The tragic story of Carole Lombard

Hello  my classic buddies! Here we're again, and this time we're going to talk about one tragic but absolutely interesting story.  As you already understand from the tittle, today we're going to talk about Carole Lombart. On Jan. 16, 1942, Carole Lombard was best known as a screwball comedy actress. But not only was Lombard the highest paid actress of her time—starring in movies such as Twentieth Century, My Man Godfrey and Hitchcock’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith—she was also an outspoken New Deal Democrat, a supporter of FDR and the ongoing war effort. But before going there, let's found out a little more about who really was Carole. Lombard was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 6, 1908 at 704 Rockhill Street.[Christened with the name Jane Alice Peters, she was the third child and only daughter of Frederick Christian Peters (1875–1935) and Elizabeth Jayne "Bessie" (Knight) Peters (1876–1942). 

At age 12, Lombard had a small role in the film A Perfect Crime (1921). Here with Monte Blue. Described by her biographer Wes Gehring as "a free-spirited tomboy", the young Lombard was passionately involved in sports and enjoyed watching movies.  At the age of 12,  while playing baseball with friends, she caught the attention of the film director Allan Dwan, who later recalled seeing "a cute-looking little tomboy ... out there knocking the hell out of the other kids, playing better baseball than they were. And I needed someone of her type for this picture." With the encouragement of her mother, Lombard happily took a small role in the melodrama A Perfect Crime (1921). She was on set for two days, playing the sister of Monte Blue.[Dwan later commented, "She ate it up".

Aspiring actress, Fox (1921–26) A Perfect Crime was not widely distributed, but the brief experience spurred Lombard and her mother to look for more film work. The teenager attended several auditions, but none was successful. While appearing as the queen of Fairfax High School's May Day Carnival at the age of 15, she was scouted by an employee of Charlie Chaplin and offered a screen test to appear in his film The Gold Rush (1925). Lombard was not given the role, but it raised Hollywood's awareness of the aspiring actress. Her test was seen by the Vitagraph Film Company, which expressed an interest in signing her to a contract. Her first release of the year was Leisen's Swing High, Swing Low, a third pairing with MacMurray. 

The film focused on a romance between two cabaret performers, and was a critical and commercial success. It had been primarily a drama, with occasional moments of comedy, but for her next project, Lombard returned to the screwball genre. Lombard continued with comedies, next starring in what Swindell calls one of her "wackiest" films, True Confession (1937).  She played a compulsive liar who wrongly confesses to murder. Lombard loved the script and was excited about the project, which reunited her with John Barrymore and was her final appearance with MacMurray. Her prediction that it "smacked of a surefire success" proved accurate, as critics responded positively and it was popular at the box office.  Fools for Scandal was the only film Lombard made in 1938. By this time, she was devoted to a relationship with Clark Gable. Four years after their teaming on No Man of Her Own, the pair had reunited at a Hollywood party and began a romance early in 1936. The media took great interest in their partnership and frequently questioned if they would wed. 

Gable was separated from his wife, Rhea Langham, but she did not want to grant him a divorce. As his relationship with Lombard became serious, Langham eventually agreed to a settlement worth half a million dollars. 

The divorce was finalized in March 1939, and Gable and Lombard eloped in Kingman, Arizona, on March 29. 

The couple — both lovers of the outdoors — bought a 20-acre ranch in Encino, California, where they kept barnyard animals and enjoyed hunting trips.Almost immediately, Lombard wanted to start a family, but her attempts failed; after two miscarriages and numerous trips to fertility specialists, she was unable to have children. In early 1938, Lombard officially joined the Bahá'í Faith, of which her mother had been a member since 1922. 

There were also allegations of infidelity on Gable's part: In his 2014 book Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3, author Robert Matzen claimed Gable cheated on his wife with his 21-year-old co-star Lana Turner." Gable was self-centered and never felt it necessary to have self-discipline when it came to sex outside the relationship because he had a sense of what a catch he was," 

On the Indianapolis trip, Lombard was accompanied by her mother and Otto Winkler, Gable's press agent and longtime friend, who'd been with the couple when they eloped. Gable had asked him to assist Lombard on the journey. On the day they were to return to California, both Otto and Lombard's mother tried to talk her out of flying.  

Winkler had experienced a premonition of a plane crash just days before, according to the Post, and was concerned about flying in winter conditions. Peters had the psychic's words on her mind. Gable was devastated. He had been so proud of his wife, who had raised more than $2 million in bonds during her week away, and was excited to pick her up at the airport. When he learned of the news, he flew out to Nevada with Winkler's wife and a few others, and demanded that he be allowed to visit the wreckage himself. 

When locals tried to dissuade him from climbing the 7,800-foot-steep peak, a hike so treacherous and studded with cacti and boulders that even "experienced Indian guides and hardened trackers" found it challenging, he reportedly snapped, "If those Indians can go on horseback and on foot, I can go on horseback and on foot." 

But Lombard had scored last-minute seats on TWA Flight 3, desperate to get back and fix things with the man she called "Pappy" and "Mr. G." They decided on a coin toss to settle the dispute, and Lombard won. After a stop in Las Vegas to refuel, she, her mother, and Winkler lost their lives later that day en route to Los Angeles when their plane crash landed on Nevada's Potosi Mountain.

Gable was forever changed. "He rode his motorcycle recklessly, drank and smoked heavily," said Morgan. "He kept Lombard's bedroom unchanged. He signed up for the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942 and told friends he didn't care if he lived or died."He never stopped loving Lombard. 

When he died in 1960 at the age of 59, he was buried beside her at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.  Lombard's biographer says the beauty's tragedy is that "she died racing to get back to Gable: the man she loved but could not trust." 

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. "Platinum blonde, with a heart-shaped face, delicate, impish features and a figure made to be swathed in silver lamé, Lombard wriggled expressively through such classics of hysteria as Twentieth Century and My Man Godfrey."