The Real Low-Down On Lombard

DEAR Time!!! (For those of you who are not familiar with DEAR, where did you go to school, and nevermind it stands for Drop Everything And Read). A little FYI: The article is from Picture Play, January 1937, however for one reason or another, this author and so-called Lombard pal doesn’t seem to know that his friend has an E at the end of her name and therefore refers to her as “Carol.” It is annoying. Okay let’s get

The Real Low-down On Lombard.

By Ben Maddox

LABELED “GLAMOUR GIRL NUMBER ONE” INSINUATES CAROL LOMBARD IS THE PIVOT FOR HECTIC DOINGS, THAT CLOTHES, BEAUS AND FRESH THRILLS MONOPOLIZE HER TIME. BUT THIS STORY PROVES SHE IS THE VERY OPPOSITE.

I’m tired of reading those half-truths about Carol Lombard. She is Hollywood’s most misinterpreted young modern. The nonsense which has been so deliberately conjured up isn’t at all necessary, anyway. For colorful as the Lombard legend is, Carol herself actually can top it for interest.

You have never had a chance to know the real woman because her employers and gaga interviewers have created a part for her to play off-screen.

A steady build-up has gone on. Carol, finally, has definitely succeeded to the title of Glamour Girl Number One, the distinction formerly held by the Misses Bow, Crawford, and Harlow.

Now it is Lombard who is acclaimed the movie colony’s pace-setter. She is the dazzling Hollywood lady in all her dashing, dizzy glory. Presumably hers is the gayest manner, the most ultra wardrobe. She reputedly throws the best parties and has the most sought-after boy friend in America. Today she is the idol of the repressed. Of course you’ve heard how she refused to build a dining room in her new mansion? A typical gesture, clarioned the columnists. Nothing so passe for Lombard!

It certainly has given the public something to talk about, this manufactured line. In spare moments you’ve always been able to wonder what on earth she was plotting next. Writers who feel duty bound to present red-hot romance angles have had a field day. Her civilized divorce has been elaborately analyzed. Lately it’s Clark Gable’s devotion which has caused endless speculation.

“Aren’t they silly?” This is the comment Carol will make to you, as friend to friend, when the conversation turns to the carryings-on of her supposed self.

The most amazing fact about Lombard is that she isn’t fantastic at all. Furthermore, she hasn’t endeavored to be.

“Personally, I resent being tagged ‘glamour girl,’” she says. “It’s such an absurd, extravagant label. It implies so much that I’m not.”

As usual, she was being completely frank the afternoon I dropped in to her dressing room. The irresistible quality about Carol’s honesty is that it begins abruptly at home. She isn’t hypocritical in her opinions; but, more important, she isn’t fooled about herself.

Her superlative trade-mark insinuates that she is the constant pivot for hectic doings, that she is a frivolous exponent of the superficial. Apparently clothes, beaus, and fresh thrills monopolize her time.

But, empathetically, this is not so. The Carol I know is almost the very opposite. She is practical, down-to-earth. She has the normal feminine fondness for chic, but she isn’t in the least fashion crazy. Men intrigue her; yet she isn’t capricious. Her heart obeys her brain. Instead of being impulsive, she’s exceedingly well-balanced and invariably considers the consequences first. Her horizon is anything but narrow.

This is the true reason why she has climbed in Hollywood. From the beginning she’s had not only a talent and a willingness to concentrate, but a keen perspective, too.

She’s been ever aware that she is a business. The flattery which deludes so many favorites is accepted for its exact worth; Carol realizes she isn’t in an art where her whims can rule.

“I’m the incomparable wit this fall,” she declared, her wide blue eyes sparkling with gusto. “In another month or two I’d have had Dorothy Parker backed off the map. Only I’m through with comedies for a while.” She lounged more comfortably and added, “But maybe not; my humor has been so decidedly half-witted!”

“My reputation for daffyness has an obvious origin. In ‘My Man Godfrey’ they had an utterly mad farce. I had to rattle on furiously, be the spirit of Park Avenue abandonment. As soon as I get a role I can guess what my new false face is to be. The type of picture charts the publicity program.”

Carol is currently ballyhooed as Hollywood’s style queen.

“I can’t imagine a duller fate than being the best dressed woman in reality,” she remarked pointedly. “When I want to do something I don’t pause to contemplate whether I’m exquisitely gowned. I want to live, not pose! My ambition is to be an excellent actress. So far as clothes go, all I try to do is be well-groomed. I don’t spend two-thirds as much on my wardrobe as a number of the stars. I don’t believe in being lavish that way. It’d be a career in itself and there are too many other things to enjoy. Besides, I couldn’t afford it!”

Her flair for appearing strikingly smart is undeniable. But credit it to her ability to relax, to forget that she is probably stunning. In her own tastes she is conservative, leaning strongly to the tailored. She is wise to proper costs and secures full value by reutilizing materials and furs. The fashion halo was accidently won when she had to do stories that were weak and in need of daring costumes to aid at the box office.

“I had to struggle for years to do comedy. But I don’t think I was at the top when I was merely an insipid ingenue, and I don’t agree that I’m so proficient in comedy as I can be in straight drama. It’s my goal, professionally. Otherwise I want a sane private life. That’s why I looked at those so-called glamour yarns as more of a handicap than a help. Fun’s fun, in its place. I don’t laugh always, though.”

She hasn’t merrily skyrocketed either. There have been many hurts for Carol, rebuffs that were overcome finally by her determination not to be licked. There was the near tragic automobile accident which threatened to disfigure the beauty which is an essential for the screen. There have been romantic disappointments, which she has taken with a smile when they weren’t casual.

When her family moved to Hollywood from Indiana, Carol was seven. She was entered in a girl’s school; then she went to Los Angeles High. But before she even got a toehold in the studios she studied for three years at a local stage academy.

Branding her a playgirl is silly. She adores to joke. She is an absolute democrat, and would rather purposely high-hat a snob than fail to greet the humblest worker on the lot with a cheery quip. But there is nothing parasitic in her nature and she is earnest behind the devil-may-care mask she puts on occasionally. Carol has gayety, but not bravado.

I have seen her plan and scheme and fight for opportunities, just as the astute office worker does. What I admire most is her sportsmanship. She battles for her breaks with the studio executives; she hasn’t advanced a single step by pushing another girl down. When I mentioned an actress who hasn’t had much luck recently Carol said,
Continued on page 88

*****That’s all I got folks! If you can’t bear the thought of living without knowing the end to this suspense of a story, the magazine it comes from is for sale on Ebay. It’ll cost you $29.99 if you want to buy it now though. Click Here to buy it now >>