Behind the Door: the Real Story of Loretta Young

This project began in 1990, but my life went into a different direction and was never published. Then, in 2012, Linda Lewis, Loretta Young's daughter-in-law, called, urging me to finally bring this book to life. I'll be forever grateful to Loretta Young, a guarded woman by nature, who finally decided to tell a very personal story. In doing so, she enlisted the help of her three sisters and life-long friends. These people have all passed on, but their voices are vividly in the present.Loretta Young was a luminous beauty and movie star. She went from '20s late silents, to early '30 s Warner Brothers Depression heroine, to late '30s Twentieth Century Fox's leading glamour-star. Her peak movie stardom came in the late '40s. Then in the '50s, she waltzed through a door wearing a glamorous gown to introduce that week's episode of "The Loretta Young Show". Today, her name is connected with a "secret baby" fathered by Clark Gable. And, wasn't there something about Spencer Tracy and Tyrone Power? This book investigates all the above but so much more. This is the personal story of a woman, who happened to be a movie star, the major focus being on her relationships with the most important people in her life. Excerpts pertaining to Loretta's relationship with Clark GableGable arrived at Loretta's train compartment uninvited. She recalled," I allowed him in as I would have any member of the crew, thinking he was there for a visit. He had other intentions. Very persistent intentions. He wasn't rough, but I kept saying no, and he wouldn't take no for an answer."Loretta received a phone call from Ria Gable a few weeks later. Loretta recalled, "I was in Mama's room and I picked up the phone. Mrs. Gable said, 'This is very presumptuous of me, but you may or may not know that there are rumors flying around town about you and my husband.'"In 1998, when Loretta was eighty-five, she was watching television with Edward Funk. There was the mention of date-rape on the news, and she asked him what exactly did that mean. He explained to the best of his ability. The following day, Loretta called her daughter-in-law, Linda and said. "I know now that there was a word for what happened to me with Clark."Loretta recalled, "We went for a drive up in the Hollywood Hills. He didn't say much, but it was apparent that he was agitated. With the long silences, I felt very uncomfortable and finally felt the pressure to say something. I blurted out, 'Would it make any difference if I told you that I wasn't pregnant?' He turned and looked at me and then asked, 'Well, are you or aren't you?' I felt like such a fool. I didn't know why I had said that except that I had tried to think of something to say he wanted to hear. I had to tell him that I was pregnant. His look toward me was one of total exasperation, and very little was said as he drove me home." There would be some phone calls in the interim, but it would be more than a year before Loretta would see Clark Gable again. Loretta's sister, Sally, "Loretta referred to Gable's visit earlier in the week, the first time he had seen his daughter, and said, 'Do you know after all that has gone on, all that we've gone through, instead of having any interest in his daughter, he tried to knock me down on the bed! Can you imagine, Sally? That bastard! Who the hell does he think he is?'Loretta acted like she couldn't have been more flattered that MGM's two biggest male stars (Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy) would come to see her (on the set of UNGUARDED HOUR). Under her smile she thought differently. She reflected, "I thought how different these two men were. Clark who was still married to Ria was in a hot romance with Carole Lombard. He was like a child, totally unaware of all the difficulty I'd been through. As for Spencer, I was afraid to look him in the eyes. Would they show love? Would they show hurt? I didn't have to look to know that they'd show