"The Wavishing Kay Fwancis."

Think PINK post #2

Kay Francis

Born January 13, 1905

Died August 26, 1968

In the early days of the new year of 1905, Katharine Edwina Gibbs was born in Oklahoma City, OK to parents Joseph and Katharine. She was the couple's only child. Her father left the family by the time Kay was 4 years old. Her mother, known as "Katie," was a trained vocalist and actress in the theater. The mother-daughter pair lived on the road, traveling between cities. Most of the time, Kay was educated by her mother. Occasionally, they would stay in the city for a long enough stretch of time that her mother would enroll her in Catholic school. Between the ages of 15 and 17, she attended secretarial school in New York City. At the tender age of 17, she met and quickly wed a man by the name of James Dwight Francis. Their marriage did not last, and it was the first of several failed romantic relationships for Kay. It was from her first marriage that she took the surname that she would use throughout her career--Francis.

By 1925, Francis was working as a stage actress. She regularly commuted between Boston and New York, but eventually decided to settle in the latter and pursue a career on Broadway. Her big debut on the city's stage was a role in a modern version of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. She knew how to interact with the kind of people who could boost her career. Francis later said that her early parts were given to her because she "lied a lot, to the right people." This eventually got her a place in The Portmanteau Theatre Company, where she played a wide range of characters, and gained much experience. She did 2 Broadway plays in 1927, playing parts in Crime, and Venus. Her last appearance on the stage was in Elmer the Great (1928). For the play, she was working alongside Walter Huston, who told her she was good enough to make it in Hollywood. Because of this, Francis went for a screen test, which gave her a part in Gentlemen of the Press (1929), and also in The Cocoanuts (1929) alongside The Marx Brothers.

Although her parts in those first 2 films were not big, she still earned herself a contract with Paramount Pictures, which led to her relocation in California. Once established in Hollywood, everyone's eyes were on Francis. Aside from the fact that she was the tallest woman in Hollywood, standing just short of 6 ft, everyone knew that she had the potential to be the next big star. She made 21 films between 1929 and 1931

alone, many of which she starred in alongside William Powell. Some film critics were surprised that Francis managed to build a solid career so quickly, as she had to work around a speech impediment which she never fully recovered from. Since childhood, Francis had pronounced the letters "r" and "l" as a "w." In the midst of the monumental transition from silent films to talkies, when many actors and actresses who had speech impediments or unpleasant speaking voices were cut from the industry, it is somewhat surprising that Francis was not turned away. On the contrary, everyone fell in love with her, and most people thought her impediment was endearing, and she was affectionately given the title of "The Wavishing Kay Fwancis."

Although she was already doing well with Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros came to her with an offer that would launch her into ultimate stardom. Her last picture with Paramount was Trouble in Paradise (1932). She accepted the offer from Warner Bros, and her first pictures with the studio were George Cukor's Girls About Town, and Twenty-Four Hours later that same year. Within the next few years, Francis

became one of the highest paid women in Hollywood. She was known as the Queen of the Warner Bros lot from 1932 to 1936.

As time went on, Francis's relationship with the studio turned sour, as all of her parts were written to showcase her as a fashion icon during the Depression era, so as to appeal to female audiences. To her, the scripts became meaningless, and she had no desire to act in most of the films she was cast in, but she was bound by her contract. She began to openly feud with the studio, which eventually led to her getting demoted. Later on, Warner Bros released her from her contract. She had a brief taste of freedom, before she began to feel the anxiety over not being able to secure another contract with a studio at all. Fellow actress and good friend, Carole Lombard, gave her the push she needed to get back into acting when she made sure she was given a part in her upcoming film In Name Only (1939), alongside Cary Grant. Francis knew that she would be nothing more than a supporting character in the film, but she tactfully accepted, knowing that it was the best move for her career at the time. Her role in the film started a chain-like reaction which led to similar parts in other films. While none of these parts were starring roles, Francis used them to slowly rebuild her reputation. Her next leading role would not be until she was cast in King of the Underworld (1939) with Humphrey Bogart.

Like many of her fellow comrades in Hollywood, Francis focused much of her time during WWII on volunteer work. She did many tours of war-zones, which led to the book (and later film of the same name) Four Jills in a Jeep. With all of this going on, Francis was often in the public eye. While people commended her for her efforts, she was virtually unemployed. She was given the opportunity to do a 3 film deal with Poverty Row, which led to her last 3 films, Divorce (1945), Allotment Wives (1945), and Wife Wanted

(1946). She might have spent more time after that trying to find more film work, but Francis suffered from various health issues; that combined with an accident in 1948, led her to make the decision to end her career. She officially retired in 1948.

In 1966, Francis was diagnosed with breast cancer. She began to fight the disease and tried to take preventative measures, even undergoing a mastectomy, but her efforts proved futile. On a late summers day in August of 1968, Kay Francis died from complications with breast cancer. She was 63 years old.  Despite the fact that her overall career in Hollywood was short, Kay Francis was a beautiful actress who displayed her talent in no less than 68 motion pictures during the 17 years that she was active.

"I can't wait to be forgotten."

-Kay Francis

Kay Francis is the second star from classic films that is a part of our Think PINK campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Click here to view the post from last week on Bette Davis.

Come back again next Thursday, October 24, for our last post on a famous actress who battled breast cancer.

Always hope for a cure, and remember to Think PINK!