Carole Lombard

Trivia of Carole Lombard

*Early in her film career, Carole was in the car with a date when a collision shattered the windshield and sent a shard of glass flying across the left side of her face. Carole endured surgery without anesthesia and months of recovery during which she privately agonized over whether or not her face and career could be salvaged. It turned out that both could, and Carole became one of the most glamorous actresses of the 1930s.

*After her accident, Carole found work as one of Mack Sennett’s “Bathing Beauties” - a posse of pretty girls who made quick and funny films for his studio, and made publicity appearances around Hollywood. Mack Sennett’s films had made comedy stars of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. Carole felt this time was essential to her comedic training and later said, “My best tutor was Mack Sennett.”

*She never had a dressing room when shooting a movie. Instead, she preferred to socialize with the cast and crew members during her breaks.

*She and Clark Gable first met in late 1924 while working as extras on the set of Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ (1925). They would make three films together as extras--Ben-Hur, The Johnstown Flood (1926) and The Plastic Age (1925)--and star together in No Man of Her Own (1932), but not become romantically attached until 1936.

*She was married to two of classic Hollywood’s great leading men. Her first groom was actor William Powell after working with him on the 1931 film Man of the World. The marriage didn’t last long - a sixteen year age difference saw them at very different places in their lives and careers - but they remained close friends. Her later marriage to “The King of Hollywood” Clark Gable lasted until her death in 1942.

*She had a little dachshund named Commissioner that ignored Clark Gable completely. After her death in 1942, the dog would not leave his side.

*Her film To Be or Not to Be (1942) was in post-production when she died in a plane crash, and the producers decided to leave out a part that had her character ironically saying, "What can happen in a plane?".