A group of celebrities watches the Beverly Hills Tennis Tournament. Actor Clark Gable (top right) sits next to tennis player Alice Marble. Gable's wife Carole Lombard sits next to producer Felix Young.
(A department store's stock girl falls in love with a co-w...)
A department store's stock girl falls in love with a co-worker, the son of the store's manager; the feeling is mutual though he is engaged to a debutante and focusing on becoming successful without the influence of his father.
(While crossing the sierras, a bus with a small group of p...)
While crossing the sierras, a bus with a small group of passengers gets stuck in a snowstorm and take refuge in a church. But, the church is already occupied by criminal Bill (Boyd), who has a small stash of food, that he is reluctant to share with the group. Tensions run high between girl criminal Billie Davis (Lombard), who is being transported to jail by Detective Dan Egan (Moore), Henderson the banker, Gus the driver and a girl, who is on her way to get married. It turns out Bill is an escaped criminal, and Billie immediately falls for him. They two briefly plan to flee after the storm lets up, but both decide to serve their sentences, so that they have a chance for a crime-free future together. This is one of Carole Lombard's first talking films.
(A young American girl visits Paris, accompanied by her fi...)
A young American girl visits Paris, accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets and is romanced by a worldly novelist; what she doesn't know is that he is a blackmailer, who is using her to get to her uncle.
(Following her arrest for soliciting, Mae (Carole Lombard)...)
Following her arrest for soliciting, Mae (Carole Lombard) is ordered to leave New York or face being sent to jail. Though she has no intention of complying, Mae has second thoughts about returning to the streets, when she falls in love with, and then marries, Jimmy (Pat O'Brien), a taxi driver with no knowledge of her sordid past.
(A serial black widow murderess returns to life in the bod...)
A serial black widow murderess returns to life in the body of a young woman to exact revenge on a former lover, a phony spiritualist, who betrayed her.
(The pilots of a Royal Air Force squadron in World War I f...)
The pilots of a Royal Air Force squadron in World War I face not only physical, but mental dangers in their struggle to survive, while fighting the enemy.
(A nightclub singer marries the rich owner of a rubber pla...)
A nightclub singer marries the rich owner of a rubber plantation. When she returns with him to his estate in Malaysia, she finds out, that he is cruel, vicious and insanely jealous. She and the plantation's overseer develop a mutual attraction, but are terrified at what will happen if her husband finds out.
(An egotistical nightclub dance performer, named Raoul, ha...)
An egotistical nightclub dance performer, named Raoul, has the determination to succeed at all costs, and the only woman in his life, that truly matters to him, is a dancing partner, named Helen.
(A flamboyant Broadway impresario, who has fallen on hard ...)
A flamboyant Broadway impresario, who has fallen on hard times, tries to get his former lover, now a Hollywood diva, to return and resurrect his failing career.
(After the adversary of a bootlegger has him killed, he ta...)
After the adversary of a bootlegger has him killed, he takes up with his widow, a gold-digging chorus girl, but a handsome bodyguard is also determined to win her over.
(Madly in love with Kay Colby (Carole Lombard), wealthy bu...)
Madly in love with Kay Colby (Carole Lombard), wealthy businessman Scott Miller (Preston Foster) buys the oil company her fiancé Bill (Cesar Romero) works for and transfers him to Japan. Finally able to make his move, Scott woos the Park Avenue beauty until she finally agrees to be wed. However, when Kay claims she is only marrying him for his money, Scott breaks the engagement and brings back Bill so she can choose, which suitor she loves the most.
(When an absentminded society woman brings home down-and-o...)
When an absentminded society woman brings home down-and-out Godfrey Parke and hires him as the family butler, he winds up, teaching them a few life lessons. Godfrey turns out to be from affluence himself, though he finds the careless attitude of the wealthy distasteful. He returns to the city dump, where he had been spending his time to help other unfortunate souls.
(Skid Johnson (Fred MacMurray) is a former soldier, turned...)
Skid Johnson (Fred MacMurray) is a former soldier, turned band leader, finds his fortunes rise as his fame increases. Unfortunately, with the fame comes arrogance and Skid takes all the credit, but forgets those friends, who helped him along the way.
(An eccentric woman learns she is not dying of radium pois...)
An eccentric woman learns she is not dying of radium poisoning as earlier assumed, but when she meets a reporter, looking for a story, she feigns sickness again for her own profit.
(Alec's wife Maida is a beauty, but also a venomous, self-...)
Alec's wife Maida is a beauty, but also a venomous, self-absorbed schemer. Then Alec falls for an open-hearted widow, named Julie. Maida turns wedding vows into a steel trap: if Alec files for divorce; she'll drag Julie into court as a homewrecker.
(While on a business trip, an ambitious young lawyer meets...)
While on a business trip, an ambitious young lawyer meets and immediately falls in love with a stranger. They wed the following day, and tragedy soon strikes.
(A nurse loses her job after selflessly taking the blame f...)
A nurse loses her job after selflessly taking the blame for a fatal mistake her sister and co-worker made; she is subsequently employed at a poorly-equipped hospital, where she finds romance and tragedy.
("If you had it all to do over again, would you have marri...)
"If you had it all to do over again, would you have married me?" Yes, guys, there is a right answer. That's something David learns, when better-half Ann queries him over breakfast.
Carole Lombard was a renowned American actress and comedienne, who starred in some of the most successful comedies of the 1930's and gained prominence for her ability to combine elegance and zaniness in the comedies and films she had a role in. Besides, Carole was the most well-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930's.
Background
Carole Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 6, 1908. She was the third child and only daughter of Frederick Christian Peters and Elizabeth Jayne "Bessie" (Knight) Peters. She had two brothers, Frederick Charles and John Stuart. In October 1914, Carole's parents separated and her mother took the children and moved to Los Angeles. Although the couple did not divorce, the separation was permanent. Her father's continued financial support allowed the family to live without worry.
Education
While she was still in junior high and high school, Lombard took acting and dancing lessons, briefly toured with a theater troupe, and auditioned tirelessly for movie roles. She was driven to succeed, but not at the expense of leading a normal life. She stayed close to her mother and brothers and attracted a large circle of friends at Los Angeles' Fairfax High School where - ever the tomboy - she was a star on the track team. She managed to appear in small parts in a few low-budget films, but nothing notable until she caught another break. She graduated from junior high school in 1925.
An executive from Fox Pictures (soon to merge with Twentieth Century Productions) saw her dancing the Charleston at the famed Coconut Grove nightclub and asked her to take a screen test. Fox soon signed the pretty ingénue to a contract, giving her the screen name "Carol Lombard" - she would later add the extra "e" to her first name for "good luck" - and putting her to work.
Lombard started out acting in cheapie Westerns like "Hearts and Spurs" (1925) and "Durand of the Bad Lands" (1925). The material may have been mediocre, but Lombard was not. It was clear to audiences and movie executives that she possessed that ineffable "It" quality.
Mack Sennett, the pioneer producer of slapstick comedies, knew a good thing when he saw it and snatched up Lombard to appear in his low-budget two-reelers. He reasoned nobody would notice Lombard's scar when she was slipping on banana peels and getting pies thrown in her face. She cut her teeth on Sennett's signature brand of physical comedy, using silent vehicles like "The Campus Vamp" (1928) and "Matchmaking Mamma" (1929) to hone the comic timing that would make her a star when sound arrived. She segued into speaking roles easily with the drama "High Voltage" (1929) and never looked back.
Paramount Pictures signed Lombard to a contract in 1930, initiating her ascension to the pinnacle of Hollywood actresses. However, the studio initially had no idea how to cast their latest blonde beauty.
Ever cast as a worldly but humorless vixen, Lombard worked steadily throughout the early 1930s in an assortment of films. One of the most notable was the romantic drama "No Man of Her Own" (1932) - not because the movie was particularly good, but because she starred opposite Clark Gable. The two had met at a party in 1931 while they were both married to other people, but the spark of attraction played out only on film at that time. In fact, Lombard found Gable a bit of a stuffed shirt, and so thus, during the film's wrap party, presented her co-star with a ham covered with his photo. Lombard had little interest in Gable for other reasons.
While Lombard was a well-liked actress - particularly within the industry more than amongst general moviegoers - it took her role opposite the great John Barrymore in "Twentieth Century" to catapult her out of the peroxide blonde brigade and to the next level. A hilarious film which - along with "It Happened One Night" (1934) - ignited the screwball comedy genre of the 1930s, the movie was a critical and commercial smash and, at long last, showcased Lombard's comedy skills to great effect.
Lombard's choosiness could be seen in the relatively meager number of films she made after her breakout in "Twentieth Century." "Hands Across the Table" (1935) and "The Princess Comes Across" (1936) were serviceable romantic comedies co-starring her new on-screen partner, Fred MacMurray, but "My Man Godfrey" re-wrote the rules of screwball forever and made Lombard its queen. Starring opposite ex-husband William Powell - who would not take the role unless his ex was given the lead opposite him - Lombard earned an Oscar nomination playing the ditzy heiress Irene Bullock.
After "Godfrey," Lombard was at the peak of her powers personally and professionally, starring again with MacMurray in two back-to-back 1937 hits, "Swing High, Swing Low" and "True Confession." She also did outstanding work in another screwball comedy, "Nothing Sacred" - her only Technicolor film and one of the greatest films of the genre. Playing a woman who exploits a reporter's cynical interest in her alleged radium poisoning, Lombard again turned the ridiculous into the sublime, and her fisticuffs with co-star Frederic March was heralded as the funniest scene of the year. Due in part to her popularity, but more in part to her business savvy, Lombard ended the year as the highest paid actress in Hollywood, earning a reported $500,000 a year. She earned the respect of President Franklin D. Roosevelt for publicly declaring she was more than happy to see a huge chunk of it go to taxes.
Lombard was so beloved by audiences, it seemed she could do no wrong. Despite a rare misstep with the seriously unfunny comedy "Fools for Scandal" (1938), she shifted gears to show her dramatic range, lending her elegant ebullience to middling tearjerkers like "Made for Each Other" (1939), "They Knew What They Wanted" (1940) and "Vigil in the Night" (1940). Audiences were less than enthused by their wacky girl going straight, so Lombard signed on for Alfred Hitchcock's only comedy, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (1941). Reportedly, Hitch took on the project solely to work with Lombard, as he knew comedy was not his forte. The comic again returned to her roots by taking the lead opposite Jack Benny in Ernst Lubitsch biting Nazi satire, "To Be or Not To Be" (1942), starring as Maria Tura, member of a Polish acting troupe which becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's attempts to track down a German spy.
When the U.S. entered World War II at the end of 1941, Lombard traveled to her home state of Indiana for a war bond rally with her mother, Bess Peters, and Clark Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler. Lombard was able to raise over $2 million (equal to $33,276,018 today) in defense bonds in a single evening. Her party had initially been scheduled to return to Los Angeles by train, but Lombard was anxious to reach home more quickly and wanted to fly by a scheduled airline. Her mother and Winkler were both afraid of flying and insisted they follow their original travel plans. Lombard suggested they flip a coin; they agreed and Lombard won the toss.
In the early morning hours of January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother, and Winkler boarded a Transcontinental and Western Air Douglas DST (Douglas Sleeper Transport) aircraft to return to California. After refueling in Las Vegas, TWA Flight 3 took off at 7:07 p.m. and around 13 minutes later, crashed into "Double Up Peak" near the 8,300-foot (2,530 m) level of Potosi Mountain, 32 statute miles (51 km) southwest of Las Vegas. All 22 aboard, Lombard and her mother included, plus fifteen army servicemen, were killed instantly.
As per her directions, Lombard was interred at Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery, following a small, quiet ceremony unbefitting a woman as universally loved as she. Unsure how audiences would receive a comedy starring the late actress, United Artists released "To Be or Not to Be" in tribute to Lombard. Receiving some of the best reviews of her career, the film became yet another classic in her canon, earning even more respect by historians years later for its biting commentary on the Nazi regime and war in general.
Carole Lombard was particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s. She was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s.
In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the 25 greatest American female screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema, and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6930 Hollywood Blvd. Lombard received one Academy Award for Best Actress nomination, for My Man Godfrey.
Lombard's Fort Wayne childhood home has been designated a historic landmark. The city named the nearby bridge over the St. Mary's River the Carole Lombard Memorial Bridge.
She was awarded posthumously the Medal of Freedom for being the first woman killed in the line of duty in WWII. Two years after her death, a liberty ship was christened the U.S.S. Carole Lombard. The mountain the plane had failed to clear became Carole Lombard Mountain.
(A nightclub singer marries the rich owner of a rubber pla...)
1933
Religion
In early 1938, Lombard officially joined the Bahá'í Faith, of which her mother had been a member since 1922.
Politics
As her salary was widely reported in the press, Lombard stated that 80% of her earnings went in taxes, but that she was happy to help improve her country. The comments earned her much positive publicity, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent her a personal letter of thanks.
Views
Quotations:
"At first thought , we might say, 'our job is to win a war'...but I am sure it would be closer to the hearts of all of us to say, 'We are fighting a war to assure a peace...our kind of peace.'"
"I live by a man's code, designed to fit a man's world, yet at the same time I never forget that a woman's first job is to choose the right shade of lipstick."
"Personally, I resent being tagged ‘glamour girl.’ It’s such an absurd, extravagant label. It implies so much that I’m not."
"A woman has just as much right in this world as a man and can get along in it just as well if she puts her mind to it."
"I can’t imagine a duller fate than being the best dressed woman in reality. When I want to do something I don’t pause to contemplate whether I’m exquisitely gowned. I want to live, not pose!"
"Do you laugh in the right places? Then, you’ll get along, in fair weather or foul. Humor is nothing less than a sense of the fitness of things. ""Something that’s out of proportion, like an inflated ego, should strike you funny, particularly if it’s your own inflated ego. Otherwise you are pathetic and quite hopeless."
"It is easier to die when the heart is full of gratitude."
"When it comes to your personal life, such as love and romance, girls should take a tip from the men and keep their affairs to themselves. Any man worth his salt regards his private life as his own. To kiss a girl and run and tell would mark him as a cad. Why doesn't that apply to girls also?"
"I think marriage is dangerous. The idea of two people trying to possess each other is wrong. I don't think the flare of love lasts. Your mind rather than your emotions must answer for the success of matrimony. It must be friendship - a calm companionship which can last through the years."
Personality
Despite her fame and wealth, she held on to her unpretentious personality, refusing to lounge in her on-set dressing trailer; preferring instead to hang on set with the prop men and extras between takes. She was famous for sticking up for her crew, often refusing to take a role if her favorite cameraman or grip was not hired.
One of the first feminists in the business, she became very selective about roles, standing up to the male-dominated studio system - out-cussing even the crudest of studio heads. It was for her profanity-laced manner of speaking, that amongst friends and co-workers, she was lovingly referred to as "the profane angel" - because she looked like an angel but swore like a longshoreman. Adding to the effusive joy she provoked, she was a slavish practical joker, with many of her stunts entering Hollywood lore - from showing up to a "nervous breakdown" party in an ambulance to corralling three cows festooned with nametags on set for Alfred Hitchcock, who had famously remarked that all actors "were cattle." She was, in fact, impossible not to like, and everyone from the studio heads down to the studio security guards fell in love with her.
Lombard was particularly noted for the zaniness of her performances, described as a "natural prankster, a salty tongued straight-shooter, a feminist precursor and one of the few stars who was beloved by the technicians and studio functionaries who worked with her". Life magazine noted that her film personality transcended to real life, "her conversation, often brilliant, is punctuated by screeches, laughs, growls, gesticulations and the expletives of a sailor's parrot". Graham Greene praised the "heartbreaking and nostalgic melodies" of her faster-than-thought delivery.
Physical Characteristics:
Carole Lombard was a platinum blonde, with a heart-shaped face, delicate, impish features and a figure made to be swathed in silver lamé. She did hold a powerful attraction for men because she could be elegant and kooky, gorgeous and grounded; a lover and a pal all at the same time with the best cheekbones this side of Marlene Dietrich.
Injured in a car crash - her face went into the windshield - she required major plastic surgery to repair a large scar on the left side of her face. Knowing the results would be best without it, she went under the knife sans anesthetic. Thankfully, the surgery was largely successful; the scar was only slightly visible and Lombard would later learn how to appropriately light her face to cover up this single flaw. But this being the Silent Era, when close-ups of actors' faces did the work of dialogue, Lombard was terrified her career was over. Ironically, it was just about to take off and her scar would help shape her later on-screen identity.
Quotes from others about the person
Robert D. Matzen: "among the most commercially successful and admired film personalities in Hollywood in the 1930s", and feminist writer June Sochen believes that Lombard "demonstrated great knowledge of the mechanics of film making".
George Raft: "I truly loved Carole Lombard. She was the greatest girl that ever lived and we were the best of pals. Completely honest and outspoken, she was liked by everyone".
Interests
Sport & Clubs
The young Lombard was passionately involved in sports. At school, she participated in tennis, volleyball, and swimming, and won trophies for her achievements in athletics.
Connections
In 1930 Carole met the actor William Powell. Although he was 16 years her senior, they fell in love and were married in 1931. Powell saw in Lombard what audiences did not quite see yet onscreen. Unfortunately, these qualities were not enough to save the marriage. Lombard, an extrovert, and Powell, an introvert, divorced in 1933. The divorce was not bitter, however, and they remained friends for the rest of her life. In fact, it would be Powell who campaigned for his ex to land the role that would make her a major star.
She then began a passionate romance with Italian crooner Russ Columbo, who was devoted to her. However, the couple's happiness was cut tragically short when the up-and-coming singer was killed by a freak gun accident at his friend's home. Apparently, an antique gun still contained powder inside and shot a lead ball into Columbo's forehead after being set off by a cigarette lit against the wooden stock. He died instantly. Not surprisingly, Lombard was inconsolable, but focused on work even more than before.
While enjoying her star status, as well as a reputation as the town's best event planner - her wacky parties would still be discussed years after her death - Lombard was also finding romance again. Two years after Columbo's accidental death, Lombard met up with Gable at a 1936 party she was hosting. Times being different, they immediately fell for one another and began dating on the sly, as Gable was married at the time. Because the couple was so adored both apart and together, fans accepted them without question. In fact, Rhea Gable became the villain of the mix, with fans urging her to divorce the King so he could freely be with Lombard. A hesitant Gable eventually agreed to play Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind" (1939) for the sole purpose of earning a big enough paycheck to finally pay off his ex-wife. The glamorous twosome - who affectionately called each other "Ma" and "Pa" - finally tied the knot after three years of dating on March 29, 1939, delighting fans and cementing their status as one of the most revered of Hollywood couples.
On the homefront, the Gables were enjoying wedded bliss. Gable - who had lost his mother during childbirth - seemed to blossom in the relationship, having married much older women previously. In Lombard, he had more than met his match. Not only did she go out of her way to make him laugh, but she took up many of his interests without losing herself in the process. The same woman who rented out the entire Santa Monica Pier for one of the most famous bashes in the history of the town, was now perfectly content to hole up with her husband in muddied duck blinds in South Dakota. In fact, Lombard eventually became a better shot than her spouse, a life-long hunter. She set up house on a ranch in Encino, California, creating a rugged and masculine home for the man who had never really had one. When not off on hunting trips, they spent their downtime riding horses, raising chickens and entertaining a few close friends. The only sore spot continued to be his sometimes wandering eye and their inability to conceive a child.
Unfortunately, a dramatic event was about to intervene on their domestic tranquility. After the December 7, 1941 attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, America was plunged into WWII. When America entered the war, Gable assumed the chairmanship of the Hollywood Victory Committee, and because he himself was not enthused by the idea, nominated his wife to travel the country for one of the first war bond drives. Ever the patriot, she plunged into planning a trip which would culminate in her home state of Indiana. After selling more war bonds in a single day than anyone - $2 million - she, her mother, and Gable's MGM press agent Otto Winkler (along to chaperone) flipped a coin on whether to return to California via train or plane. Bessie was petrified of flying, so pled with her daughter to take the train. Lombard would have none of it, due mainly to a sneaking suspicion that Gable might be carousing with his latest co-star, Lana Turner, on the set of their film "Somewhere I'll Find You" (1942). Lombard won the coin toss. The trio boarded a DC-3 and started the long journey home from Indianapolis. Despite being asked to disembark to make room for soldiers during one of the plane's stops, Lombard - who was technically on a government mission - for once in her life pulled rank, insisting she and the others remain on the plane.
At the same time that Gable and a group of friends awaited the star with a welcome home party, the plane crashed shortly after take-off on January 16, 1942. Flying in a blackout zone, the pilot was off course and with less than 100 feet making the difference, collided with the top of Table Rock Mountain just southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Lombard, her mother, Winkler and 18 other people died instantly.
William Powell was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett.
Clark Gable was an American film actor and military officer, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood" or just simply as "The King".
Collegue :
Mary Josephine Dunn
(May 1, 1906 – February 3, 1983)
Mary Josephine Dunn was an American film actress of the 1920s and 1930s.
References
Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3
This fresh look at Hollywood's "Queen of Screwball," Carole Lombard, presents a first-ever examination of the events, that led to the shocking flight mishap, that took her life on the side of a Nevada mountain in 1942. It also provides a day-by-day account of the struggles of Lombard's husband, Clark Gable, and other family, friends and fans to cope with the tragedy.
2013
Screwball: The Life of Carole Lombard
Uninhibited, vivacious and a startling talent, Carole Lombard was the darling of her day. Her wit and charm made her the social, as well as artistic hub, around which Hollywood revolved during the '30's. She was years before her time in her sophistication, and her independence established her as an oracle of the New Woman. She was an enchanting beauty and a great artist - the supreme comedienne during the high point of American film comedy. In this work, Larry Swindell vividly recreates her career and extraordinary personal life. Her fabled love affair and marriage with Clark Gable are here put into proper focus for the first time.
