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By JANE ANN MORRISON, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, December 16, 2013 --The basics are well known to Las Vegans. Actress Carole Lombard died in a plane crash on Mount Potosi southwest of Las Vegas on Jan. 16, 1942, coming back from a trip selling war bonds just weeks after war broke out in the Pacific. But author Robert Matzen provides plenty of details and insights into why Lombard was on that plane when she shouldn’t have been and why she essentially died because of her fatal flaw - impatience. Before she left to raise money for the war effort, Lombard and her husband, Clark Gable, fought over his relationship with actress Lana Turner. After completing her commitment to raise money for the war, Lombard wanted to rush home to make up. Matzen does more than tell the story of how Lombard lived and died at 33; he researched the lives of the other 21 people who also died that night. He told the story of the people who struggled to rescue any survivors. And the grim story of recovering their remains. Matzen’s “Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3” speculates about why the crash even occurred. No official cause was ever given; but after eliminating the other possibilities, such as sabotage, mechanical failure and pilot error, he offers a reasonable theory. I won’t blurt it out here, but it sounds plausible. This book should appeal to movie watchers (which I am) and to aviation experts (which I am not). “I tried to make this very much a story about Las Vegas and the really cool people who lived there. A story about the desert, about Goodsprings, about Blue Diamond. I went for that local flavor,” Matzen said in a phone interview Thursday from his home outside Pittsburgh. The recent cold spell made it easier to imagine how the rescue party, led by Lyle Van Gordon and Jack Moore, struggled to climb up Mount Potosi 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas, only to find pieces of bodies flung across the snow. Matzen’s descriptions were stomach-turning. “I went into that level of detail because I wanted to say this is what rescuers and responders saw,” he explained. Although it had been reported before, Matzen said he was able to get people to open up more about the fight between Lombard and Gable over Turner. The book is now available on Amazon; but just before it went to press, Matzen found a woman, one of four people bumped from Flight 3. She is 94 and lived in Albuquerque and was the only one still living and able to discuss what it was like to, by chance, live instead of die. In his prologue, Matzen described hiking up to the crash site and realizing “this wasn’t just Carole Lombard’s story. It was the pilot’s story and the co-pilot’s and the stewardess’. It was the story of 15 Army Air Corps personnel who died, men as young as 19 and as old as 28, and it was the story of three other civilians.” So Matzen wrote about all of them. One particularly poignant aspect is his listing all the things which, if they had happened differently, would have meant Lombard would have lived. Although warned by government officials to take the train, she took a flight from Indiana to Hollywood. She pushed her way onto a crowded flight by using her movie-star clout, bumping three men from the U.S. Army Air Corps, who ended up living as a result. She ignored her mother’s pleas to not fly, as well as MGM press official Otto Winkler. When she insisted, both died in the crash with her. She and Winkler flipped a coin about whether to fly or take the train. He lost.

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Th epiano is outof tune

Great video. Thank you very much for sharing the photos. They are incredible !! What a perfect romance they had . We all never know how long a romance lasts -- but they had the real deal for as long as it was ~ God Bless them both !!

Gable - holy cow - what a man!

Selznick, Victor Fleming, these men were masters of the craft.

History

Too bad that he was a better actor than husband and used her success to fund acting opportunities where could outshine her on purpose. He wasn’t a great human being and in the end dumped her. So much for in sickness and in health.

Little did he know his grandson would die in his early thirties and his son would refuse to bury him near the family..so sad.

After Lonbard's death, Joan Crawford stated that 'Clark never came back to us'. WOW 😢

Poor Vivian she looks exhausted in nearly every picture

If she weren't so pushy and didn't lie, she would have lived. She sold war bonds, but she was not in the military. I'm sure the lads who were kicked off the plane were grateful.

A well-made video. Gone With The Wind is so alluring

The truth is that Gable was sleeping with Lana Turner. These romanticized vignettes have no basis in reality. The marriage was a sham. Perhaps he regretted his actions after her death.

So Glamour means being marginally good looking then wearing expensive clothes? Glamour is dumb.

Who is the child at 1:19 this is precious

I have to give Kay a lot of respect. She too must have been quite a lady.

Today’s “stars” don’t even come close.

That platinum piece could have been for a scarf.

He was never the same after she died. Part of him died with her.

Sadly she had a voice like the bottom of a sewer. But does not mean I wished her I’ll luck.

So pleased to see

God the costumes were all ridiculously divine and she looked transcendent in all of them

As you assert, Jessica, this was a rarity in the early Hollywood era; the sadness lies in the epithet, 'No good thing lasts forever...' & that is the cruel irony that beset this enigmatic, young couple...as a movie buff, I'm a huge fan of their film work. There aren't many actor couples that go the distance, but Spencer Tracy & Katherine Hepburn (whilst not married) remained extant for over twenty-five years, & notwithstanding Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward; clearly, they had the 'magic' formula.... beautifully presented - thank you !

Clark and carole loved each other, they even called each other ma and pa, after carole was killed clark was never the same person he was depressed and suicidal and didn't care if he lived or not and it shows he loved the love of his life till the day he died in 1960 his final wish was to be entombed next to carole and they're together for all eternity

Must have been hard filming in those days for crew & actors.

Cable was a see you next Tuesday. User of his first wife. Left her for another, after she fixed his teeth.

I didn’t know or had forgotten that her mother was with her. And 19 others. That is really tragic.

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Маленькая

Timelessness in all it’s iconic glory

Clark Gable was heartbroken with his wife died in a plane crash he never got over it when he died in 1961 he was buried next to her now that it happened together they always be the king and queen of Hollywood that is a love story with always last a lifetime

Beutifull couple.i hope they're together in heaven 🙏 ❤

This Chopin nocture is very useful since the film itself has no soundtrack (let alone a remarkable one) 🙄

Carole and her mother were Bahá’ís. As a young girl, she wrote a letter to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (son of Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith) asking him to pray that she might become a successful actress. I suppose God was listening! As a proud co-religionist, I find something endearing in Carole’s wild, authentic character. For all I’ve read about her strong temperament and stronger language, I’ve never read anything about her being petty-minded or inconsiderate toward anyone.

Great video, Vivien Leigh looks gorgeous in every shot .

Beautiful tribute. Loved the music.

Gable died in 1960 not 1961.

Like the black cast never existed wow

Wardrobe was just gorgeous back then!😮

Would have liked captions for these photos.

Some people actually arguing over a lady’s picture taken 80 years ago. And some people think a movie about slavery and the civil war is racist, hahahahaha hahahahaha I mean you can’t make this up that’s how stupid some people are. Yes slavery was racist duh.

What a beautiful 'behind-the-scenes' moment for Gone with the Wind! Back then, I'm not sure whether they realized that they were creating classics and setting high benchmark for movie industry! All of the aspects, the production, artistic skills and cast are such enjoyment to watch and out of all, it IS a literature adaptation which making it an epitome of art-literature genre too. Hard to top even years gone by. Great storyline and lessons to dug up!

стар

初めてGWTWを観たのはTVの放映でした。 当時は夢多き若い頃、スカーレットの住む豪邸やお庭、たくさんの素敵な衣装に憧れるとともに過酷な運命や彼女が望んでも叶わなかった恋やレットの恋などたくさん学ぶところがある映画でした。 当時は両親が元気に働いていてピアノを趣味としていた自分、今は私だけになってしまいました。 ショパンのノクターンを聴きながら映画の裏側を見ていくうちに涙が溢れてきました。 華やかな人生ではなかったけど大切な人がそばにいるのは幸せなことだと思えるのです。

Simply breathtaking!! Thank you for your efforts and research to bring us one of the most beautiful and sad love story! Bravo!

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