Clark Gable and Loretta Young's Daughter
'A LITTLE GIRL...WHO DIDN'T EXIST'
Clark Gable plus
Loretta Young equals
Judy Lewis
WHEN Judy Lewis used to watch Clark Gable movies with her teen-age friends, she had no clue that Gable might be her father. "It never would have dawned on me," she said. "Why would I ever think such a thing?"
Yet many in Hollywood were thinking just that. Even her best friends had heard the rumor from their parents, but no one dared tell her. Jack Haley Jr., a pal from high school days, said: "Our whole group knew who her parents were - and we knew she did not know. But we thought her mother would tell her."
Her mother - Loretta Young - hadn't.
Young herself was the other half of the rumor - that Judy, told all her life that she had been adopted by the actress, was really Young's child by Gable.
In her recently published autobiography, "Uncommon Knowledge," Lewis says Young and Gable met in 1935 on the set of "Call of the Wild" and had an affair during which she was conceived. Young, 81, declines to confirm or deny her daughter's account. "This rumor is a product of (a) bygone time. As I have in the past, I have chosen not to give it any further credence," Young said in a statement from her Palm Springs, Calif., home.
"Do you have any idea how sad it makes me that she still feels she must state that her daughter . . . is a rumor?" Lewis said in a recent interview.
In the 1930s, every star's contract had a morals clause. Gable was married to someone else; Young was single and Catholic. Any suspicion of an affair, let alone a child born out of wedlock, would have meant canceled contracts and careers. Lewis said her parents elected to deny that they had ever had a relationship or a child. Gable backed out of the situation, leaving Young to make the decisions.
She grew up thinking she was adopted "in the home of my real mother, " Lewis said. Whenever the child asked why her biological mother had given her up, or who her father she was, Young was evasive, Lewis said.
Lewis writes that her nanny asked Young how to handle the girl' s questions about her father. Young responded, according to the book: "You tell her that her father is dead. That's what he is . . . dead."
Lewis, now 58 with grandchildren of her own, said that even having her own family didn't erase the pain unwittingly inflicted by a mother so remote and relentless in her attempt to keep her child's heritage a secret.
"I was literally fatherless. It was as if I never had a father, " she said. "I always felt half a person, never whole. That's one reason I had to write the book, to claim both my parents." Lewis said she interviewed former nannies, priests, doctors, relatives, family friends, childhood pals and anyone else who participated in a life so painful that she had blacked out huge chunks of it. Through intensive psychotherapy in the last few years, she said, she has been able to retrieve early memories and establish enough self-confidence to "claim my parents."
Lewis said Young had not spoken to her since 1986, when the actress heard that her daughter might write a book.
Lewis' book asserts that Young gave birth to her on Nov. 6, 1935, in a hide-out. At about 6 months, Lewis said, she was shipped to a Catholic orphanage in San Francisco, where she was cared for until she was almost 2.
"There are no photos of my first two years," Lewis said, "because no one cared enough to take any."
Soon she surfaced as Young's adopted daughter - the one with huge, standout ears like Gable's and an overbite like Young's.
Her ears were kept covered so diligently by hair brushing and bonnets that Lewis said she soon came to think of herself as deformed, rushing to cover her ears when her nanny forgot.By age 7, the ears had been fixed in a surgery that removed reminders of her lineage, but left memories of searing pain. The teeth were corrected soon after.
She recalls being cloistered in small rooms with a nursemaid in a huge colonial house. She rarely saw her busy mother, she said, which eventually made her wonder why she had been adopted. Lewis said she grew up trying to please her mother. As the emotional distance between them continued to grow, Lewis tried even harder, although it often meant denying herself.
Lewis writes that she did not attend the University of Southern California as she wanted to because her mother preferred she go to finishing school in New York. She did not study acting there as she wanted to because her mother preferred her to learn secretarial skills.
She did not marry the man of her choice, Russell Hughes, because her mother did not approve of him.
In her teens, Lewis said, a combination of her appearance, her mother's behavior and the rumors led her to begin to suspect that Young was her biological mother.
She had no inkling who her father was until the eve of her own wedding, at 23, when her fiance told her about the Gable rumors that had circulated for years.
Lewis was astonished, but said she was so frightened of losing the tenuous bond with her mother that she couldn't confront her. On Lewis' 25th birthday, Gable suffered a heart attack. Ten days later, on the first birthday of Lewis' own daughter, Gable died. Lewis wrote that finally, at 31, she confronted Young, and Young confirmed that Gable was her father. The two talked for hours, the first and last such conversation they ever had, Lewis said. "People may wonder, what am I complaining about? I had all the physical things anyone could want. The glamorous homes, the clothes, the movie-star mother," Lewis said.
"But all that glamour was meaningless to a little girl who felt she didn't exist. I don't know how else to phrase it. I was alive, but I felt I didn't really exist. I was starved for attention, recognition, love."
&s=1024x768&o=Win32&c=32&j=true&v=1.2)
Poor little rich girl....
Reply to this
Being rich doesn't always equal being happy Ileana, what a horrid thing to say about such a sad story.
Reply to this
You misread the intent of my comment, Jessie; it was compassion for a child deprived of a mother's love. Yet, Loretta Young, in her own way probably did love her daughter because Judy Lewis was raised in her mother's home, not with foster parents.
Reply to this
I had heard these rumors about Clark Gable and Loretta Young. My mother was a fan of Loretta but I guess Loretta Young was held up by people as a . She made great films and was a Hollywood beauty. I think people in those days would of disliked Loretta and would of boycotted her Tv series.
What she did was wrong and the truth always comes forth.
Reply to this
Gable should have acknowledged his own daughter when she was old enough for her to talk to him. It is a shame that Young and Gable cared more for their careers than their own child. This is just another example of how sick Hollywood is.
Reply to this
Years ago God was replaced by studio heads and these "STARS" were ordered to be who the big bosses wanted them to be and nothing more, Judy Lewis was decieved from the start and abused emotionally and that is all. Loretta Young was a wonderful actress but a deeply flawed woman who sold her child out for fame and fortune. Judy Lewis is a survivor of the cruelest cover up.
Reply to this
This has nothing to do with Hollywood. It has to do with the times. No one would admit to having an affair or getting pregnant. Between religion and false morals of the time, they didn't have a choice if they wanted to make a living.
Reply to this
You are exactly right. Even the faintest inkling of truth about the subject if it were put forth would have been the ends of two very successful careers. If it happened now they would survive to write a book and more than likely keep right on working. In 1935 there was a depression. Both Clark and Loretta made money for lots of folks who would otherwise quite possibly be standing in soup lines. It was a depression and the fans needed their stars portraying a quality existence that they themselves might not have. Goodness knows that the code system enforced just one year earlier made any borderline behavior evil to those who governed the 'new Hollywood'. So give Mom a break. Nobodies perfect and as religious as mom was, don't you think she struggled enough? We all dust off our skeletons at least once in life and if we learned anything it's how to forgive. I just hope Ms.Young's Daughter was able to do it before mom passed. I bet she was a dear soul in many many ways.
Reply to this
She looks so much like Loretta Young, how could anyone question her lineage. She may not have Clark Gable's ears anymore, but she sure has his eyes.
Reply to this
It's a shame that this happened to her, I don't think it was a matter of hiding the facts in order to make a living. She was probably afraid to tell her for fear that she would repeat it and thus her mother would lose her way of living.
Reply to this
I have loved Loretta Young's movies especially The Bishop's Wife. Judy Lewis is beautiful in her own right. I am glad that Ms. Young didn't abort even though she wasn't able to be the mother Judy wanted.
Reply to this
As a movie fan I especially love the older films from the depression era. So many of these actors felt very fortunate to have jobs. They didn't make millions for a picture they made a few thousand if they were good at their craft and were fortunate enough to land a job. It wouldn't be hard to understand that if a child were conceived under these circumstances that a compromise of keeping it under wraps, each for the others sake would be in order. No a child is not a business decision, but if you have any idea how many impoverished children of the depression era became business decisions at the other extreme...the heart can bounce back easier than the stomach sometimes.
I have no idea what happened in Ms. Young's home, but I can tell you from my own experience that I finally understood my own mothers behavior, not by how she treated me growing up, but by how she was treated growing up. She was raised in an alcoholic home. There are things that can be resolved in my childhood past without a word being spoken just because I know this.
It's about knowing the whole story. If Loretta Young was adamant about keeping Judy's parentage out of the public eye she must have had a damn good reason. Sometimes you have to listen to mom even if your not sure why.
Reply to this
We all think people with money should be happy and those who do not have assume it makes a difference. Well it doesn't and some of the happiest homes are those with family. I mean a mother, father and yes the crazy siblings.
Reply to this
Yes, money,power,stature, doesn't not excuse a person from alienating their own child and lying to them. This poor girl went through hell being Loretta's daughter. I can't help but feel her pain and loneliness from all that she endured. So very sad, that she was never given the opportunity to get to know her biological father. I just purchased Judy's book within the last 3 years. It was a great read, with such a tragic undertone. She was treated a a "secret possession"...... not acceptable to treat a child like this no matter who the mother is. Kudos to Judy for writing her story. My prayers are with her that her internal scars heal @ sometime in her life. It has to still resonate with her forever, no matter what amends were made to her.
Reply to this
It is a blessing and a curse that our society has changed so much since Ms. Lewis was conceived. In 1935 there would have been such a stigma if the public found out that Loretta Young, a young unmarried actress, was having an affair with a married box office idol AND became pregnant! How very sad that Ms. Young (who I have always been a fan of) had to go through so much deception to have her baby in secret. Nowadays, this sort of thing wouldn't even cause a blip on the radar screen because society's morals have relaxed so much. It breaks my heart that neither Ms. Young OR Mr. Gable really acknowledged this beautiful baby girl in ways that parents should. What a tragedy for all concerned. I wonder if Ms. Lewis has any sort of relationship with her half brother, who was born shortly after Clark Gable died? It might help to know that she does have a blood relative she could have a relationship with. She is a stunning woman, just like her parents
Reply to this
I wish i could tell Judy I'm so sorry for her painful and uncertain childhood.
Somehow you think being in the midst of glamour and fame gives a child certain advantages. It must have been very confusing. I have always looked up to Loretta Young; she was the epitome of how i hoped to look like someday - I'd practice smiling like her so my cheeks would stand out.
Well, you just never know what goes by the wayside on the way to trying to get what you want; something has to give and so often it hurts a child.
Reply to this