1920
Fall. Kay starts attending the Cathedral School of St. Mary in Garden City, Long Island.
Winter. Kay makes her acting debut in a school production of “Let’s Not and Say We Did.” Kay, credited as Katie Gibbs, writes the songs and, because she’s the tallest in the class, plays the male lead.

1921
Spring. Kay gets praise for a fashion sketch she draws. She briefly considers becoming a fashion designer.
Summer. Kay falls in serious love for the first time with a boy named “Reg.” She never identifies his last name in her diary. The two become engaged and make plans to run away and elope, but Kay fails to “muster-up the courage to run away.”
Winter. Kay gets a job as an assistant to Juliana Cutting, a famous New York party-planner who lived on Park Ave. She teaches Kay how to host.

1922
January 3. While working for Juliana, Kay meets James Dwight Francis. They soon start dating.
Late April. Kay looses her virginity to Dwight.
May 16. Kay finds her first work as a model at Lundihn’s Clothing store.
June 5. Kay starts work as a secretary at the McMillan Emerson and Co. investment firm.
June 27. Kay has her first abortion.
Mid October. Kay and Dwight make plans to marry. They visit Dwight’s parents for consent. They give it, but feel that Dwight and Kay are too young.
November 17. Kay receives her engagement ring from Dwight.
December 4. Kay marries Dwight at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church. They honeymoon in Boston, and settle into Dwight’s apartment at 21 West 49th Street two weeks later.
December 31. Kay writes in her diary of 1922, calling it “My most wonderful year!”

1923
October 5. Kay undergoes a tonsillectomy.

1924
January. Kay has a hemorrhoid operation.
February-April. Kay spends her time in Pittsfield.
May 12. Kay writes in her diary that her marriage with Dwight is on the rocks.
May 25. Troubled with her personal life, Kay decides to bob her hair, like most flappers at the time.
Spring. Kay becomes Paul Abbott’s lover.
Summer. Kay spends the entire season in Pittsfield.
October. Kay and Dwight Francis separate.

1925
January 1. Kay writes in her diary, “Beginning a new year – have resolution to make – not to be a damn fool!”
January 2. Kay makes mention in her diary that she admires William Gaston’s smile.
February 25. Kay poses for portrait artist Sir Gerald Kelly. The painting was finished in March of 1926 and placed on display as London’s Royal Academy later that year.
Late February. Kay poses for an ad for Franklin Simon & Co. The ad is printed in Harper’s Bazaar.
February 28. Kay sails to Francis on the S.S. Minnetonka.
March 8. Kay arrives at the Paris Vendome Hotel. She immediately writes in her diary about wild nights.
March 26. Kay’s divorce from Dwight becomes legal.
June 10. Kay arrives in London.
June 17. Kay returns to Paris, getting pregnant along the way.
July 15. Kay has another abortion.
September 26. Kay returns to New York and decides to become an actress.
October. Things between Kay and William Gaston get serious.
November 19. Kay and Bill get married.

1926
January 1. Kay writes in her diary, “1925 has been a very big year in my life – and on the whole I have behaved like a damn fool! What will 1926 bring forth?”
January 15. Kay receives an excellent modeling offer, posing for Porter Woodruff. The portrait ends up, unidentified, in Vogue.
February 19. Kay makes her first screen test for a role in D.W. Griffith’s The Sorrows of Satan. Nothing comes of her test.
April 15. Kay signs with the Stuart Walker company, beginning many stage productions and touring all over the country.
August 8. Kay gets arrested! The police raid a party, where alcohol is being served despite Prohibition, which Kay attends with players from the Stuart Walker company. They all end up being fined $15 each.
September 14. Kay returns home to New York.
October 7. Kay has an appendectomy, remaining hospitalized for a week.

1927
January. Kay models for Neysa McMein. The portrait is used for the May 1927 cover of McCall’s.
Summer. Kay starts dating Allan A. Ryan, who was set to inherit $100 million from his rich grandfather.
September. Kay notes in her diary that she has become bored with Allan, but remains with him for the rest of the year.

1928
January. Kay gets pregnant with Allan’s baby. She aborts it the same month.
Spring. Kay begins a strictly sexual affair with a young Edmund Goulding.
April 23. Kay writes in her diary that she has performed some unnamed sexual act with Goudling for the first time.
Summer. Allan begins to make marriage propositions to Kay, who turns him down.
August 28. Kay tells Allan their relationship is over for good. “What a bitch I am!” she writes in her diary.
Fall. Kay is interviewed twice by Fox studios about appearing in short films. Nothing ever stems from either interview.
October. Kay tests for the female lead in Gentlemen of the Press. She gets the part.
November 16. Paramount releases its first talking movie, Interference. The studio makes a list of Broadway stars they feel will replace silent move stars. Kay’s name is on the list.
Early December. Kay poses with ski togs for an issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
December 28. Rehearsals for Gentlemen of the Press start.

1929
January. Kay and Millard Webb start dating.
January 31. Kay starts rehearsals for her next movie, The Cocoanuts, starring the Marx Brothers.
Early February. Gentlemen of the Press ends shooting.
February 19. Retakes for Gentlemen of the Press start.
February 22. Gentlemen of the Press previews in Yonkers. To everyone’s surprise, the movie is a success.
April. Realizing they have something on their hands, Paramount decides to send Kay out to Hollywood.
April 11. Kay boards the 20th Century Limited to Chicago. She spends the night with Katty Stewart, an old friend. Kay notes in her diary about her sex with Katty, “Slept with Katty only because she wanted me to – Damn!”
April 13. Kay boards the Chief.
April 15. Kay arrives in Hollywood and is greeted by a studio photographer and publicist who hails her as one of the best dressed newcomers. That same day, Kay meets producer B.P. Schulberg on the Paramount lot for a tour of the studio.
April 17. Kay starts taking driving lessons.
April 18. Dangerous Curves, a Clara Bow vehicle, starts production with Kay playing the second female lead, “Zara,” an art-deco vamp-like character.
April 21. Kay visits an old friend, Kay Johnson, at her home. Johnson reveals her life-long love for Kay. The two sleep together.
May 11. Gentlemen of the Press released.
May 24. The Cocoanuts released.
June 1. Kay writes about Katty Stuart, now her roommate, in her diary, “I really adore her – and I guess she really loves me.”
Mid June. Production on Illusion starts with Kay in a small role.
June 21. Kay watches a preview of Dangerous Curves. She realizes quickly that the movie was strictly a Clara Bow vehicle.
Late Spring/ Early Summer. Much male, with some female, excitement starts running around Hollywood because of rumors that Kay Francis is an open lesbian who’s prone to having random, meaningless sex with men. Kay begins fighting off sexual advances from Walter Huston, a close friend, and Paul Lukas, whom she can’t stand. Kay spends this time, as well as the rest of the year, working as a supporting player in good pictures.
Early July. Kay becomes involved with Kenneth MacKenna.
July 13. Dangerous Curves released.
September 27. Illusion released.
October. This month’s issue of Photoplay, the most popular movie magazine at the time, hails Kay’s performance in Gentlemen of the Press as “one of the most astonishing first performances in the history of motion pictures.”
December 13. The Marriage Playground released.