WOMAN’S CLAIM

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1937, Page 2

WOMAN’S CLAIM

that gable was her lover. STARTLING REVELATIONS. LOS ANGELES, April 25. At the end of a day of startling courtroom revelations, Airs Violet Norton,' an Englishwoman, was stiib convinced that Clark Cubic was, the father of her 13-year-old child, Gwendoline. Giving evidence in the case charging •ner with attempted blackmail of Gable, Mrs Norton said she was sure he was the. same man as Frank Billings, with whom she had been associated in England. . Sensing a far more thrilling drama than any picture, spectators craned forward in their seats as Mrs Norton took the stand. Nervously speaking in low tones, she complained, when the judge asked her to speak up, that she was under great stress and had a had cold. She related her romantic affair with Billings in 1922, and described how Billings overheard Norton accuse her of visiting his hut. When she went to him next day to tell Billings that her son was unable to take his usual lessons, he pulled her inside the hut.

'‘Said He Loved Me” ‘‘Billings took me into the room, and locked the door,” Mrs Norton said. ‘‘l told him not to be foolish, and lie said he loved me. ‘‘l then told him how 1 felt about him.” Mrs Norton declared the incident occurred in September, 1922, and Gwendoline was born in June, 1923, at Billericay. When the inspector came to register the birth a month later, her husband said, ‘‘This isn’t my child, and I’m not going to register her.” Shown a picture of Frank Billings, Mrs Norton said it was a true likeness. She was then shown a picture of Gable, and said, ‘‘That the father of my child.” The trial’s most dramatic moment came when Mrs Norton was allowed to come face to face with the film star on the'witness stand, in an attempt to identify him as Gwendoline’s father. For two long, breathless minutes, she gazed intently at Gable, anger seeming to stamp her features.

“I couldn’t be mistaken, unless there’s a living double of Frank Billings,” she said.

Spectators Ordered Out .Then -Mrs Norton paled, and appeared overwrought as she returned to her seat. ft. y v .. <■s >: •' " Spectators who jumped to their feet, overcome with excitement at the tense scene were ordered out of court. Two passionaffely-worded. letters from Mrs Norton to Gable, in which she pleaded for him to return, were read. One, dated March, 1936.ysaid : “I loved you all these years—l am a different woman now. “I don’t have my hands full of children, and 1 am .free to satisfy your wants. “You and I understand each other; we could have a swell time, and nobody would ever know. “I would sooner make love to you than harm you, but 1 get desperate at times. “I give you my heart and mind.” the letter ended.

Smashed Gable’s Picture Gwendoline Norton, a daughter of the defendant, said that during a quarrel, Mr Norton had smashed a picture of Gable that her mother had hung in their home at Billericay o’,s--sex). "That- man’s your father, not T,” he had said. Women stared in amazement as ■. a blonde girl, Franz Doerfer, whom Gable •vooed in Oregon, described him as "a very bashful beau.” "Clark stumbled, blushed, and seemed a pretty awkward swain,” she said. "We were members of a stock company when we met tin 1922. "After the show closed, Clark worked as a hop-picker, lumberman, clerk, and at any job he could find.” When Gable talked marriage, Miss Doerfer said she, replied that he did not earn enough to keep himself. She revealed that Gable, who now earns thousands of dollars weekly earned only £6/5/0 in those days. Miss Doerfer flushed with excitement when Gable gallantly escorted her to the witness stand.