Claire and Billy
Born: September 8, 1916, Denver, Colorado.
Died: December 12, 1973 Huntington Beach, California.
Died: December 12, 1973 Huntington Beach, California.
Here is a link to a new found photo of Claire and Billy from the Wisconsin Historical Society:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=97538&qstring=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisconsinhistory.org%2Fwhi%2Fresults.asp%3Fpageno%3D842%26keyword1%3DLa%26search_type%3Dbasic%26sort_by%3Ddate
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=97538&qstring=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisconsinhistory.org%2Fwhi%2Fresults.asp%3Fpageno%3D842%26keyword1%3DLa%26search_type%3Dbasic%26sort_by%3Ddate
June 20, 1936 The prospects of a movie career hold no lure for William Windsor, young son of Claire Windsor, film star. Determined to follow the sea or become a flier, he is shown as his mother bade him farewell prior to his start on a world cruise as a cadet aboard the Dollar liner "President Harrison."
'Bill' Windsor Prefers Life on Ocean Wave
Or That of Aviator to Movie Career
- Claire Windsor, motion picture star, may have the Klieg lights of filmdom, her son will stick to the beacon lights of navigation. Young William "Bill" Windsor, while still undecided about his career, has narrowed his choice down to two fields--and neither is the movies. Though surrounded by the glamour of the motion picture industry all his life, he will turn to the sea or the air for his vocation. A graduate of the Urban Military Academy at Los Angeles, "Bill" is now on a round-the-world cruise as a cadet aboard the Dollar Liner, "President Harrison." In the event he doesn't like the sea, he will endeavor to enter Randolph Field, Texas, for training in the air corps. For the present, however, Miss Windsor is proud of her sailor son, she said, and will be just as proud of him if he becomes her flier son.
Above: AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN Little Billy Windsor, son of Claire Windsor, famous screen beauty, is all dressed up in his best suit of black satin, Eton cut, with a white crepe de chine blouse. Keystone View Co. N. Y.
Above: 48. Lovely Claire Windsor and her son Billy aged 5 [in fact 8 years old] snapped on the lot of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio during the making of "The Dixie Handicap," in which Miss Windsor played the leading role.
The following scrapbook was donated by the Windsor family to the Cawker City Museum. It was compiled by Claire with newspaper clippings of her son, Billy and always sat on Claire's nightstand. The shadow of the reading lamp which rested atop the book is clearly visible.
Page 28 is missing.
Claire was in fact 22 years old when she married David Willis Bowes in Denver on May 13, 1914. And son Billy, was 6 years old, not 5, when this article was published.
Claire was in fact 22 years old when she married David Willis Bowes in Denver on May 13, 1914. And son Billy, was 6 years old, not 5, when this article was published.
Starved for attention, little Billy learned well from his mother's (staged) disappearance in the Hollywood Hills in July of 1921. The Windsor family has confirmed that William Windsor, in later years, confessed that he had fabricated the story which led to the following article. One must remember that the famous Limburg Kidnapping did not take place for another 10 years!