Today’s Unlucky Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The same attractive qualities – directness, genuineness, and zest for life – that made Carole Lombard so well-liked in private life shone forth in her movie performances. Seldom has a show-business celebrity been so beloved by all who knew her. She was quite womanly, and attracted an array of male admirers. But she was also blessed with a salty, down-to-earth humor and a lack of pretense that made her “one of the boys.” She was good at acting, but loved sports equally as well. She knew how to host or enjoy a rousing party, but was just as content when helping those in need. She was well-respected in the entertainment industry for her business sense, since she could cut a better movie deal than many talent agents.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Hollywood Victory Committee chairman Clark Gable scheduled himself and his wife Carole to lead a bond drive at Indianapolis, near her hometown of Fort Wayne. Her mother and her publicist accompanied Lombard when Gable canceled out of the trek.
On January 15, 1942, Carole sold more than $2.5 million in war bonds in Indianapolis. Her parting words to the crowd were, “Before I say goodbye to you all – come on – join me in a big cheer – V for Victory!” She could not make up her mind between taking a train or a plane back to the West Coast. She flipped a coin and chose the plane, glad to be getting back to Hollywood and Gable. (Her mother, who had never been on an airplane before, was leery of flying and had been warned by her numerologist that January 16 would be an unlucky day.)
Carole’s mother with Clark & Carole
Around 4:00 a.m. on January 16, 1942, Carole, her mother, and her publicist Otto Winkler took off on the 17-hour-trip to the West Coast. At a stopover in “Albuquerque, New Mexico, several passengers were bumped off so that army aviators could take their place. Carole, however, persuaded the pilot to keep her and her party aboard. After refueling in Las Vegas, the craft took off for Los Angeles. At 7:07 p.m. that January 16, the TWA airliner slammed into Table Rock Mountain, 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas. The impact killed Carole, her mother, and 20 other passengers and crew (including 15 military personnel). It was two days before a rescue team could remove the charred bodies from the snowy death site. Carole was just 33 years old.
Crash Site
Carole Lombard’s blanket-covered corpse is recovered.
Among the many who sent condolences to the grieving Clark Gable was President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The telegram read, “She brought great joy to all who knew her, and to millions who knew her only as a great artist… She is and always will be a star, one we shall never forget, nor cease to be grateful to.”
A few years before she died, Carole had requested in her will that she be buried in a white outfit and in a “modestly priced crypt”. Following Lombard’s wishes, the famed Hollywood couturiere Irene designed a special white gown for her. A private funeral service was conducted at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, on January 21, 1942. She was buried in a white marble wall crypt in the Sanctuary of Trust there. In a nearby alcove lay Russ Columbo, who Lombard liked to say was the great love of her life.
In July 1942, Governor Henry Schricker of Lombard’s home state of Indiana named the state’s naval air squadron “The Lombardians.” That same year, a liberty ship was christened the Carole Lombard with a tearful Clark Gable attending the ceremony. Although he would marry twice more, the guilt-ridden Gable never stopped grieving for Carole. When he died on November 15, 1960, he was buried in a crypt next to hers at Forest Lawn.
Culled from: The Hollywood Book of Death
Crime Scene Du Jour!
The Assassination of Mme. Langlois
Police Archives, Paris, France
Culled from: Police Pictures: The Photograph as Evidence