Carole Lombard: A Birthday Tribute

sistercelluloid ♦ October 6, 2014 ♦ 3 Comments

Remembering Carole Lombard on her birthday, through the eyes of some of the many who loved her:

“You can trust that little screwball with your life or your hopes and your weaknesses, and she wouldn’t even know how to think about letting you down. She’s more fun than anybody, but she’ll take a poke at you if you have it coming and make you like it. If that adds up to love, then I love her.” — Clark Gable

“There were many things about Carole that were oh-boy-out-of-this-world wonderful. She was class. She was a good actress, and she always looked great. More important, she had a lot of heart…. When I’m weighing a particularly difficult decision, sometimes I ask myself what Carole would have said, and it helps.” — Lucille Ball

“She was so alive, modern, frank, and natural that she stands out like a beacon on a lightship in this odd place called Hollywood.” — Barbara Stanwyck

“Marvelous girl. Crazy as a bedbug” — Howard Hawks

“I remember that I looked at her and marvelled. For to me- and to all Hollywood- Lombard spilled humaness with every step- like a man carrying a brimming pail. She just couldn’t hold back her gaiety; laughter, friendliness, and camaraderie got out of hand to drench unsuspecting bystanders. For Carole was inclusive, not exclusive. Her tempo was a perpetual challenge to gloom.”  — Journalist William F. French

“She gets up too early, plays tennis too hard, wastes time and feeling on trifles and drinks Coca-Colas the way Samuel Johnson used to drink tea. She is a scribbler on telephone pads, inhibited nail-nibbler, toe-puller, pillow-grabber, head-and-elbow scratcher, and chain cigarette smoker. When Carole Lombard talks, her conversation, often brilliant, is punctuated by screeches, laughs, growls, gesticulations and the expletives of a sailor’s parrot.”  — Life Magazine, 1937

“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.” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt, awarding Lombard the Medal of Freedom, as the first American woman killed in the line of duty during World War II.

“Clark adored her—she was the light in his eyes,” actress Elaine Barrie once recalled. “He admitted to me that he had always loved the company of ladies and he knew he had a reputation of being a ladies man, but with her it was different. He really was in love. To have her taken from him was like someone ripped out his soul. I saw him periodically for years afterward. The light in his eyes was gone. Even when he smiled. That light never returned.”

For the definitive tribute to Carole Lombard, on her birthday and every day, be sure to follow Carole & Co. at http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com