Carole Lombard

I’ve been reading a perfectly HORRIBLE biography of Gary Cooper, Cooper’s Women (and by “perfectly horrible” I mean “salacious and awesome”) and there’s a lot of great stuff in there about Carole Lombard . Lombard and Cooper “dated” before she married Gable and he married Rocky. But then again, she dated pretty much everyone. It drove Gable crazy once they were married, to know she had been (and still was) this wild and free lady – especially when she would say stuff like this to the press:

“God knows I love Clark, but he is the worst lay in town.”

Carole!!! Jeez, go easy a bit! But she had no reticence – that was just who she was. Also, Gable knew he was “the worst lay in town” apparently – which was why he preferred to sleep with prostitutes, who wouldn’t kiss and tell.

There’s a funny story about Gable – Gary Cooper had had a crazy love affair with Mexican actress Lupe Velez – a real firecracker who once shot a gun at a train Cooper was on. She was on a crowded train platform and shot her gun at the passing train. I mean, people who think celebs are out of control now have no idea what they’re talking about, frankly. Lindsay Lohan is TAME compared to good ol’ gun-slingin’ Lupe. Also – imagine Angelina Jolie making a wisecrack like: “God knows I love Brad, but he’s the worst lay in town.” And to have it be an ENDEARMENT … Like, Carole was married to the guy, and she said that. heh heh (I must say, though, if I could picture anyone making such a snarky remark in good humor, it would be Angelina Jolie.) But anyway, back to Lupe Velez: she and Gary Cooper had this nutso crazy sexual relationship – and all she did was babble to anyone who would listen about him – what a great lover he was, how she was addicted to his hands, how all he cared about was “satisfying ze woman” – etc. I mean, she would say ANYthing to ANYone. Cooper was kind of reticent – famous for answering reporter’s questions with either “Yup” or “Nope” … hahahaha – and was kind of embarrassed by Lupe Velez blabbing about his sexuality all through town. And apparently – Lupe Velez came on to Gable – and he turned her down. How the press would get a hold of this information is a mystery (uhm, I’m guessing Lupe herself) – but when asked for a response to the rumor – Gable said, “Sure, it’s true. She came on to me – but I turned her down. I don’t want her running around town telling everyone what a horrible lay I am.”

This is so hysterical to me – because … there Gable is … telling the press what he feared Lupe would tell the press … and then he marries a woman, the delectable and funny and snarky Carole Lombard, who says, “God knows I love Clark, but he’s the worst lay in town.”

I don’t know why I find that so endearing. I just do. Sorry, Clark – I know it must have sucked. If someone said that about me to a national newspaper or tabloid, I’d be crushed and pissed.

But he loved her. When she died, he was inconsolable – and never really recovered. He never got that cocky boyish snark back.

I love this one too. They both look really happy.

Carole Lombard said:

“I think marriage is dangerous. The idea of two people trying to possess each other is wrong. I don’t think the flare of love lasts. Your mind rather than your emotions must answer for the success of matrimony. It must be friendship — a calm companionship which can last through the years.”

I know Clark Gable lived with that “what if she had lived” question all the rest of his days. Love of his life.

This entry was posted in Actors, Movies and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

27 Responses to Carole Lombard

  1. ricki says:

    wow…

    I have a question, though: what journals/papers published the “worst lay in town” comment? I’d have not thought that kind of thing would have played in Peoria in those days…

    Somehow, though, even though old-time movie stars were just as bonkers as the ones we have today, there is something more romantic to me about their bonkersness. I don’t know if it’s because they’re dead and I don’t have to confront them showing up on the nightly news with their current escapades being talked about or what, but the whole break-up-n-make-up of the current stars just kind of tires me out, but this kind of gossip is sort of fascinating. (Maybe it’s really true what Huxley said, that each generation thinks it’s the one that discovered sex, and that’s part of the fascination…that there are these people who were grown-ups when our GRANDPARENTS were young running around talking about how wonderful Gary Cooper’s hands were or how Gable was the worst lay in town…)

  2. red says:

    Tabloids back then make today’s tabloids look a wee bit tame!!! They are so salacious and so sex-drenched it’s shocking! We’ve pulled back so much. Now everyone’s so polite.

    There’s such a politically correct atmosphere that people can’t even make jokes anymore without it becoming an international event.

    Another great quote from Lombard – with members of the press there – her first time on a horse. She said, “I don’t know why everybody says this is so great. To me it’s like a dry fuck.”

    And then everyone burst into laughter.

    To me, it seems like grown-ups were actually grown-ups back then – not like now – where adolescence stretches into your 30s. Grown-ups had sex. People weren’t in a suspended state of prepubescent sex panic for years and years – you were supposed to get over that.

    If you read the comments of folks like Joan Crawford, Carole Lombard – all these strong independent feisty ladies – they sound like grown-ups to me. I’m sure the people in Peoria (who also, of course, were having sex left and right – just like grown-ups have been doing since the beginning of time) ate that shit up!!

    Also, in terms of the prudes: thank God some of us don’t live our lives dictated by what the folks in Peoria will say.

    I’m just sayin’.

  3. Ken says:

    Gable must have been either the most secure man in Hollywood, or the best actor. Either way, he was a grown-up.

  4. red says:

    Ken – I don’t know – I think he was really insecure about it – but Carole Lombard, for whatever reason, let him know she loved him anyway. He relaxed with her as he did no other woman. I don’t know if he was faithful to her – he was kind of a dog – but she seemed to just accept him, and love him. The pressure was off him to be this great lover – he could just be his horrible lover self, and she would love him anyway. I mean … I’m just guessing. I know they were quite a pair.

  5. Emily says:

    That first photo of her…she looks downright devlish. My kind of gal. Can you recommend a good biography? I’d really love to read more about her.

  6. red says:

    Oh and ricki – I’ll just add that probably NONE of this information would have gotten out if it had been the 1950s and not the 1930s. In the 30s, the movie business was still pretty much brand new – as was the whole celebrity thing. “Talkies” were just coming in … and there was an anything goes atmosphere for a while, until finally, thanks to a couple of violent Cagney films – the censors cracked down on all of this.

    You NEVER heard stars in the 50s babble about each other’s awesome hands and their great lover-ness … It’s not that people weren’t running around town having tons of sex, they were – but the studios had a lockdown on their stars, and what they would be allowed to say.

  7. red says:

    Emily – I love this one. It was written in the 70s – so it’s a bit dated stylistically, but it really gives you a great sense of her personality.

    Also – her performance in Twentieth Century is classic screwball comedy. That dame was FUNNY.

  8. red says:

    She died in a plane crash at the age of 33. Really sad.

  9. red says:

    Oh and here’s something: Clark Gable did marry again – and stayed married – but he had it in his will that he would be buried next to Lombard. Gable died in, what, 1961? Lombard died in 42. Lombard had been dead 20 years … but his last request was to be buried beside her.

    So Gable and Lombard are buried side by side. And apparently Gable’s wife at the time of his death was okay with this. She “got it”. Classy lady.

  10. Lisa says:

    Lupe Velez died in a pool of her own vomit, after ingesting a large amount of sleeping pills.
    She was preggers with a married man’s illegitimate child. He wouldn’t get a divorce, and she was too Catholic to have an abortion.

    And I know this how? Because I bought Malcolm Forbes’ book They Went That-a-Way: How the Famous, the Infamous, and the Great Died, and I pretty much have it memorized.

    Morbid? Yeah, that’s me.

  11. red says:

    Lisa – They Went That-away????? hahahahahahahaha (I’m sorry, Lupe – I’m not laughing at your own horrible death – I’m just laughing at Lisa!!)

    hahahaha You know – the little I know about Lupe’s life – I guess I have to say I’m not surprised she came to a bad end. Gary Cooper did not know how to extricate himself from her – she was exhausting, she would also beat him up. He would show up on sets with black eyes from Lupe. Etc. Loony-tunes.

    But still: excellent work from you, Lisa, chiming in with a forensic report. It is MUCH appreciated!!

  12. Lisa says:

    I love that book and its companion, What Happened To Their Kids?. (I think they’re out of print now, though.)

    Whodathunk MALCOLM FORBES would write such things?

  13. red says:

    Actually, I just went to IMDB and was surfing through Clark Gable’s page and found this quote:

    On rumors he was dull in bed: “I can’t emote worth a damn.”

    hahahahaha

    At least Carole wasn’t telling him something he didn’t already know!!

  14. Ceci says:

    Gable died in November of 1960, only days after wrapping up filming what would be his last picture, The Misfits. As you can imagine, I know that because it also happened to be Marilyn Monroe’s last finished picture. Gable’s death was a severe blow for Marilyn, who not only was about to announce her divorce from Arthur Miller, but was practically blamed for Gable’s heart attack.

    BTW, I love the first of Carole Lombard’s pics you have posted. The flock of hair on her right eye is devastating! She looks so ’30s, and I just loooove that decade.

  15. red says:

    ceci – here’s a question for you. There was a book written about the filming of The Misfits. I think it might have even been called The Misfits. Believe it or not – I have never read it – I haven’t even looked for it on Amazon (hmmm, should get on that). have you read it??

  16. Ceci says:

    I have only read one single book completely dedicated to The Misfits and it is mostly a photographic book (although it has some text – including an interview with Arthur Miller); its title is, indeed, The Misfits. It was published a few years ago, and the author is Serge Toubiana. Could it be this one?

  17. red says:

    Ceci – look what I found!! I think this must be the one I’m thinking of.

    I just bought a copy for 2 bucks.

  18. Ken says:

    Did you ever read David Niven’s Bring On the Empty Horses? It’s been a looong time for me, but it had some interesting (to me) insights about the studio system over a fairly long stretch.

  19. Ceci says:

    HAHAHA – I was about to tell you that I had forgotten to mention Goode’s book and before I finish the thought you have already bought it!

    I haven’t read that one though… would love to read your thoughts about it when you finish it! :)

  20. red says:

    Ken – no! Never read it! I should check it out – I love David Niven.

  21. miker says:

    Jeez, what a happy place it is. Carole Lombard is basically the woman for whom I’ve been searching my whole life. Of course, it is just possible I might not have provided Clark with serious competition, even given his bedroom limitations.

    Still, a fella can dream…

  22. steve on the mountian says:

    Twentieth Century – impresario John Barrymore trying to woo Carole Lombard to star in his epic.
    Barrymore:
    I’m going to have Judas strangle himself with a hair. I want to stagger New York with a 100 camels and real sand – brought from the Holy Land – and we’ll have a Babylonian banquet where you’re covered with emeralds from head to foot and nothing else. You go directly into your snake dance – it’s perfect, but it’s nothing compared to the finish, where you stand in rags and the Emperor Nero himself offers you half his empire. The last we see of you is as a pathetic little figure selling olives on the –

    Lombard:
    You’re carraazzzzyyy!

  23. Lisa says:

    David Niven’s wife Primmie died at a party playing a game called Sardines. (Kind of like reverse hide-and-seek: Turn out the lights, one person hides, and every one gropes around trying to find them. When you find him/her, you hide there with them until one person is left in the dark. Those wacky Hollywood types! Crazy!)

    Anyhoo, it was at Tyrone Power’s house and while the guests were hiding, they heard a crash. Primmie had opened a door and stepped in, except it was the door to the basement stairs. Cesar Romero and Oleg Cassini carried her up the stairs unconscious.

    She woke up, told Lilli Palmer, “We’ll never be invited again,” and then David took her to the hospital. They thought everything was fine until the next day, when she got worse and they had to operate on her. She died later that night of a skull fracture and brain lacerations.

    They Went That-a-Way pp.220-221.

    Morbid and out!

  24. red says:

    Lisa – sweartaGod if you ever stop posting these forensic snippets I will never speak to you again.

    MORE!

  25. red says:

    Miker – that’s what movie stars are for! To dream about them!! :) I loves me some Carole Lombard – she is the perfect 1930s screwball star.

  26. Lisa says:

    How cool is it (well, minus the dying) that they had DINNER PARTIES!? Like our parents! And they played party games!

    I wonder if stars today do that. Is Ron Howard over at Tom Hanks’ house playing Boggle or Pictionary?

Comments are closed.