“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.
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Bill Brandtsays
I heard that she was a heck of a billiards player – winning a lot of at San Simeon.
IIRC she kept a bit of Tomboy in her – yet was also feminine.
I think – for that fateful plane trip – she flipped a coin with her agent – or someone – to decided whether to travel by air our ground.
You can still find remnants of that plane on the mountain peak, which is difficult to access.
I heard that she was a heck of a billiards player – winning a lot of at San Simeon.
IIRC she kept a bit of Tomboy in her – yet was also feminine.
I think – for that fateful plane trip – she flipped a coin with her agent – or someone – to decided whether to travel by air our ground.
You can still find remnants of that plane on the mountain peak, which is difficult to access.
http://www.birdandhike.com/Hike/Other_Areas/Lombard/_Lombard_photos.htm
Thanks for that link, Bill. Great photos on that page.