nostalgic
Carole Lombard's first full month as a divorcee didn't include divorcing William Powell from all facets of her life, as this pic from a Sept. 2, 1933 party thrown by Kay Francis at Billy Wilkerson's Vendome makes evident.
On Sept. 1, Ohio's Sandusky Register ran this interview, where Carole again inveighs against the popular perception of "Hollywood marriages":
While the dateline read Aug. 31, it appeared Keavy had interviewed Lombard some days earlier (she's quoted that she and Powell haven't yet met following the Aug. 18 divorce), because here's a snippet from Louella Parsons' column from Sept. 1 that ran in Hearst papers such as the San Antonio Light:
Alas, nowhere in the column does it say what film was premiering at the Chinese. (It should be noted that Louella occasionally played fast and loose with the facts; she also served her masters, as the Hearst references at the bottom of the column make clear.)
While Lombard was settling into her new existence, she continued working -- narrowly averting a disastrous injury Sept. 1 on the set of her latest film, "White Woman," as the Albert Lea (Minn.) Evening Tribune reported the following day:
Interesting to note that on the 2nd, Jamaica's Kingston Gleaner ran this item, which almost certainly is a Paramount publicity release; it also mentions Dorothea Wieck, who was to have been the female lead in "White Woman" before spurning the role (I apologize for the poor condition of the copy, but we're fortunate to have this at all):
The release says Lombard's time at Fox was "about six years ago"; actually, it was eight (1925).
Syndicated writer Dan Thomas wrote about an unusual gift Carole received from Zeppo Marx and his wife, and it ran in the Sept. 5 Manitowoc Herald Times in Wisconsin:
Lombard had been house-hunting in her post-Powell days, and on Sept. 8, columnist Harrison Carroll reported that she "has found that small home she was looking for. It's a New Orleans style colonial house with four bedrooms and three baths. Carole will share the place with her mother." Of course, for most folks in the pre-McMansion era, four bedrooms and three baths was considered a palace. (She was renting the residence; actual home ownership was yet to come.)
It was at 619 North Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills. The house has since been razed, but its image was used for a postcard while she was there:
Meanwhile, the film Carole had worked on before leaving for Nevada residency and a divorce, Columbia's "Brief Moment," was making the rounds of theaters. Here are ads that ran Sept. 13 in the Corsicana (Texas) Daily Sun and the Hagerstown (Md.) Daily Mail, followed by a brief about the movie in the Hagerstown paper:
From reading the description, one wonders if this was an alternate version of "Brief Moment" where Lombard's and Raymond's characters had magically swapped personalities! (Then again, the body switch film fad wouldn't come for another 50-plus years.)
More interesting Columbia stuff on Sept. 14 from Sandusky's other newspaper, the Star Journal. (Yes, in those days even the smallest of cities often had competing dailies.)
"Desireable"? Couldn't find a film by that name. A movie called "Desirable" premiered in September 1934, but it was from Warners, not Columbia, a drama starring Jean Muir, George Brent and Verree Teasdale.
Lombard again talks marriage, and this account ran in Ohio's Piqua Daily Call Sept. 20:
"How can I tell if I'll ever marry anybody else? All I know is that I haven't met the man yet." Actually, you have, Carole -- heck, you even worked with him. But that's another story for another time.
Despite her new residence, Lombard decided to sleep some nights at her dressing room because of the long hours on "White Woman," the Tyrone (Pa.) Daily Herald reported:
The next day, that paper noted Carole was spending some time with a fellow Paramount player:
Here's how Carole and Coop posed for a nautical pic earlier that year:
Paramount was pulling out all the stops for "White Woman," even importing "poison blow pipes," according to the Sept. 24 Laredo Times:
Finally, Lombard, always susceptible to illness despite her athleticism, was laid low at month's end with the flu, stated the San Mateo Times of Sept. 29:
Thus marked the end of a fascinating month, if one less hectic than the month before.
