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Gossip Friday: Laughing Visitor
From June 1941: There is one laugh in Hollywood you can never mistake–Carole Lombard’s. I hear it when I come onto the “Honky Tonk” set at MGM, and sure enough, there is Carole howling at Clark Gable’s get-up for his gambler’s role in the Alaskan melodrama. Unperturbed, Gable takes her by the shoulders and kisses her upon the tip of her nose. “How are you, sweetie pie?” he asks. Director Jack Conway and the roughly dressed actors in the saloon scene look on and grin appreciatively. “Papa,” says Carole, “I hear you really were hamming it up a few minutes ago.” “Yeah,” says Clark. “You could smell the corn clear…
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Gossip Friday: No Buffalo
From January 1942: Solicitous cowboy friends keep sending Carole Lombard buffalo steaks. She hates ’em.
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Carole Lombard, Clark Gable and The Baby That Never Was
After they were married in 1939 and Carole Lombard had proficiently decorated and furnished their cozy Encino abode to suit her and her “moose” of a husband, Clark Gable, she set her sights on her next goal: motherhood. Unfortunately for the Gables, this was a wish that would remain unfulfilled. The consensus these days seems to be that Carole had some sort of medical problem that prevented her from becoming pregnant. Nowadays, a doctor would have told her first and foremost that she needed to stop the chain-smoking and perhaps dial down the coffee and Coca-Cola chugging. Clark fathered a daughter with Loretta Young and later on a son with…
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Gossip Friday: Mittens for Lombard
From January 1942: Mittens will soon be coming of age. One of the smartest innovations in accessories will be seen on the screen, when Carole Lombard wears mittens with sophisticated street clothes. The ever-original Irene has designed several woolen costumes for the glamorous star to wear in Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or Not to Be” and, in colors to match, simple little mitts of very fine knitted wool.
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{Photos} Gone Hunting
Much to the surprise of her friends, when Carole Lombard fell in love with Clark Gable she traded in her high heels and fur coats for rubber boots and shotguns. There was the glamorous movie star Carole Lombard, wading through swamps and crouching in duck blinds. Here are the Gables in their very finest: The screenshots from the infamous “duck dance” home video are adorable (if you ignore the poor dead ducks hanging around them): And…my favorite:
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{New Article} 1942: Gable’s “Hermit Wife”
Here is a short little article that appeared in the February 1942 edition of Screen Guide magazine. Sadly, by the time this issue hit newsstands, the spirited subject of the article would be dead. “Hermit” is a word that conjured up pictures of wizened characters with long white beards, living solitary lives in caves or tree-tops. Carole Lombard is blonde and beautiful; her “cave” is a 22-acre ranch in San Fernando Valley; and far from being alone, Carole is married to Clark Gable. But when you consider the sort of person Carole used to be, her present life does seem like complete seclusion. She used to make headlines on…
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Gossip Friday: Robbed!
From April 23, 1938: Carole Lombard told police today a watch given her by Clark Gable was among $25,000 jewelry stolen from her home.
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{New Article} Carole Lombard by Frederick Othman Part 3
Here is the final portion of Frederick Othman’s series on Carole Lombard, published on January 21, 1942. In this segment we learn she buried shrunken skulls in her yard! Carole Lombard and Gable Gave Up ‘Flossy’ Dwelling Happy Film Couple Lived in Simple Home Without Swimming Pool or Guest Rooms When Carole Lombard married Clark Gable in 1939, there was no whoop-de-do. They drove to Kingman, Ariz., in the coupe of their good friend and press agent, Otto Winkler, said their vows, and came home again. Then they held a reception at Carole’s house. The only guests were their old friends, the newspaper reporters. Everybody had a big time, host…
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{New Article} Carole Lombard by Frederick Othman Part 2
Continuing from yesterday’s post, here is part two of United Press Hollywood Correspondent Frederick Othman’s series on Carole Lombard, published January 20, 1942. Miss Lombard: Actress Liked to Pay Taxes Insisted on Huge Salary Because U.S. Took 75 Per Cent It will be a long time before Hollywood stops recalling and chuckling over the escapades of Carole Lombard, the girl who admitted she was crazy as a fox. She was scatter-brained–on purpose. She developed a vocabulary that would make a sailor blush–and for good reason. She was Hollywood’s leading screwball–and it made her $400,000 a year. Miss Lombard had been the lush and curvesome heroine of many a torrid drama…
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{New Article} Carole Lombard by Frederick Othman Part 1
Over the next three days, I’ll be sharing the three-part series United Press Hollywood correspondent Frederick Othman wrote after Carole Lombard’s death in January 1942. This first piece was syndicated in newspapers across the country on January 19, 1942. Carole’s Off-Screen Fun Equaled Screwball Roles Writer Friend Describes Pranks, Career of Actress; Carole Also Had Serious Side Of the press corps in the movie capital, none knew Carole Lombard better than Frederick C. Othman, United Press Hollywood correspondent. He reported her professional career, and, in addition, was a close friend. Therefore, he is particularly qualified to write of her life and her personality. The first of his three dispatches on…