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{In The News} Newly Widowed Kay Williams 1961-1963
We last left Clark Gable and Kay Williams Gable in late 1960. Clark died on November 16, 1960, and I am skipping over all the coverage of his illness and death as I have covered that before and it would get redundant–the subject at hand is Kay. You can read about Clark’s death and funeral here. So let’s pick up in January 1961, when Kay is newly widowed and an expectant mother. January 15, 1961: Gable’s Widow Gets Allowance Los Angeles–Clark Gable’s widow has a $5,000 monthly allowance from the actor’s estate to meet family expenses. The petition of former actress Kay Williams for this sum was approved in Superior…
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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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Gossip Friday: New Gal on His Arm
From January 1955 (Louella Parsons): When Clark Gable allows his picture to be taken again and again with the same girl at social events, it begins to look serious. Well, the King has been photographed many times lately with Kay Williams Spreckels, beautiful blonde ex-wife of sugar millionaire Adolph Spreckels. Kay was terribly in love with Clark before she married Spreckels and apparently he was in love with her. They went together for a long time but then, without a word, Gable walked out of her life. I’d be the last to prophesy that he will marry Kay now. But there’s no telling with Clark, though I do know he…
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{New Article} The King and I
This new article was syndicated in The America Weekly, which was a Parade-magazine-like insert in newspapers. I actually was very surprised to find this printed in 1957. Clark had a very arms-length relationship with the press. He was usually cooperative but he never let them get TOO close. When they bought the ranch in 1939, Clark and then-wife Carole Lombard immediately instituted an ironclad rule that no pictures were to be taken inside. With the exception of this interview, which I absolutely adore and is as close as we’ll ever get to Clark being on Johnny Carson or the like, Clark’s answers about his personal life were usually guarded. Knowing…
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Gossip Friday: A Change of Heart
From May 1955: We can be wrong, of course, but we also doubt that Clark Gable and Kay Williams Speckels will ever say “I do” to each other. Same magazine, September 1955: Clark Gable’s elopement with blonde and beautiful Kay Spreckels came as no surprise to me. Clark likes to laugh, and Kay is full of fun. This is the marriage Clark needed to forget his last mistake with Lady Sylvia. It was only shortly before they took the plunge in the wedding pool that the King was asked when it would happen. He put off with: “Kay and I might do it just to kill your favorite question.” But…
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Dearest Marilyn
Here is a letter that Clark Gable’s widow Kay Williams Gable wrote to Marilyn Monroe on April 11, 1961: Dearest Marilyn, How about our little ‘carbon copy lover boy’–I am certain you have seen his press pictures. Just exactly like Clark. The ears are too close to his dear little head–I’ll fix that dept. later. Do let me know when you plan to return to California–I’ll let you be second nanny in charge. Later you may take him fishing. Guess I will be the one to teach him to shoot ducks. My work is really cut out for me. I feel certain his dearest father is watching his every…