Post A Pup Sundays! Carole Lombard edition. Post anything canine-pics, memes, art, or stories. All are welcomed.

Carole Louise Lombard (October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) is known today as one of the great stars of Hollywood's Golden Era and one of the best comedic actresses among her peers. She had perfect timing, loads of quirky charm and beauty, and an ability to captivate audiences as plucky heroines in screwball and slapstick American comedies. Her Career Girl characters often reflected Carole's independent spirit and feminist beliefs. Unlike the sirens and the great beauties who relied on their looks for success, she was clever, had business acumen, knew how to negotiate her contracts, knew what her audiences expected of her, and chose her roles wisely. She is also known for her passionate megawatt marriage to Clark Cable (Brangelina but with better actors and less pretension)and her tragic death in a plane crash at 33. 

Carole's birth name was Jane Alice Peters, and she was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to wealthy but unhappily married parents. Carole was six when they finally had enough and decided to separate permanently. Elizabeth Peters took little Jane and her two older brothers and moved to Los Angeles into a comfortably appointed apartment on Venice Boulevard. 

Lombard was a tomboy and free spirit who preferred climbing trees and sporting achievements over dolls and afternoon tea parties. She was discovered when she was 12; the director of her first role, Allan Dwan, later remembered noticing "a cute-looking little tomboy ... out there knocking the hell out of the other kids, playing better baseball than they were. And I needed someone of her type for this picture." Her small role in the melodrama ignited a fire in Jane/Carole. She treasured every moment and found everything about filmmaking exciting and fun, so she decided as a young girl to pursue acting and never looked back. It was a dream she eventually made come true. 

Elizabeth fully supported her daughter's career, and after a series of disappointments, she contacted the legendary Luella Parsons and asked her to arrange a screen test for Jane/Carole and garnered Jane/Carole enough notice that she felt confident enough to quit school to pursue her dream full time. At this point, she had already changed her first name to Carole because Jane was considered too dull for a film career. Fox Film Corporation offered her a 75-dollar-per-week contract and insisted that she also dump her last name; thus, Carole Lombard was born.

Her career sputtered up and down, mostly down, and she was forced to play bit parts that she didn't enjoy; however, she did love the lifestyle and being on set with other actors, socializing, and having her hair and makeup done and costume fittings. Carole loved the nightlife and became a flapper known for winning Charleston contests and her bubbly personality. An unfortunate accident almost ended her career, leaving her with a potentially career ending visible scar on her cheek. This did not deter Carole from her career goals, and she found solutions using plastic surgery, cosmetics, and strategic lighting to hide it. Fox Films handed her another batch of bad luck by terminating her contract. She hadn't impressed them enough, and they were done trying to make a break for her. 

In new hands at Mack Sennet as one of Sennet's Bathing Beauties, her career went from strength to strength in a string of comedies that heightened her profile and led to higher quality work while laying the foundation for a breakthrough. As film transitioned into talkies, her pay increased, but the film The Racketeer in 1929 made critics sit up and notice her. Throughout the 30s, she starred with, married, and amicably divorced William Powell. After their divorce in 1936, Powell insisted she play his leading lady in My Man Godfrey, one of her best-known films. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for Carole in the Best Actress category. Everything was going very well for her, and even her family stopped hounding her about her lack of huge, critically acclaimed box office hit films. 

As far as her Carole and her great love Clark Gable had starred in a film together, and they weren't attracted to each other. There were no sparks or chemistry, but they certainly flew when they met a second time at a Hollywood party in 1936. These sparks became a roaring fire, and the newly separated but still very married Clark and Carole would embark on an intense love affair. The two even had nicknames for each other; Clark called Carole "Ma,' and she called him "Pa." After a while, when it was clear that they were devoted to each other, his wife granted him a divorce in March 1939 and the two eloped on March 29, the same year.

Clark and Carole, Pa and Ma, were an intoxicating combination of beauty, charisma, attractive personalities, glamour, and well-beloved by the public meeting, falling in love like a Hollywood Fairy Tale. The public wants two A++++ good-looking celebrities together, which always causes a frenzy of public interest and narratives about their romance. In their case, it was true. They were indeed in love and adored each other, yet theirs was not a marriage without drawbacks. Clark, you see, had a roving eye and was a man slut packing something special in his pants to the extent he had dickmatized quite a large amount of starlets, and marriage didn't stop him. 

It is one of those dichotomies that is hard to understand. Carole was his great love; he was besotted with her, adoring everything about her, yet he could not stop occasionally chasing skirts and pants. Clark was bisexual, but that was primarily concealed until his death. Other unsavory things have surfaced over the years, but that story will be told another day for a new feature coming soon. At that time, their marriage was seen as a Great Love Match. Behind closed doors, he broke her heart. There are indications that he was crazy about her but was a sex addict; in his case, it isn't a flippant excuse. The man was obsessed with sex. 

Carole suffered two miscarriages and was told she was infertile, though rumors persist that Gable had given her an STI that caused her womanly issues. It is hard to understand her devotion because, by all accounts, she was a shrewd businesswoman, down to earth, very stylish, captivating, beautiful inside and out, progressive, and had a massive heart capable of giving love and kindness to people and animals. Why did she put up with it? We will never know. One thing is clear: she loved him to distraction and on every level imaginable. 

Carole tried serious acting, and the public uncharacteristically withdrew their support for the highest-paid actress of her time; that was a blow, and she resigned herself to the pigeonhole of high quality, intelligent screwball comedienne. Her return to comedies was a triumph. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, her first film back after a hiatus to spend more time at home with Clark (or keep an eye on him), was a success, leading her to To Be or Not To Be with her favorite director, Ernst Lubitsch Filming the movie had been one of her favorite experiences as an actress, and the material did not disappoint. 

In 1941, she traveled to her home state of Indiana for a war bond rally with her mother, Elizabeth, and Clark Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler. Lombard raised over $2 million in defense bonds in a single evening. A train would be their way back to LA, but whispers that Clark was sleeping with Lana Turner made her very eager to return home. The others tried to convince her otherwise because neither liked to fly, and perhaps they had a sense of foreboding. Getting back to Clark was a priority, and they decided to take a plane from Las Vegas after a coin toss. Visibility was poor; the lights that guided planes were off because rumors that the Japanese were planning an airstrike were everywhere, making it impossible to navigate the plane safely. 

No one will ever know what her last words were as the plane smashed into the side of a mountain, killing all the passengers onboard. Were they of Clark? 

Carole Lombard was only 33 years old, and her life was cruelly cut short, so we will never know what that dynamic force with her progressive feminist ideals would have become. She was the 23rd actress on the AFI's top 25 actresses of the Golden Era list, which speaks volumes about her appeal and talent. Yet, we are left with the unfinished career of a wonderful woman who was hitting her stride. It is so easy to see her heart when she is with her pups and cats. Her dachshund Fritz and Pekingnese Push Face are pictured here, as well as her other numerous dogs. She may not have had human children, but her heart was full of love, and she devoted herself to her fur children and they to her. 

Clark was inconsolable and was never the same man; his heart shattered and broke, and he lived knowing he had not treated her the way she deserved. There would be no fixing things or redemption for him. 18 years later, even after three more marriages, his final resting place is beside Carole as husband and wife.