Madcap Carole!

Screen Pictorial, August 1937

Conventions are made to be broken where Carole Lombard is concerned! She has been called “the most startling woman in Hollywood!” says Quintas Page

Carole Lombard can claim to be the most publicized star in Hollywood. The parties which she throws at her beautiful Los Angeles home are the giddiest since Prohibition days. Her practical jokes have made her Public Enemy Number One in the eyes of half the film colony, and her boy-friends are legion. In two short years Carole has become God’s gift to gossip writers.

For many reasons, the crazy actions of the beautiful star of My Man Godfrey, the craziest of films, present an enigma. Carole is no empty-headed young girl, breathlessly in search of new excitements, new sensations. Rather is she a shrewd and intelligent woman of the world. An actress, moreover, who has won success only after one of the longest and bitterest fights which has fallen to the lot of any performer in the Hollywood circus.

I suspect that the true explanation of the Lombard wildness is to be found in the early days of her career.

“A girl needs a strong defense,” said Carole some time ago. “When I was a youngster, tramping New York, looking for jobs in the show business, I found that men in the booking offices got ideas. I discovered that if I could startle them sufficiently, they soon got their minds back to business.”

SHE has carried this original weapon of defense with her all her life. With a six-figure contract, Carole no longer has to try conclusions with casting-office Romeos, but she has found a use for “that startling Lombard” just the same.

Hollywood is the most difficult place on earth in which to retain a sense of proportion. Sudden fame, living in the constant glare of publicity, money – all tend to turn the head unwary. And Carole’s attitude to life is the perfect antidote to conceit. As an individualist by nature, her high spirits are a challenge to the pretentious and self-important. Her mad pranks and hilarious laughter are an invitation to come down from the pedestal and enjoy life- to be yourself.

Carole is no respecter of persons. On one occasion she gave a special party for certain New York socialites who were on a visit to the film colony. They reached the rendezvous magnificently attired- only to find that, so far from being held in an exclusive Hollywood club, the setting for the party was the Fun House of a down-town Amusement Park!

After completing No Man of Her Own, in which they co-starred, Carole sent Clark Gable a ham tied up with red ribbon. Later she bought him the oldest and most dilapidated Ford she could find in a Los Angeles junk yard. Clark, whose luxurious roadster is one of the sights in Hollywood and the apple of his eye, took the joke in good part. On numerous occasions he arrived at the Studios at the wheel of Carole’s gift, wreathed in smoke and the famous Gable grin.

Beneath the Lombard’s flippant exterior beats one of the kindest hearts in the film business. Her gifts to charity, her care for studio workers who are ill, have made her a popular figure among the dwellers in the shadow of the arc lights. If a damaged extra awakes in a hospital ward and finds his bed surrounded by strange gadgets and stranger games, he rarely inquiries the name of the donor.

“Give ‘em a laugh,” says Carole, “that’s the best doctor in the world!”

It says much for the Hollywood Press that they recognize the gold behind the glare that envelopes Carole. In spite of the many opportunities which she has given them to rate her as a publicity hunter, as the Screen’s Smart Young Thing, her exploits have rarely gone beyond the gossip columns.

On one occasion a reporter dubbed her “The Most Startling Woman In Hollywood.” Carole ignored the article except to say:

“MAYBE it is true that I have a habit of being abruptly outspoken and not mincing my words. I’ve never believed in kidding myself by calling a spade a garden implement. But never in my life have I ever said anything for the purpose of embarrassing anyone, or for the effect of being called the most startling woman in Hollywood.”

“I really can’t get peeved about Hollywood gossip. I’ve been treated to so little of it. The Press has always been more than square with me.”

Where Carole’s romances are concerned, however, it is a different story. She has been engaged Continued on pg.46

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