Goodbye, Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard Gable died 84 years ago today, when her plane crashed into Mount Potosi outside Las Vegas. She was 33 years old. 84 years is so hard to believe–if you look at the picture above, it could have been taken yesterday. Something about Carole just transcends her era.

From the Associated Press:

Millions Knew Carole

Hollywood, Jan.17–Millions of Americans are going to miss Carole Lombard on the screen. She was killed in a plane crash early today. But she’ll be especially mourned in Hollywood, where she was universally liked because she debunked with that was artificial or insincere. Carol’s name is spelled C-a-r-o-l-e–that final “e” appeared on the screen through a typographical error for the first time. And to alibi this, her studio announces that she had consulted a numerologist who told her that a 13-letter name was better than a 12-letter one. Associated Press writer Hubbard Keavy asked Carole Lombard about that numerology, and she replied: “Don’t let ’em kid you, honey. That’s a lot of bunk, but since they’re paying me so well, I don’t give a darn how they spell my name.”

Miss Lombard’s marriage to Clark Gable was one of Hollywood’s ideal romances. She wanted very much to have children, but her health wouldn’t permit. Carole loved to play practical jokes, such as sending Gable a big ham after their first meeting. The Gables lived in an unpretentious ranch house, entertaining only the people they both liked. And when they could, Carole and Clark rode away in their station wagon to hunt or fish–or just to ride. Her pet name for her husband was “Pappy.”

Here’s something Carole Lombard said not long ago. It’s very characteristic of her: She declared, “I hope that I never lose the thrill of buying a new dress. Sure, I could buy a dozen dresses at a time, but what fun is that? I like to shop around; it’s fun. I like to buy a suit and wonder if Pappy will like it. I like to buy a hat and hope it’ll look silly–but not too silly.”

Carole Lombard was thirty-three years old, a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana. She broke into pictures when she was sixteen, playing in the old Mack Sennett comedies. In 1936, co-starred opposite William Powell–her first husband–she set the style for the long cycle of screwball comedies. Only a few weeks ago, she completed a comedy called “To Be or Not To Be,” with Jack Benny

Searchers Near Plane Wreckage, 22 Believed Dead

Searchers with pack horses are nearing the wreckage of a TWA plane that crashed last night near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Twenty-two passengers, including Screen Star Carole Lombard and fifteen army fliers of the Ferry Command, are believed dead. The wreckage has been sighted more than 8,000 feet up Table Mountain in the rugged Charleston Range. Doctors, two ambulances, and a searching party of twenty-five automobiles rushed toward the scene, but the last twenty miles of the journey into the wild mountain range could be negotiated only on foot.

The Trans-continental and Western air-transport exploded against the side of snow-covered Table Mountain last night, while enroute from Albuquerque to the West Coast. Mine workers near Las Vegas saw the flash of the explosion as the airline struck. And a few moments later a Western Airlines pilot flew across the flaming wreckage. He said there were no signs of life. Rescue parties set out during the night. They were expected to reach the scene–some 8,000 feet up the side of the mountain–some time this morning.

Gable Crushed

On the screen, Clark Gable is a suave, swashbuckling hero. Nothing ever really upsets him. He has ice water in his veins. But today there is a different Clark Gable , a Clark Gable with disheveled hair and reddened eyes, a Clark Gable who looks like a broken man, a Clark Gable who spent the night nervously pacing a floor, and chain-smoking cigarettes, waiting for word about his wife, the beautiful Carole Lombard, in a TWA airliner which crashed in the Nevada mountains. Gable wanted to join the rescue party going to the scene of the wreckage, but police persuaded him not to.