Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard
Born	Jane Alice Peters October 6, 1908(1908-10-06) Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.
Died	January 16, 1942(1942-01-16) (aged 33) Mount Potosi, Nevada, U.S.
Cause of death	Plane crash
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1921–1942
Spouse	William Powell (1931–1933; divorced) Clark Gable (1939–1942; her death)

Carole Lombard (October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress.^[1] She is particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s. She is listed as one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time and was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s, earning around US $500,000 per year^{[citation needed]} (more than five times the salary of the US President). Lombard's career was cut short when she died at the age of 33 in a plane crash while returning from a World War II Bond tour.

Queen of the 1930s screwball comedies, she personified the anxiety of a nervous age. Graham Greene praised the "heartbreaking and nostalgic melodies" of her faster-than-thought delivery. "Platinum blonde, with a heart-shaped face, delicate, impish features and a figure made to be swathed in silver lamé, she wriggled expressively through such classics of hysteria as Twentieth Century and My Man Godfrey."^[2]

Ancestry and early life

Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her parents were Frederick C. Peters (1875–1935) and Elizabeth Knight (1877 – January 16, 1942). Her paternal grandfather, John Claus Peters, was the son of German immigrants, Claus Peters and Caroline Catherine Eberlin.^{[citation needed]} On her mother's side, she was a descendant of Thomas Hastings who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.^[3] Lombard was the youngest of three children, having two older brothers, Fred C. Peters Jr. and Stuart Peters. She spent her early childhood in a sprawling, two-story house at 704 Rockhill Street in Fort Wayne, near the St. Mary's River. Her father had been injured during a work related accident and was left with constant headaches which caused him to burst out in paroxysms of anger which disturbed the family. Lombard's parents divorced and her mother took the three children to Los Angeles in 1914, where Lombard attended Virgil Jr. High School and then Fairfax High School. She was elected May Queen in 1924. She quit school to pursue acting full-time, but eventually graduated from Fairfax in 1927.^[4] Lombard was a second generation Bahá'í who formally enrolled in 1938.^[5]

Career

In the classic screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (1936)

Lombard made her film debut at the age of twelve after she was seen playing baseball in the street by director Allan Dwan; he cast her as a tomboy in A Perfect Crime (1921). In the 1920s, she worked in several low-budget productions credited as Jane Peters, and later as Carol Lombard. Her friend Miriam Cooper helped Lombard land small roles in her husband Raoul Walsh's films.^[6] In 1925, she was signed as a contract player with Fox Film Corporation (which merged with Daryl Zanuck's Twentieth Century Productions in 1935). She also worked for Pathé Exchange and appeared as one of Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties in 1928^[7]. She quickly became a well-known actress and made a smooth transition to sound films, starting with High Voltage (1929). In 1930, she won a contract with Paramount Pictures after having been dropped from both Twentieth Century and Pathé Exchange.

Lombard achieved a few minor successes in the early 1930s. In 1930's Safety in Numbers with Charles "Buddy" Rogers and 1932's No Man of Her Own with Clark Gable, but she was continually cast in second-rate films. It was not until 1934 that her career began to take off. That year, director Howard Hawks encountered Lombard at a party and became enamored with her saucy personality, thinking her just right for his latest project. He hired her for Twentieth Century, alongside stage legend John Barrymore. Lombard was at first intimidated by Barrymore, but the two quickly developed a good working rapport. The film bolstered Lombard's reputation immensely and brought her a level of fame that her previously lackluster career had denied her.

In Vigil in the Night (1940)

Also in 1934, she starred in Bolero with George Raft and it was for this film that she turned down the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night.^[8] In 1935 she starred in Mitchell Leisen's Hands Across the Table which helped to establish her reputation as a top comedy actress. 1936 proved to be a big year for Lombard with her casting in the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey alongside ex-husband William Powell who refused to do the film unless Carole was cast opposite him. Although divorced, Lombard and Powell remained close until her death. Her performance earned Lombard an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. It was followed by Nothing Sacred in 1937, casting her opposite Fredric March and under the direction of William A. Wellman. It was Lombard's only film in Technicolor and was regarded a critical and commercial smash. Nothing Sacred put Lombard at the top of the Hollywood tier and established her as one of the highest paid actresses in the business.

In 1938, Lombard suffered a flop with Fools for Scandal and moved on to dramatic films for the next few years. In 1939, Lombard took roles opposite James Stewart in producer David O. Selznick's Made for Each Other (1939) and Cary Grant in In Name Only (1939). She also starred in the dramatic Vigil in the Night in 1940.

Audiences did not respond as well to Lombard in dramatic roles and she made a return to comedy, teaming with director Alfred Hitchcock in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941). The film gave Lombard's career a much needed boost and she followed her success with what proved to be her last film, and one of her most successful, To Be or Not to Be (1942).

Personal life

as Hazel Flagg in one of her personal favorites, Nothing Sacred (1937)

In October 1930, Lombard met William Powell. They had worked together in the films Man of the World and Ladies' Man. Unlike many of Lombard's other suitors at the time, Powell was urbane and sophisticated. He also appreciated her blunt personality and bawdy sense of humor. They married on June 26, 1931. Lombard commented to fan magazines that she did not believe their sixteen-year age difference would present a problem, but friends felt they were ill-suited, as Lombard had an extroverted personality while Powell was more reserved. They divorced in 1933, but remained good friends and worked together without acrimony, notably in My Man Godfrey.

In 1934, following her divorce from Powell, Lombard moved into a house on Hollywood Boulevard. She lived with a friend from the days of Mack Sennett, Madalynne Fields, who became Lombard's personal secretary and whom Lombard called "Fieldsie." Lombard became known as one of Hollywood's great hostesses for her outrageous parties with unconventional themes. During this time she carried on relationships with actors Gary Cooper and George Raft, as well as the screenwriter Robert Riskin.

Also during 1934, Lombard met and began a serious affair with crooner Russ Columbo. Columbo reportedly proposed marriage, but was killed in a freak shooting accident at the age of 26. To reporters, Lombard said Columbo was the love of her life.

Lombard's most famous relationship came in 1936 when she became involved with actor Clark Gable. They had worked together previously in 1932's No Man of Her Own, but at the time, Lombard was still happily married to Powell and knew Gable to have the reputation of a roving eye. They were indifferent to each other on the set and did not keep in touch.

It was not until 1936, when Gable and Lombard reunited at the Mayfair Ball, of which Lombard was hostess, that their romance began to take off. Gable, however, was married at the time to oil heiress Ria Langham, and the affair was kept quiet. The situation proved a major obstacle in Gable accepting the role of Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, as MGM head Louis B. Mayer sweetened the deal for a reluctant Clark Gable by giving him enough money to settle a divorce agreement with Langham and marry Lombard. Gable divorced Langham on March 7, 1939 and proposed to Lombard in a telephone booth at the Brown Derby.

On March 29, 1939, during a break in production on Gone with the Wind, Gable and Lombard drove out to Kingman, Arizona and were married in a quiet ceremony with only Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler, in attendance. They bought a ranch previously owned by director Raoul Walsh in Encino, California and lived a happy, unpretentious life, calling each other "Ma" and "Pa" and raising chickens and horses. They also attempted to have children but were not successful.

Off-screen, Lombard was much loved for her down-to-earth personality and well known for an earthy sense of humor and use of blue language. Friends of Lombard's included Alfred Hitchcock, Marion Davies, William Haines, Jean Harlow, Fred MacMurray, Cary Grant, Jack Benny, Jorge Negrete, William Powell, and Lucille Ball.

Death

When the US 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. After raising over $2 million in defense bonds, Lombard addressed her fans, saying: "Before I say goodbye to you all, come on and join me in a big cheer! V for Victory!" Lombard, anxious to return home to husband Clark Gable, wanted to take a plane instead of a train. Her mother and Winkler were both afraid of flying. They begged her to take the train. Lombard said they would flip a coin, heads the train, tails the plane. The coin came up tails.^[9]

On January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother, and Winkler boarded a Transcontinental and Western Air DC-3 airplane to return to California. After refueling in Las Vegas, TWA Flight 3 took off and 23 minutes later, crashed into "Double Up Peak" near the 8,300 ft (2,500 m) level of Mount Potosi, 32 statute miles (51 km) southwest of Las Vegas. All 22 aboard, including 15 army servicemen, were killed instantly.

On January 18, 1942, Jack Benny did not perform his usual program, both out of respect for Lombard and grief at her death. Instead, he devoted his program to an all-music format.

Shortly after her death at the age of 33, Gable (who was inconsolable and devastated by her loss) joined the United States Army Air Forces. After officer training, Gable headed a six-man motion picture unit attached to a B-17 bomb group in England to film aerial gunners in combat, flying five missions himself. Gable attended the launch of the Liberty ship SS Carole Lombard on January 15, 1944.

Lombard's final film, To Be or Not to Be (1942), directed by Ernst Lubitsch and co-starring Jack Benny, a satire about Nazism and World War II, was in post-production at the time of her death. The film's producers decided to cut part of the film in which Lombard's character asks, "What can happen on a plane?" as they felt it was in poor taste, given the circumstances of her death.

At the time of her death, Lombard had been scheduled to star in the film They All Kissed the Bride; when production started, her role was given to Joan Crawford. Crawford donated all of her pay for this film to the Red Cross.

Lombard is interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. The name on her crypt marker is Carole Lombard Gable. Although Gable remarried, he was interred next to her when he died in 1960. Bess Peters was also interred beside her daughter.

Awards and honors

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the 50 greatest American female screen legends. She received one Academy Award for Best Actress nomination, for My Man Godfrey. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6930 Hollywood Blvd.

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.

Portrayals

She has been played by:

• Jill Clayburgh in Gable and Lombard (1976)
• Sharon Gless in Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980)
• Denise Crosby in Malice in Wonderland (1985)
• Anastasia Hille in RKO 281 (1999)
• Vanessa Gray in Lucy (2003)

Filmography

Features

• A Perfect Crime (1921)
• Gold Heels (1924)
• Dick Turpin (1925)
• Marriage in Transit (1925)
• Gold and the Girl (1925)
• Hearts and Spurs (1925)
• Durand of the Bad Lands (1925)
• The Plastic Age (1925)
• Ben-Hur (1925)
• The Road to Glory (1926)
• The Johnstown Flood (1926)
• The Fighting Eagle (1927)
• My Best Girl (1927)
• The Divine Sinner (1928)
• Power (1928)
• Me, Gangster (1928)
• Show Folks (1928)
• Ned McCobb's Daughter (1928)
• High Voltage (1929)
• Big News (1929)
• The Racketeer (1929)
• The Arizona Kid (1930)
• Safety in Numbers (1930)
• Fast and Loose (1930)
• It Pays to Advertise (1931)
• Man of the World (1931)
• Ladies' Man (1931)
• Up Pops the Devil (1931)
• I Take This Woman (1931)
• No One Man (1932)
• Sinners in the Sun (1932)
• Virtue (1932)
• No More Orchids (1932)
• No Man of Her Own (1932)
• From Hell to Heaven (1933)
• Supernatural (1933)
• The Eagle and the Hawk (1933)
• Brief Moment (1933)
• White Woman (1933)
• Bolero (1934)
• We're Not Dressing (1934)
• Twentieth Century (1934)
• Now and Forever (1934)
• Lady by Choice (1934)
• The Gay Bride (1934)
• Rumba (1935)
• Hands Across the Table (1935)
• Love Before Breakfast (1936)
• The Princess Comes Across (1936)
• My Man Godfrey (1936)
• Swing High, Swing Low (1937)
• Nothing Sacred (1937)
• True Confession (1937)
• Fools for Scandal (1938)
• Made for Each Other (1939)
• In Name Only (1939)
• Vigil in the Night (1940)
• They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
• To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Short subjects

• Smith's Pony (1927)
• Gold Digger of Weepah (1927)
• The Girl from Everywhere (1927)
• Run, Girl, Run (1928)
• The Beach Club (1928)
• Smith's Army Life (1928)
• The Best Man (1928)
• The Swim Princess (1928)
• The Bicycle Flirt (1928)
• The Girl from Nowhere (1928)
• His Unlucky Night (1928)
• Smith's Restaurant (1928)
• The Campus Vamp (1928)
• Motorboat Mamas (1928)
• Hubby's Weekend Trip (1928)
• The Campus Carmen (1928)
• Matchmaking Mamma (1929)
• Don't Get Jealous (1929)
• Hollywood on Parade No. 11 (1933)
• Hollywood on Parade No. A-12 (1933)
• The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935)
• Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3 (1936)
• Breakdowns of 1938 (1938)
• Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)
• Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 9 (1939)

References

External links

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carole Lombard

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Carole Lombard

• Carole Lombard at the Internet Movie Database
• Carole Lombard at the TCM Movie Database
• Carole Lombard
• Photographs and bibliography
• The Carole Lombard Photo Archives
• Descendants of Thomas Hastings website
• Descendants of Thomas Hastings on Facebook
• "The house on Carole Lombard's street"