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Gone with the Wednesday: Carole Lombard O’Hara
Since it’s time for another Gone with the Wednesday and it’s the end of Carole Lombard month, let’s combine the two! Carole Lombard was a warm-blooded female in the 1930’s, which means she read Gone with the Wind and dreamed of playing Scarlett. Carole was so enamored with the idea that she appealed to everyone’s first choice for Rhett Butler—Clark Gable, naturally. Before they were romantically involved, she reportedly sent him a copy of the book with a note that said, “Let’s do it! Carole.” Clark promptly called her up for a date, thinking it was a proposition of a different sort. When it turned out not to be, that…
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Carole Lombard Top 5
Of course an interest in Clark Gable and his films often comes hand in hand with an interest in Carole Lombard and then her films. I am asked sometimes to recommend Carole Lombard books and films. As far as books go, the definitive Carole Lombard biography has yet to be written. “Gable and Lombard” by Warren Harris is good on both of them (just avoid the horrible film of the same name). “Screwball” by Larry Swindell isn’t horrible but is not very appealing to Gable fans as Swindell does not bother to hide his personal dislike of Clark, for whatever reason. Also there is a lot missing, probably because it…
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Gossip Friday: Gone Garbo
From November 1936: Guess who really has gone Garbo on us in a big way? It’s none other than our own party-loving Carole Lombard, who hasn’t been seen out publicly in many a day. What’s more, Carole doesn’t want one single word printed about her romance with Clark Gable. Her close friends say it is still going on and much more serious than Carole wants the world to believe. And it was only yesterday that wild horses couldn’t have kept Carole home for an evening. It must be love.
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Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and the Bracelet that Raises Questions
Back in the days before internet, before the “IT” couple of the moment is photographed everywhere from airports to grocery stores and gas stations, it wasn’t exactly easy to pinpoint the when, why and where of celebrity romances. Gable and Lombard were no different. As any Clark Gable and Carole Lombard fan knows, the much-publicized place of their first romantic spark was the Mayfair Ball in February 1936. But is that true? Were there romantic sparks before then? I have come across some people who claim that Clark and Carole had something going on during the filming of No Man of Her Own and off and on since…
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Carole Lombard Roundup!
I have done Carole Lombard Month the past five years and I know how past posts get lost in the shuffle, so here is a round-up of past items about Carole Lombard: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Photos: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard on a Picnic On Valentine’s Day, Clark Gable Drives Carole Lombard Crazy! Carole Lombard Behaving Like a Mugg! Culver City Welcomes Mrs. Rhett Butler 1938: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Attend the Marie Antoinette Premiere A Photographer’s View on Gone with the Wind and Carole Lombard Hollywood: Carole Lombard Lived Here Ahoy to the USS Carole Lombard Property of Carole Lombard Clark and Carole at the Races…
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Gossip Friday: Unknown Backstage
From September 1937: Carole Lombard tells this one on herself. It seems that during the Los Angeles run of “Idiot’s Delight,” Clark Gable took Carole to see Lynn Fountanne and Alfred Lunt in this latest of their plays. Upon being introduced to Carole backstage after the play, Miss Fontanne asked Carole, quite naively: “Are you English?” Whereupon Carole replied she was not. “Oh,” said Miss Fontanne, “are you in pictures then?” Carole smiled in her best Gracie Allen fashion and replied, “Yes–I’m just around–” And we’d give a pretty penny to learn what Miss Fontanne’s reaction was when she found out to whom she’d been speaking!
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Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and One Wild Cat
Carole Lombard was known for her menagerie of animals. Her home in Bel-Air was affectionately referred to as “the Farm,” because of its diverse residents: a rooster, cats, dogs, doves and ducks. In early 1937, Clark Gable had some time between films and set off on a hunting trip to Arizona. This was before they were married thus it was inappropriate for Carole to accompany him, so she flippantly requested he bring her back “a wildcat or two.” Little did she know that Clark would take her seriously… He returned from his trip with a seventy-five pound mountain lion cub, complete with sharp claws and teeth and a personality to…
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Photos: Farmer Gable and His Wife
Photos from the November 1939 edition of Silver Screen magazine: They really live on a ranch, but Carole and Clark call it “The Farm.” It has fourteen acres in Encino, California, and they bought it from Director Raoul Walsh, who used to live there. Their house isn’t very large, but it’s built for comfort and informality. Carole and Clark did all of the furnishing and decorating themselves. There’s a large main living room with a small adjacent bar; a cozy dining room off which is the kitchen and butler’s pantry; two small cellar rooms, one of which Clark calls his “gun room” and the other “the office” because that’s where…
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Gossip Friday: All Done Up in Cold Cream
From May 1936: It is not often that you can get a gasp of surprise out of the famous Fieldsie, Carole Lombard’s best friend and secretary, for she knows all the tricks and all the answers, but when she read in the gossip column of several chatter writers the other morning that Miss Carole Lombard had attended the swanky Turf Ball on Saturday night looking perfectly devastating in white and with Clark Gable she nearly fell out of bed. For it seems that on that Saturday night all done up in cold cream and looking anything but devastating Li’l Missy Lombard played double solitaire with Fieldsie until two in the…
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{New Article} 1942: A Letter to Heaven
This article is one of many memorial pieces printed in April 1942, the first month after Carole Lombard’s January death that most of the magazines caught up to the news. It is written by someone named “Romayne,” who says they worked with Carole. Pretty sure that’s a pseudonym, but a touching piece nonetheless… Carole Dear: You said you were coming to our set to visit us next week. You said we’d have fun like we had before. So I looked forward to a lot of laughter. You said that Clark, Ruggles, you and I would have our pictures taken together and that we’d call that ‘little number our anniversary.’ That…