Gable and Norton: The Love Match That Wasn't

1934. Essex, England. Violet Norton, an English housewife, went to the movies. On the bill? It Happened One Night starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Mrs. Norton got more than she bargained for-so did Gable.

The leading man was someone she recognized all right. He may call himself Clark Gable now, but Norton knew better. He was none other than Frank Billings, the chicken farmer who was once her next-door neighbor and former lover. He even fathered her child. It had been around twelve years since she'd seen him, but she often wondered where old Billings had got to. The mystery was finally solved. He had left her for Hollywood and the likes of Claudette Colbert.

Now that she knew where to find him, Norton was on a mission. She wrote letter after letter to Gable detailing their affair and demanding that he take full responsibility for 'their' daughter, Gwendolyn, but Gable wasn't buying. The whole thing seemed so ridiculous, he never even thought to mention it to the big guns at MGM. Why would he? He hadn't been near Essex, England during the early 1920s and he had never once gone by the name of Frank Billings.

1935. Winnipeg, Canada. Violet Norton dragged her daughter across the Atlantic where she continued her desperate attempts to reach Gable. First, she ran an ad in a movie magazine hoping to get his attention. When that didn't work, she tried writing to Mae West, but found no sympathy there. Next, she wrote to the British Consul in Los Angeles, as well as the United States District Attorney. Somehow, she caught the ear of a retired Canadian businessman willing to take up her cause. Norton convinced him to not only pay her way to California, but also accompany her there. Taking Gwendolyn along, the odd trio trekked to America.

1936. Hollywood, California. Violet Norton hired P. I. Jack L. Smith, who, on his client's behalf, contacted the secretary treasurer of the Motion Picture Producers Association. Smith wanted blood tests and strongly urged Gable to set up a $150,000.00 trust fund for his illegitimate daughter. If Gable refused, Smith threatened to reveal the 'truth' and announce to the world just what kind of heel their Hollywood heartthrob really was. But Smith made one fatal mistake-he contacted Ralph Wheelwright, of the MGM publicity staff. The studio wasted no time in calling the United States Attorney's Office who found Norton's use of the US mail worthy of their attention.

Unruffled by Norton's accusations, Gable continued being Gable. He made headlines when he left his hand and footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. Shortly after, he once again made front-page news when Norton went to trial for mail fraud still insisting that Gable was really Billings and, in September 1922, had fathered her child. Crowds of women gathered outside the courtroom hoping to get a glimpse of The King himself. Ambitious vendors hawked peanuts along with pictures of that famous face. The press had a field day.

Norton, a gray-haired woman in her mid-forties, talked with reporters: "We were neighbors in Essex, England, in 1922 and 1923. I 'ad two acres and a bungalow, and 'e 'ad the same. There were about three acres and a 'edge between our 'omes. 'E kept chickens-usually at my place during the time when 'e wasn't in London."

"This 'ere Clark Gybles is an arrant fraud," she continued. "'E's Frank Billings, that's oo 'e is, I can tell by the way he mykes love to that Joan Crawford-just the syme as 'e did to me. 'E often cyme to see me, that 'andsome young fellow did. 'E waited till me 'usband went and then 'e cyme in." She may have been confused, but no one could ever say that Violet Norton didn't aim high.

Several surefire witnesses came to Gable's defense. Jack Powell, an Assistant United States Attorney, stated under oath that Gable was not only an American citizen, but hadn't been issued a passport until 1930. The president of the lumber company where Gable worked provided payroll vouchers proving he was gainfully employed in northwest America during the time period in question. Harry Billings, Frank's brother, even testified that Gable was in no way related to him. Norton herself was the silliest of all, when she took the stand and presented a photograph of Frank Billings in a British Army uniform. She swore that Billings and Gable were one and the same man, but let's face it, she should have known better.

Long before he moved to Hollywood and began calling himself Clark, Billy Gable's main squeeze was a dark-haired, young actress named Franz Dorfler. The young couple was engaged during the fall of 1922 while living in Astoria, Oregon. Although her parents liked Gable, they were dead set against their daughter marrying a penniless actor. Dorfler, herself, thought they should wait until they had the means to support themselves. That's why she encouraged Gable to contact Broadway actress and acting coach, Josephine Dillon, who was opening a new theater. Hoping for a paycheck, Gable went along with the plan. Unwittingly, Dorfler sent her fiancé straight into the arms of another woman.

Dillon saw a spark in young Billy Gable that no one else had. She worked hard, honing his acting skills and markedly improving his looks. She single-handedly transformed the unrefined Billy into the debonair Clark, and then things changed. Seventeen years his senior, Dillon couldn't resist her own handiwork-she married him. Inconsolable, Dorfler cried for days when she realized that the love of her life had slipped right through her fingers.

It had been years since they'd seen each other, but Gable knew if he could find his former sweetie, she would come to bat for him. The high intensity search was on. Everyone connected to Gable went looking for the mysterious woman from his pre-Hollywood past. But it was Gable's agent, Bert Allenberg, who made the great discovery when he happened to go into his kitchen. There, he found her working as a cook, right inside his very own house!

When asked if she would testify, she never hesitated. Under oath, Dorfler described her early romance with the young Billy Gable, as well as his marriage proposal. She confirmed that she had been with him at the Dorfler family ranch in September 1922. Therefore, he couldn't possibly have been in England.

It was obvious to the all-male jury that Gable was neither Frank Billings nor Gwendolyn's father. Norton was found guilty of using the mail for fraudulent purposes and deported. As for Dorfler, she never got over Gable. "I never went to his pictures because I knew him. I knew all of his expressions, his gestures, the raising of one eyebrow, the crooked smile, his dimples and wink. He never really changed. A bit polished, but still the same…Sometimes I wished that I hadn't met him because I was unable to accept any of the other proposals I'd had. I couldn't marry someone else while I still loved Clark."

2001. The Mediadrome. Violet Norton once again made the news. Only this time, we set the record straight. Frank Billings never made a movie or left his prints in wet cement. Clark Gable never lived, or raised chickens, in Essex, England. Poor Violet Norton just couldn't tell them apart.