• Mood: pleased

Early Lombard, in 'Transit'

It's March 29, 1925. Some 25 days earlier, Calvin Coolidge had been inaugurated for his first full term in office. Baseball season is on the horizon, and the Washington Senators are readying to defend their World Series title (and no, that is not a typo). And some moviehouses across the U.S. begin showing a new film from Fox (the "Twentieth Century" part wouldn't come for another decade) starring Edmund Lowe called "Marriage In Transit." It's a drama, with Lowe portraying a government agent who poses as a ringleader of a group of conspirators and marries the leader's girlfriend.

Playing the new wife was a girl who at the time was only a few months past her 16th birthday, appearing in only her second film and her first under a new screen name: Carol Lombard.

"Marriage In Transit" has been lost for quite some time, and while I wish I could use this entry to report a print has been found, here's the next best thing -- a lobby card from the film:



While some might have deemed Lombard -- who had not yet reached the halfway point of her brief life -- a bit too young to portray a married woman (in several states today, a 16-year-old is not allowed to marry, even with parental consent), it had been a common practice in movies for young women to portray older characters. Lombard's problem was not her age, or her beauty (which drew approval from a few reviewers), but her inexperience; she had been thrust into a leading role way too early, and after this she was sent to work in minor westerns to hone her skills.

This is one of the oldest Carole Lombard memorabilia items out there -- another lobby card from "Marriage In Transit" surfaced last summer (http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/117532.html). But unlike that item, for which opening bids began at $400, bidding on this begins at a reasonable $19.95. And as of this writing, no bids have been made.

Interested? You can find it at eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/Carole-Lombard-Orig-1925-Lobby-Card-First-Starring-Role_W0QQitemZ260352563559QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item260352563559&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A4%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318). Bidding lasts through just before 9 p.m. Sunday, right in the midst of the Super Bowl. And in 1925, some four decades before a Super Bowl was played, the Cardinals were champions of the National Football League. The Chicago Cardinals.