Born Today October 6: Carole Lombard

1908-1942

Born Jane Alice Peters, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, her parents divorced when she was 8, and her mother moved her to Los Angeles.  The story goes that she was spotted on the street playing baseball with neighborhood boys by a film director, which may or may not have been Allan Dwan, and made her screen debut at the age of 12 in the Dwan directed A Perfect Crime (1921).  The experience left her with an acting bug and she signed a contract with Fox Films when she was 16.  In between this time, she appeared in several stage productions and had two bit parts that went uncredited in two short films.  As she was credited in her first film by her birth name, it was probably some Fox studio executive who decided to change her Carole Lombard upon the signing of her contract with Them.  There she played mainly bit roles.  Fox dropped her after she was in a car accident and was left with a scar on her face (nice uh?), so she went to work with comic producer and director Mack Sennett.  For an actress who had no formal training when she made her film debut (although, as mentioned, she did spend a little time on stage, before returning to film 3 years later), she showed every sign that she possessed genuine acting talent and made a fine transition into on screen speaking roles.  So much so that she became a super star.  She even received Best Actress In Leading Role Oscar nomination in 1937.  Her life, along with her mother's and 20 other people (15 of whom were army servicemen) was tragically cut short, when a plane they were traveling on crashed just outside Las Vegas on 16 January 1942.  She was only 33 years of age.  They are were returning to California after going on a war bond promotional event in her birth state of Indiana.  She had previously been married to William Powell, and at the time of her death she was married to Clark Gable.  She was entombed as Carole Lombard Gable.  When Clark Gable himself passed away in 1960, he had made plans to be entombed next to her, which he is at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Los Angeles. IMDb.

Born Today September 15: Fay Wray

1907-2004

No introductions needed here!  Every horror fan knows her as the original "scream queen"--mostly for her turn in King Kong 1933, but she was plenty "screamy" in other films she made around this time as well.  My personal favorite of these is The Mystery Of The Wax Museum starring Lionel Atwill, directed by the great Michael Curtiz, also made in 1933, and up until the late 1960's was considered to be a lost film.  So much is made of her appearances and noise in early talking horror films, that not much attention is paid to her silent career.  Born Vina Fay Wray in Cardston, Alberta, Canada; the family soon relocated to Los Angeles here in the US.  She began as an extra when she was barely into her teens, and was one of the few child actors that seemed to weather the transition to adult actor better than most.  Far from being a silent horror star, she was in a number of short slapsticks early on.  If she can be said to have specialized in any genre in the 1920 it was westerns ironically.  She passed away at the age of 96 on the 8 of August 2004, in New York City.  She is another very famous celebrity interred in the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Her Early Film Work:

Gasoline Love (1923) (short)

Sweet Daddy (1924) (short)

Just A Good Guy (1924) (short)

The Coast Patrol (1925) (the first feature length film she was in.)

Sure-Mike! (1925) (short slapstick)

What Price Goofy? (1925) (short)

Isn't Life Terrible? (1925) (short with Charley Chase & Oliver Hardy)

Thundering Landlords (1925) (short, first featured credit in title cards)

Chasing The Chaser (1925) (short)

Madame Sans Jane (1925) (short written by Hal Roach)

No Father To Guide Him (1925) (short)

Unfriendly Enemies (1925) (short)

Your Own Back Yard (1925) (an Our Gang short)

A Lover's Oath (1925) (partially lost film)

Moonlight And Noses (1925) (partial lost short)

Ben-Hur (1925) (her slave girl appearance in this is still unconfirmed)

WAMPAS Baby Stars Of 1926 (the fist time she is credited with "self")

Our Wild Time (1926) (short)

Don Key (Son Of Burro) 1(926) (short)

The Man In The Saddle (1926)

Don't Shoot (1926)

The Wild Horse Stampede (1926)

The Saddle Tramp (1926)

The Snow Cowpuncher (1926) (short, part of the Mustang Western series)

Lazy Lightning (1926)

Loco Luck (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)

A One Man Game (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)

Spurs And Saddles (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)

A Trip Through The Paramount Studio (1927) (as Herself)

The Legion Of The Condemned (1928) (lost film)

Street Of Sin (1928) (lost film)

The Fist Kiss (1928)

The Wedding March (1928) (an Erich von Stroheim directed film)

The Honeymoon (1928) (another Stroheim film)

The Four Feathers (1929) (early talkie, William Powell and Noah Berry were in this, dialog by Western Electric, soundtrack and sound effects by MovieTone)

Thunderbolt (1929) (two versions circulated, one silent the other in mono, with sound by Western Electric)

Pointed Heels (1929) (early musical, sound by MovieTone, early two strip technicolor, with some parts in black and white)