
This is a drop-dead-gorgeous photo of Carole Lombard in a swimsuit on Nov. 18, 1928; it ran in the Los Angeles Times, still our prime local site from Lombard news. But while the Times was L.A.'s largest daily, it wasn't alone. The city had more than a few dailies, and since one of them just joined newspapers.com, we thought it worth a look for Lombard lore.

It's the Los Angeles Evening Express, and some longtime Angelenos may recall a paper named the Express that belonged to Hearst; well, this isn't it. The media magnate of San Simeon would indeed own the paper, but not until 1931, when he merged it with the Herald. This Express was independent and its owner at the time also owned KNX radio.
Having discovered this new source, I wanted to find out what coverage it gave Carole. I decided to start with 1928, when Lombard slowly was graduating from Mack Sennett two-reelers. I didn't find many but more may come in future years.
We'll start with Nov. 1, when Lombard's peripherally noted in a blurb on Lisa Basquette in "Show Folks"...

By the 28th, we learned Lombard had become sufficiently known that her weekend trip to San Francisco would be listed with other film notables' holiday traveling:

Finally, Carole was noted in a roundup of studio news -- specifically her upcoming work for Cecil B. De Mille:

We all know that didn't turn out well for her, but soon we'll examine how (or if) the Express handled that and other Lombard news from 1929.