Quote: Barbara Stanwyck on Carole Lombard

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So alive, modern, frank, and natural that she stands out like a beacon on a lightship in this odd place called Hollywood.

-Barbara Stanwyck about Carole Lombard


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Quote of the Week: Clark Gable on Carole Lombard

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Sometimes I wonder how Carole would take things the way they are today, and I always come up with the same answer–with a laugh. She’d get through it better than me.

- Clark Gable,in the fifties

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Quote of the Week

Who do I have to screw to get off this picture?

-Attributed to Carole Lombard on the set of Supernatural (1933)

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Book Review--Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3

Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3
Robert Matzen
GoodKnight Books, 2013

In order to properly tell the story of the 1942 death of 22 passengers in TWA flight 3, a crash that has endured in memory because one of them was the glamorous film star Carole Lombard, author Robert Matzen strove for authenticity. He thought he could do no better than climbing to the site of the crash on towering Mt. Potosi in Nevada, a chilly peak with a view of Las Vegas below. The four hour climb led him to a site where there were still shards of metal covering the ground, enough that he could hear them crunching with each step. There were other fragments as well, even human bones.

This is the chilling introduction to a detailed, touching account of the crash that killed soldiers, an air hostess, two pilots, the actress, her mother and her husband Clark Gable's assistant and best friend Otto Winkler. The actress was rushing home to see her husband after selling two million dollars in bonds in a whirlwind fundraising campaign. She feared Gable was getting too cozy with current costar Lana Turner and was desperate to distract his roving eye with her presence. Lombard gets most of the attention, but every passenger on board gets a moment, and that's what makes it such an effective, devastating story.

Having never read a book about Carole Lombard (how can that be?) I can't say whether Fireball adds anything of significance to her story. It appears that much of the biographical information comes from Larry Swindell's book about the star, with a few more tidbits from Carole Lombard, The Hoosier Tornado by Wes D. Gehring. I craved more detail in these sections, but the brief biographical gloss did what it was meant to do. You certainly know what the world has lost once you see what this generous, energetic woman had to offer.

In the first part of the book, chapters alternate between Lombard's life and the story of the crash. While I've seen this work before where a dramatic event dominates the life of a subject, it was a bit distracting here. I found it jarring to be tossed back and forth along the timeline.

There's a point though where the tragedy of the crash begins to close in though and the story forges forward without distraction. The intensity of the narrative increases as it becomes clear that lives were not only lost, but destroyed in the aftermath of the crash. Clark Gable and Otto Winkler's wife Jill carried the weight of their losses for the rest of their lives. It was an event so horrible that they could not even attempt to recover.

Lombard selling bonds

There are others who also could not escape the fallout from flight 3. Widows and widowers who were at the beginning of a happy life together, or who were together for so long that they couldn't imagine continuing without each other. One soldier who hoped to help a fellow army man by giving up his seat on the plane went on to enjoy success and happiness, but never set aside the pain of knowing that he had it all because he dodged death with what he thought was an act of generosity. The dozens of rescuers who worked to document the crash site and retrieve bodies would have nightmares the rest of their lives about the horrors they witnessed.

That brutality is described in detail. Some sections of Fireball are so graphic that I wondered if they might be too traumatic for some of the more devoted fans of Lombard. I assume that any reader would know they were in for something heavy in reading this book, and it is truly a rough read in that regard. The only upside: the plane hit the mountain so hard, so quickly that it is unlikely most of the passengers knew what was happening.

I don't know if I've been brought to tears as many times reading a book as I have this one. Learning the stories of all who were involved, from the crash victims to family and friends was moving, but also unbearably sad. It was a great show of respect to tell all 22 stories and to acknowledge the enduring effects of this unfortunate event. I'm glad I know what happened, and that I now understand the true impact of the crash, but that knowledge haunts me and I'm sure it always will.

Thank you to GoodKnight Books for providing a copy of the book for review.

March in March Blogathon: Nothing Sacred (1937)

This post is part of the March-in-March blog event at Sittin' On a Backyard Fence. Check out the rest of the entries here.
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Though I love Fredric March in dramas, his comedies usually leave me kind of ‘eh.’ He tends to be a bit wooden in these roles, as if he doesn’t quite know how to loosen up. The way he sort of announces his lines in that barky tone makes it seem like he’s reading them off cue cards.

As I’ve long been aware of this aversion, my adoration of March in Nothing Sacred (1937) has confused me. Why does his performance in this movie charm me so much when there are Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly and Charles Winninger to overshadow him? Not to mention all those silly bit parts.

I’ve decided it’s got to be the slapstick. I love the way March moves in this movie. He’s goofy, but precise. While his motions are nearly always exaggerated, he never seems to lose control. For this reason, I think this is one of the best March performances to watch (I’m still not fond of the way he speaks).

I tested this theory by playing the movie without sound, and I thought he was even funnier. His double-takes, raised eyebrows and generally baffled reactions play out like a screwball ballet.

March plays Wally Cook, a newspaper reporter who is on the hunt for a new sensation to bring him back from the scandal of a faked story and demotion to the obituary department. He thinks he’s found his way back to the top with a sob story about Hazel Flagg (Lombard), a small town girl who appears to be dying of radium poisoning. Wally whisks her from her wretchedly peaceful Vermont hometown to New York, where she becomes a celebrity for facing her sure to be painful death with cheerful bravery. Hazel isn’t really sick, but she can’t resist a free trip to the big city. Wally is doomed.

Some of March’s funniest slapstick is in the scenes set in Hazel’s hometown. As he moves among the hostile and suspicious townspeople, their constant insults inspire a flurry of flinches and grimaces. It is as if these small town folks are shooting at him with tiny arrows and he’s an angry giant stomping in the main square, grunting like Frankenstein’s monster. An exchange of unintended spittle bombs between March and a huffy store keeper played by Margaret Hamilton has got to be rare if not unique in the history of the movies. Though he reacts in the exaggerated style of a silent movie actor, he somehow isn’t overacting.

When a little boy actually bites March in the leg, you can see him almost give up. He rips his hat off his head and flings it to the ground. He doesn’t just toss it, he lifts it way over his head and gives it a good slam. I think part of the reason this is so funny is that he puts so much more energy into that than he does tending to his leg.

 March uses his arms enthusiastically in Sacred. He swings them energetically when he walks and he often holds them up to protect himself. It’s as if he thinks that if he is handy enough with those appendages, he can protect himself from the insanity around him. Several times he is literally holding characters back at arm’s length, as they lean towards him menacingly, or even try to take a swing at him.

Nothing Sacred is probably most famous for a big fight scene between Lombard and March at the climax of the film. As much as I love March’s flailing in the rest of the movie, Lombard kicks his behind in this scene, at least for laughs. Her frantic puffing and uninhibited swings would overshadow anyone. Still, he makes his mark in the scene. He is an honorable straight man when Lombard has him beat.

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 I like the big-headed figurines in the opening credits, but what the heck? Does this look at all like March?

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Happy Birthday to the Profane Angel

I can think of no better way of celebrating birthday gal Carole Lombard than with a profanity-laced blooper reel from one of my favorite movies: My Man Godfrey (1936). Here's to the Profane Angel!

A Gable and Lombard Haunting?

According to the Trip Tip Guys, there have been reports over the years of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard haunting a room at the Oatman Hotel in Oatman, Arizona. Apparently, the pair honeymooned there in 1939, after they tied the knot in Kingman, Arizona, and they enjoyed a few return visits in the years before Lombard’s sudden 1942 death in a plane crash. Guests and staff have reported hearing “faint whispering and giggling coming from their old room, particularly at night, when it was vacant. Lights sometimes flicker on and off and toilets are heard to flush in the empty bathrooms.” I suppose it’s just better business for the hotel to assume that their ghosts were glamorous movie stars and not another happy pair that had also been in the room? Whatever the case, it is pretty amusing to think of Gable and Lombard having a great time in the afterlife.

Here’s the link to the full article. The haunted hotel piece is the last section.