For all the money Michael had, we don't see Kay living lavishly. For example, she drives to the grocery store with the children in the car. You would think she would have a driver, or have a servant do the grocery shopping. When Michael arrives home from Havana, we see Kay at the sewing machine making a dress (or drapes, or whatever). Some women who marry a wealthy husband would have that sewing machine thrown out and start making their way to Saks Fifth Avenue (if it was around at that time ).

Also, we don't see the Tahoe house crawling with chefs, valets, and servants; we don't see Kay dripping with furs and jewels; and we don't see her jet setting off to the French Riviera or the Greek Islands every so often.

Some people point to Kay's "nagging" Michael to go legitimate while not objecting to her comfy life as an indication that she was not a good wife. But in fact, she seems no different from any ordinary housewife. Indeed, it seems as though she's trying to avoid spending the money that Michael brings in from his various enterprises.

I think it all has something to do with keeping a low profile and not calling attention to yourself, at least as far as spending a lot of money on personal household stuff is concerned. Although she did have nice clothes, and so did the kids. Besides, in the family situation, servants just meant more prying ears and eyes to snoop out your business.

A hint for you, Cristina.
If clothes look like hell, it doesn't mean they didn't cost a fortune.
In fact, quite the contrary.

As to sewing drapes - I believe she did it because she had nothing else to do. We've never seen in her home any drapes nearly as ugly as those she made, so I conclude she did it for her own pleasure entirely. Kinda therapy to cool down.

She lived on the frickin Ponderosa. They had a bandshell in the back yard for parites. No servants?? You think Kay whipped up all those food and drinks and )can of peas" for that first communion party?

Hey JustMe, I think that you are onto something here! Maybe it was really Kay who opened the drapes in Tahoe, because she could not stand to look at those ugly things any longer!


Don Cardi

Can o peas my ass.


Don Cardi

And then she threw her latest artwork out of the window, and poor asassins were scared to death?

Goodness no, dontomasso. They obviously had caterers (plus parking attendants, an orchestra, etc.) to attend to that, since it seemed like the population of a small city was invited. I can't imagine anyone looking after an event that big without help.

Michael and Kay lived on an estate (much like the "mall" in New York), so I've no doubt that they had servants. Even in GF1, I'm sure they had domestic help in a compound that huge. Yet in GF1 (and this is in daily life, not during "events" like Connie's wedding), we see Mama doing her own cooking; and in GF2, we don't see a lot of staff (if any) going in and out of Michael and Kay's house. Kay does her own grocery shopping and drives the children here and there.

Now I don't think she has to worry about laundry and scrubbing the floors, but I also don't see her spending a lot of money for personal luxuries on herself (but then there is JustMe's observation about her clothes ... )

Can o' peas, up who's ass? Nevermind.

Kay was a New England girl; practical, self-sufficient. Her roots were based in hard work and family values. All that glitz was for those spoiled guinea brats like Connie.

She never really approved of Michael's business life did she?
So i suppose she was'nt willing to accept the wealthy trappings of said lifestyle!

Maybe she was making a set of drapes that could not be opened.

We do see the governess, or whatever she was, who helped with the children in a couple of scenes.

And sewing could've been Kay's hobby. The room she was in was not the bedroom (I don't think), and it wans't the family room (the room where everyone congregated after the hit attempt), so I'm thinking it was Kay's "sewing room" - kinda like her counterpart of Michael's office.

It's likely, I think, she was shown sewing to indicate how a woman who theoretically had so much really had so little, and was reduced to simply sitting home and sewing like the good Italian wives of yore.

During that sewing scene, did she simply not notice that Michael was there, or was she deliberately ignoring him? Or perhaps, if she knew he was coming home that day, maybe the sewing thing was staged to make her look bored, preoocupied, and uncaring about Michael.

As for money, don't forget that she obviously had enough to take the kids to New Hampshire without asking Michael for it.

I think MC and Yogi are right. Kay was raised in a plain New England home (her father was a college professor, according to the novel). A woman of her generation and background would be taught to be "modest" in behavior and lifestye, no matter what the financial circumstances were. Also, I think she would have regarded the typical Mafia types around Michael (and probably their women) as "cheap," "flashy" and "showy" (I can't imagine what she thought of Deana). And, as dontomasso said, she had everything else--what more did she need?
BTW: FFC's fanatical attention to detail underpins this thread: The modest lifestyle that stimulated this thread was a deliberate creation on his part, to contrast Kay's life and expectations with Michael's, and to underscore (I believe) her growing disillusionment with him (by GFIII she calls him a "common Mafia hood"). One little detail: when Kay is stopped from grocery shopping, she's driving a '57 Buick Special station wagon. If she were the show-off type, she would have owned the Roadmaster version of the Buick, or a Chrysler New Yorker wagon--both of which were more expensive. And since it was already 1959, she would would have felt "poor" driving a two-year-old car.

By contrast: Michael is driven back to the compound after Havana in a '58 Chrysler Imperial Crown Ghia limo--one of only about a dozen that were custom-made that year by Carozzeria Ghia of Turin, Italy. At $13k, it was the most expensive American car of that model year. No one could accuse him of living under his means.

Excellent thought, BTW!

this proves how stupid she is. What's the point in being so outrageously rich if you don't live like a rich woman?