Carole & Co.

For Carole Lombard fans, "Now And Forever" is probably best remembered today as her lone film with Shirley Temple, on loan to Paramount shortly before her meteoric rise to fame at Fox (which hadn't yet merged with Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures at the time this was made in the summer of 1934). But when it arrived in Great Britain the following March, the local theater took a different angle to promote it...and got it all wrong.

The theater in question is the Paramount Theatre in Leeds:




Read the paragraph below:



That "new starring romantic team" was Cooper and Lombard, according to this program, which added, "the picture marks the first time that these two popular players have appeared together as leads."

Say what?



Weren't they aware of a film issued a few years earlier named "I Take This Woman"?, where Carole and Coop definitely were the leads? (That movie probably played Leeds.)

Whatever; let's ignore that error and look at the rest of this program. Also coming to the Paramount was a Zane Grey western starring three fellow Lombard cast members, Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick (playing not "the other woman," but the leading lady), and Carole's very first (from her days as Jane Alice Peters), Monte Blue...



...Joan Bennett (whose first film, "Power," was a silent with Lombard) and Francis Lederer in "The Pursuit Of Happiness"...



...and Sylvia Sidney opposite former (and future) Carole co-star Gene Raymond in "Behold My Wife":



The Paramount opened in early 1932 with the Ernst Lubitsch gem "The Smiling Lieutenant." Here's the exterior, not long after it opened, with "This Is The Night" on the marquee:



Renamed the Odeon in 1940, the theater later was host to concerts featuring acts such as Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, the Beach Boys and several appearances by the Beatles (including two shows with Roy Orbison in June 1963). Here's the stage where they performed:



The Odeon was "twinned" in 1968 and eventually became a five-screen multiplex. But suburbanization affected UK theaters too, and the last films were shown there in late 2001. While the interior was razed and converted into retail space, the exterior was preserved.

The eight-page program measures 8.5" x 5" and is in good condition with some light ageing. The opening bid in this auction is $9.99, with bidding scheduled to end at 5:36 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday. Interested in adding this to your collection of Lombardiana? Then visit http://www.ebay.com/itm/SHIRLEY-TEMPLE-CAROLE-LOMBARD-GARY-COOPER-Paramount-Theatre-Leeds-UK-Prog-1935-/310936150474?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48653d21ca. Just remember that it wasn't Gary and Carole's first cinematic go-round.