven still looks like a bomb went off. Going through piles and piles of items is aggravating, but it is also exciting. “Oh yeah!…