For five brief years, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were the most glamorous couple on the planet. A pair of biographical books paint a fuller picture.
. According to Matzen, Lombard never wanted attention drawn to her good deeds or donations, quipping, “Oh shit, forget about it!’” when someone attempted to thank her.
For feminist readers, the lengths Lombard went to make Gable happy—her “Clark comes first” attitude- are heartbreakingly eager and regressive. The thoroughly cosmopolitan comedienne transformed herself into an outdoors woman, practicing fly fishing with Claudette Colbert, learning to hunt, skeet shoot, and braving countless camping trips with Gable while nestled in a sleeping bag lined with her beloved fur coats.
“Gable said, ’Ma, we're lucky people. We've got this ranch… … we've both got good jobs, friends, money in the bank and our health. God's been good to us. Can you think of anything you really want that you haven't got?’ Lombard sipped on her Coca-Cola before she answered. ’Pa, to tell you the truth, I could use a couple of loads of manure if we're going to do any good with those fruit trees.
To make Lombard happy, he became head of the Hollywood Victory Committee. When told that the government was looking for a star to sell war bonds in Indiana, he offered up his wife, a native of Fort Wayne. According to Harris, Lombard begged Gable to go with her. But he was set to start shooting *Somewhere I’ll Find You—*with Lana Turner.
Winkler was also reluctant. Lombard finally suggested a coin toss to decide—and as always, she won. On January 16In a haunting passage, Matzen describes silent film star Clara Bow, now living on a ranch in Nevada, watching a fire burning on nearby Mount Potosi with her young son. They didn’t know it was the wreckage of Flight 3, which had slammed into the mountain at around 7pm due to pilot error.
A joint funeral for 33-year-old Lombard and her mother was held on January 21, 1942. Although the government offered a military funeral, Gable declined; Lombard would have never stood for such pomp and circumstance.