R.I.P.

On August 26, 2012 we lost our longtime club member, Elsa Glass, at age 89.

Elsa – a Judge by profession – and I had a long history together as researchers. Over the years we met up every so often  in LA, New York or DC to compare notes and trade information. Occasionally we swapped sources for new people to interview. Elsa cared deeply about Nelson Eddy’s personal story particularly the early, formative years of his life, and planned to write a book about his early years.  She wasn’t so interested in the Jeanette MacDonald influence on him – a point that we differed on. I would argue to her that Nelson’s career choices – and even remaining in Hollywood – were very much based on the status of what was happening with Jeanette.  However, Elsa remained firm on focusing on Nelson only so we agreed to disagree. But happily for us, she willingly shared any information that concerned Jeanette.

For example, she turned over to me the baptismal records that proved Jeanette was born in 1903 (I already knew that but had spent a day searching unsuccessfully for any evidence of a birth certificate in Philadelphia for her.) Elsa also tipped me off that the doorman to the Lenox Apartments (where Nelson had for many years a studio in the apartment of his mentor Gertrude Evans) was willing to talk and verified that Jeanette used to stay there with Nelson as their Philadelphia hideaway in the later 1950s. I was able to interview him and verify what he had told Elsa. More shared information:  Elsa informed me that she had been able to verify with her own sources the fact that Jeanette arranged for both her/Gene and Nelson/Ann to get joint divorces in the late ’50s, they did in fact do this in New York City and Nelson at the 11th hour pulled out of the deal because of Ann Eddy’s insistence to drain him financially.  Elsa also told me that she interviewed several people in connection to Nelson’s Las Vegas wedding and in particular family members of the Judge who married Nelson and Ann. She reported to me that the Judge had a bad reputation for marrying intoxicated couples and had some ethics issues over the years.  We discussed the fact that the man was probably well-paid to perform the ceremony, considering that it even hit the newspapers that Nelson was so out of it he started down the aisle with Doris Kenyon at his side!

Whenever we got together we each had a list of questions for each other.  I don’t think she ever made a big public announcement when she verified pieces to me of the Jeanette-Nelson story.  But we were friends and I wanted our readers to understand how helpful she was. Being a Judge certainly helped open some research doors that were otherwise unavailable to me or others. We all benefited from her research.

Darryl Winston, who heads up our Washington, D.C. events, was good friends with Elsa. He writes:

OMG, I am so sorry to hear the news. I called her 3 weeks ago, she seemed okay….She was a Grand Ol’ Gal, becoming more like May Robson as the years went on. I will really miss her.

I have many fond memories of Elsa. One year we gave a masked opera gala and Elsa came dressed as a gypsy. Another time Elsa came to visit me at a job. The security guard told Elsa that she could not park her car in front of the building to which Elsa replied as she got out of her car, “You just go in and tell Mr. Winston that Judge Glass is here!” Her car stayed parked in front of that building. I always called her, “JUDGIE”.  Even in Elsa’s advanced years, she was an excellent driver. Many people don’t know that she was a Civil Rights crusader especially when it came to employment. One day for lunch Elsa served me and Marjorie Hadlock Nelson’s favorite meal: Yankee Pot Roast and freshly baked biscuits with honey.

Elsa also had me over to her lovely home after the Washington, D.C. club meetings for delicious home-cooked meals, and I met her family. She and her daughter Jennie joined us on both of the Mac/Eddy cruises. Elsa loved spending time with my husband Jake and my daughter Juliet and always had a warm hug for me. And she was a vital member on our Yahoo group. Bern, our moderator on that group, wrote:

elsa dik glass became a member of the group in febuary of 2004.. she was a very feisty lady with a kind side and one of nelson eddy’s biggest advocates

the first time i met elsa in person was at the lecture by joanne woodward in nyc may of 2008 i believe i found her- and introduced myself..she handed me some pencils with nelson and jeanette printed on them..i still have them..she was lovely to look at and sharp as a tack- but ever elsa. always had a wink and a nod when she disagreed with someone’s take on certain subjects about jeanette and nelson..she was a card…super intelligent- and always questioning…

we met again at the dc 2008 meeting and had a marvelous time ..as the speaker spoke she would just nod with a twinkle in her eye..it was then we talked about her book on nelson eddy a career bio ..she was full of files about him done from great research..and information from folks who knew him and his work..i hope dear elsa someday will see that book come to be- with a dedication to her brilliant and tenacious work

so- we shall miss our great lady- who had a wonderful mischievous laugh and always to me- a kind word.

Above photo from left to right: Elsa Glass, Cecilia Rodriguez (co-moderator of our Yahoo group) and Bernadette Schwartz (moderator) at the 2008 Washington, DC club event.

Below, Elsa and my daughter Juliet share a meal on the 2010 Mac/Eddy cruise. (Thanks to Sandy Reed for forwarding this photo and the one at the top of the page.)

Below, Elsa and daughter Jennie on the same cruise.

Jake, Juliet and I will all miss Elsa. She was a no-nonsense person who bluntly spoke her mind. She was a fighter and lived life fully despite health issues and chronic physical discomfort in later years. But there was also an emotional, sweet side to her as well. She will be greatly missed.

Sharon

We are sad to learn today of the passing of Veronica “Vonnie” Krotts, a club member who was also a vital force in our Yahoo group. Vonnie was an artist and was known for her excellent colorizations of Jeanette and Nelson photos. She provided the cover artwork  for Mac/Eddy Today Issue #71 and she also did the next 3 covers for our upcoming magazines. Vonnie waged a tough, swift battle with ovarian cancer and left us this morning, just two weeks shy of her 65th birthday. Among the family she leaves is her husband Robert, who has been so gracious in sharing news updates with us during these last heartbreaking weeks.

Above left is a shot of Vonnie parked at 1330 Angelo Drive in Los Angeles (“Mists”), while we were doing a driving tour of the homes of Nelson and Jeanette. Also, Vonnie is pictured here with other Yahoo group fans at the Mac/Eddy luncheon in June 2010.

Bern, our Yahoo group moderator, called Vonnie “genteel” and that’s a perfect word to describe her. I spent some time talking with her privately in Los Angeles and it was a delight to see her heartily laughing over our Jeanette/Nelson discussion. She was such a kind person.

Below, the cover of upcoming magazine #72 that Vonnie designed.

I asked Bern to write her memories of Vonnie:

vonnie krotts joined our maceddy yahoo group february 11 2009..she had a great love and respect for jeanette and nelson.. so in 2010 she joined 13 of the maceddy group members in california meeting at the sportsman’s lodge.. we all did the great house tours of the jeanette and nelson homes and she was such a sport to drive folks around …she was very genteel and generous to all of us who had become “friends” and told me how happy she was that she attended..the “t” shirts we wore were from a picture she had artistically put in color..it was so perfect sharon designated it our official “t” shirt for the group.

shortly after that meeting vonnie began to colorize many photos of j and n..and they became like pieces of art. done so perfect..and flawless but she would always find some little thing she thought not perfect but she became our artist’e de jeanette and nelson and over the years we all got to know her so well..a spiritual and lovely lady with a very caring husband who has taken great care with her since she became ill with cancer…she has fought the good fight and now she is in god’s hands…how we will miss her beauty and sweet soul…hopefully when the angels came…her beloved “sweethearts” voices led her home….

Judy Lewis – the illegitimate daughter of Clark Gable and Loretta Young, died last week at age 76.

As some of you know, I did a joint book signing with her years ago when I was promoting “Sweethearts” and she was first “coming out” with her autobiography and true story. At that time her story was considered oh-so-shocking with an impact not unlike Christina Crawford when she exposed Joan Crawford’s mothering skills in her tell-all book.

I spent about 4 hours with Judy and she indeed resembled both her mother and father. It was obvious just from looking at her that she was Clark Gable’s daughter. We discussed what a nightmare it was for illegitimate children of Hollywood celebrities to come forward and wondered how many others Gable and other stars might have had…sometimes without even knowing.

Her mother finally did admit that Judy’s claims were true but as far as I know, her half-brother John Clark Gable never publicly accepted her and they were not on friendly terms when I met Judy.

Below is the obituary that has appeared in many newspapers worldwide:

Judy Lewis, born November 6 1935, died November 25 2011

Judy Lewis, who has died aged 76, was the secret lovechild of Clark Gable and Loretta Young, but only began to learn the complicated truth about her parentage when she was about to get married.

For many years the identity of Judy Lewis’s famous father was kept from her in order to preserve her mother’s reputation. Neither Clark Gable nor the glamorous screen siren Loretta Young were able to tell the truth about their daughter’s birth.

“For most of my life, I’ve been unable to claim my real identity,” Judy Lewis told The Daily Telegraph in an interview in 2001. “The outside world was told that I was my mother’s adopted daughter. But look at my face. It’s obvious that I have Clark Gable’s features. I even have his slow left eye. I’m afraid that I also inherited his large ears. They were so prominent that I had an operation in childhood to reduce them. Before then, I was teased at school and called ‘Dumbo’. ”

It was only shortly before her death in August 2000 that Loretta Young finally acknowledged the truth, admitting to her authorised biographer that the baby she had “adopted” was actually her own daughter by Clark Gable.

Judy Lewis was born on November 6 1935 in Venice, where Loretta Young “hid” during the final weeks of the pregnancy. When Judy was eight months old, her mother placed her in a Roman Catholic orphanage in San Francisco, taking her back 11 months later .

The “adoption” was leaked to the Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons, who portrayed it as a generous act of mercy towards another woman’s baby.

Judy had in fact been born as the result of an affair between Gable, then 34 and married, and the 22-year-old Loretta during the filming in the Yukon of Call of the Wild (1935). Both were rising stars with promising careers ahead of them.

Loretta Young was a devout Roman Catholic, and viewed by cinema audiences as the quintessence of virginal purity. She was mortified when she discovered that she was pregnant, and realised that the scandal could destroy her career.

To avoid exposure, she devised an elaborate ruse. As soon as her pregnancy became apparent, she embarked on a tour of Europe; and on her return to Los Angeles she took to her bed, claiming a mixture of exhaustion and some unspecified illness.

Gable offered to obtain a divorce and marry her, but Loretta Young refused. “She told me later that her greatest regret was not marrying him,” Judy Lewis said. Gable subsequently married Carole Lombard.

A few years later Loretta Young married a radio producer called Tom Lewis, who believed her story about Judy’s adoption and became a father to the girl.

The couple had two sons, but Lewis started to resent Judy and never legally adopted her, although she took his name. He was never told the truth about her birth.

One day, when Judy was 15, she came home from Marymount Girls’ Catholic School to find Clark Gable in the living room: “He looked at me and said: ‘You must be Judy’. I said: ‘And you’re Mr Gable, aren’t you?’ We laughed, and he stayed and talked for maybe half an hour.

“When he got up to go, I walked him to the door and he took my face in his hands and kissed me on the forehead. I had no idea why he was showing me so much affection, but, of course, as I realised later, he was saying goodbye. I never saw him again.”

When Judy was in her twenties and engaged to be married, her fiancé, Joe Tinney, a young Los Angeles businessman, told her of the rumours surrounding her birth: “Don’t you know?” he said. “It’s common knowledge in Hollywood that you’re Clark Gable’s daughter.”

Judy Lewis was astounded, but could not bring herself to confront her mother for six years. When she finally insisted on knowing the truth, Loretta Young told her everything; but the revelation undermined their relationship, leading to a long estrangement.

After pursuing a modest career as an actress in the 1960s and 1970s, Judy Lewis left showbusiness to work as a psychologist, specialising in family counselling.

Her candid memoir, Uncommon Knowledge (1994), led to more emotional upheavals with her mother’s family and friends.

She told the Telegraph that she always cried when she watched Gable’s loving scenes with his on-screen daughter in Gone With the Wind (1939): “It’s very sad to me because he’s so dear with her. I pretend it’s me.”

Judy Lewis divorced Joe Tinney in 1972. Her partner, Steve Rowland, survives her, as does a daughter of her marriage.

Link