Carole Lombard: A Woman’s First Job

“I’ve lived by a man’s code designed to fit a man’s world, yet at the same time I never forget that a woman’s first job is to choose the right shade of lipstick.”

— Carole Lombard

At age twelve Carole Lombard (b. Jane Alice Peters, 1908 -1942) was spotted playing baseball in the street by the legendary director Allan Dwan who cast her as a tom-boy in A Perfect Crime (’21).

A fine dramatic actress, Lombard was a genius in screwball comedies: Twentieth Century (’34), Hands Across the Table (’35), My Man Godfrey (’36), Nothing Sacred (’37), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (’41), and To Be or Not to Be (’42) are all classics.

An American patriot, Lombard, her mother and twenty other passengers, perished in a plane crash on January 16, 1942, while on a war bond rally.

Carole Lombard was dead at the age of 33.

Her last words to a crowd of fans in her home state of Indiana, just before boarding the doomed flight were, “Before I say goodbye to you all — come on! — join me in a big cheer – V for victory!”

Her husband, Clark Gable, was devastated.

I have always found it deeply moving that Gable and Lombard nicknamed each other Ma and Pa.