The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (32 page)

Searchers reported that six bodies had been thrown from the wreckage while the others were either burned or mutilated inside the cabin. The only thing that made the knowledge of their deaths bearable was the fact that it would have been extremely unlikely that they knew anything about the crash at all. The plane had gone head first into the mountain in the dark and while the pilot probably knew at the last moment what was coming, everyone else would have likely been oblivious.

Finally, after much time and effort in the rugged mountain area, the body of Carole Lombard was found and brought back down to the land below. Gable was waiting at his hotel for news, which was broken to him by Don McElwaine from MGM, who had received a heart-breaking note from the searchers.

“Is it bad news?” asked the actor.

“I’m afraid it looks hopeless,” replied McElwaine, after which Gable was heard tearfully whispering, “Oh God,” and collapsed his head into his hands.

Still, as there had been only a tentative identification of the actress from a piece of uncharred hair and some scorched documents found near to her body, there was still some hope in Gable’s mind that Carole would be found alive. However, formal identification eventually came when dental records were flown from Hollywood to Las Vegas, and Gable was absolutely devastated.

Several days later, after the formal identification of Carole’s mother, the two bodies were taken home by Clark Gable and given a private and very simple funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. This had been Carole’s wish after seeing the huge spectacle of Jean Harlow’s funeral just a few years before. Everyone in Hollywood was devastated at the loss of the blonde star, and even President Roosevelt sent a telegram to Clark Gable, which was released to the worldwide press:

Mrs Roosevelt and I are deeply distressed . . . She brought great joy to all who knew her and to the millions who knew her only as a great artist. She gave unselfishly of her time and talent to serve her government in peace and war. She loved her country. She is and always will be a star, one we shall never forget nor cease to be grateful to.

Clark Gable never really recovered from the death of his wife, and very rarely spoke of her in the years after. The marriage may not have been the absolutely perfect one they had wanted it to be, but he had loved her dearly and had many regrets about her death. Gable sank into a deep depression for a long time after her death, and although he was by this time in his forties, he decide to sign up to the war effort, telling friends that he did not care if he ever came home again. He did eventually return, of course, though he was never quite the same again.

Although married twice more, when he died towards the end of 1960, Clark Gable was buried next to his beloved Carole, the woman he never forgot or stopped loving. As for the wreckage, much of it still sits in the mountains above Las Vegas, though ambitious explorers have taken most of the smaller items as morbid souvenirs. But the bigger parts of the aircraft – the engines and landing craft – are still there, where they will probably lie forever, a tragically sad reminder of what occurred one dark, winter’s night over seventy years ago.

There is a memorable scene during an episode of the hit TV show
Frasier
where Frasier’s producer, Roz Doyle, tells the story of 1930s actress, Lupe Vélez. The way Roz tells it, Lupe is a woman whose career is over and so decides to take an overdose, in order that she will be remembered forever. She dresses up, lights candles and surrounds herself with flowers. She then lies down on the bed and takes the pills; but unfortunately for Lupe she has a bad reaction to the tablets and her recently eaten dinner, and ends up passing away in the toilet instead.

The portrait presented by Roz raises a mighty laugh from the
Frasier
audience, but in reality the story of Lupe Vélez is far more tragic than anyone could ever imagine.

Born in San Luis, Mexico, in 1908, María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez was an outspoken young lady who attended convent school in Texas, where she learned to speak English. She loved to perform, took dance lessons and appeared on stage in her native country before deciding to move permanently to the United States, where she toured with vaudeville shows and appeared in the New York theatre.

One of her earliest appearances was in a production called the
Fanchon and Marco Show
, where the organizers discovered that although she could be shy, Lupe was also vigorous. Fanchon later laughed that during her first appearance on stage, she was so under-clothed that the entire audience almost fell off their seats when she first walked out on to the stage. For future performances he had to persuade her to put on more clothes so as not to shock the audience again.

While Lupe enjoyed her time on stage, eventually, however, Hollywood beckoned and the actress arrived in California in order to find fame and fortune. She was relatively successful, appearing in the Laurel and Hardy picture
Sailors Beware!
and
The Gaucho
with Douglas Fairbanks. She was also an amazingly beautiful woman – mysterious and sultry – and because she played many “exotic” characters, the press were quick to nickname her “Miss Hot Tamale”. But while this moniker suited the beautiful woman, Lupe herself preferred to be called “Whoopee Lupe” and did not have to try hard to live up to the tag of being wild and fiery.

At the height of her career, Lupe began a love affair with film star Gary Cooper, and as they made an extremely handsome and entertaining couple, the press lapped up every personal appearance and comment they could get. In return the couple enjoyed winding up reporters who became obsessed with wondering whether or not they would ever get married. One day they would say that yes, there was a big possibility they would tie the knot, and on the next they would deny all knowledge of even going out with each other.

“Why would we marry an way?” Lupe teased one reporter. “We have much more important things to do.” Then to another she said, “Gary is a very nice boy. He likes me I hope and I like him. People marry us off. They engage us. Well that is all right. They enjoy themselves talking about us. Let them talk.”

In reality the marriage plans were only ever just talk, and rumours surfaced that Gary was romantically linked to various other stars including actress June Collyer. When asked about the rumours, Lupe giggled. “Gary meets lots of girls,” she told
Los Angeles Times
reporter Muriel Babcock. “He talks to them. I meet people too . . . Why should it mean anything if Gary talks to a girl?”

By 1931 the romance had fizzled out, but Lupe brushed off the break-up by quipping, “I got tired of Gary, but he is one grand person just the same.” She later talked to columnist Alma Whitaker about the relationship, stating, “I will never marry. When Gary and I were in love it was terrible.” When pressed further she admitted that he had taken her away from her mother too much and she had not enjoyed that at all. “Lupe must do as she likes. I don’t believe in marriage,” she quickly added.

But marry she did – to Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller. The two settled down to what Lupe hoped would be marital bliss, but it was not to be. With two huge personalities, the pair fought frequently, splitting up so many times that fans could not keep up. There were at least two attempts at divorce, on 11 July 1934 and 2 January 1935, but each time the actress would be convinced by Johnny to give things another try and the proceedings would be called off.

Ultimately, however, it just did not work out between the two and in July 1938, after a five-month trial separation, they split for good. Lupe released a statement that said that, in the last few years, her husband had been morose, had not spoken to her and had a very jealous nature. The media was sceptical, however, with many believing they would reconcile once more, since it was beginning to seem as though that’s just what they did for kicks.

“I hope we might be able to make up,” Lupe was quoted at the time, but eventually it all became official when the actress entered the divorce court on 15 August 1938. Dressed in a demure brown gabardine coat with white skirt and brown hat, Lupe accused her estranged husband of wanting to kill her pet Chihuahua from the moment he set eyes on it. He also called her names, she said, left her alone while out together, and flew into rages and stormed out of their home. “It’s a wonder I wasn’t killed!” she shouted in court, as the reporters noted down each and every juicy detail.

Lupe’s distress was lost on Judge Burnell, who frequently made jokes throughout the entire process. “He probably thought you didn’t need it,” he said, when Lupe told him of Weissmuller’s refusal to let her go to the beauty parlour. “It must have been hard for you to keep a complete set of china in the house,” he replied when told that the Tarzan star liked to throw plates. “Why didn’t you buy paper plates?” he quipped.

“I don’t know why,” giggled Lupe.

On a more serious note, the actress reported that her husband had threatened to break her neck if he ever discovered she had gone out without him. Then he started staying out all night himself and proceeded to bring a string of women back to the marital home. That was the last straw. “I didn’t want a divorce,” she said. “I tried so hard, but when he brought other women into my house I couldn’t stand it. I tried to protect his name.”

Finally, it was all over and after Lupe had declared it “the only true performance in my life”, she was granted a divorce. Afterwards she gave an interview to the
Los Angeles Times
, during which she said she hated admitting to the court such “nasty things”, but added, “I guess the law requires it.” Still, the actress made it clear that she had a definite place for Johnny in her heart: “He likes me. I like him. But we just couldn’t click in marriage. I am so sorry.”

After the failure of her relationship, Lupe said she had sworn herself off men for good. “There isn’t a man on earth I like,” she told columnist Read Kendall on the set of her new film. She threw herself into her career instead; and for a time things seemed settled but just over a year later, in December 1939, Lupe hit the headlines again when she was tricked out of $2,500 by an opportunist gypsy who told her she had been cursed . . .

The “friendship” had begun while Lupe was not working and was looking for something to occupy her time at her home, 732 North Rodeo Drive. While chatting to her maid Katherine Taylor one day, the conversation got round to the topic of psychics, and Taylor told her employer that a gypsy by the name of Miss X had done a reading for her not long ago. Lupe was intrigued and invited the fortune-teller into her home for some fun. “I took an interest in this woman because I’m not working right now and she gave me something to do, like going to a show,” she later said. “So I fooled around with her.”

Predictably, the “fooling around” led to Lupe being told by Miss X that she was cursed and that it could only be lifted by praying over $10,000. Of course, the person who had to do the praying was Miss X herself, though when Lupe scoffed at the amount of money concerned, the gypsy told her she would settle for $2,500. Alarm bells should have sounded for Lupe by this point, but amazingly she still thought the woman was decent and honest. The actress gave Miss X the money and followed her instructions, lying down on the bed to “concentrate” on having the curse lifted.

As one might have imagined, the only thing lifted that day was the money, which Miss X liberated from the home while the actress was lying down, eyes closed, on the bed. “The money is nothing,” Lupe later told police. “But just wait until I get my hands on that woman.” She later went down to the Beverly Hills jail in the hope of identifying the thief, but came away unsatisfied. “All I want is to catch that gypsy,” she declared, after scrutinizing twelve innocent women who had been rounded up specifically for her observation.

Despite losing her money, Lupe was able to put the disappointment behind her after the success of a series called
Mexican Spitfire
, which showed the actress off as a fine comedienne and rejuvenated her career. Everything was looking up but an unexpected turn was soon to come.

Having famously sworn herself off men just a short time before, in 1944 Lupe decided that she was ready to try again when she met and fell in love with Harald Ramond, an actor almost ten years her junior. The two planned to marry, and the excited woman exclaimed to reporters, “He’s the only man who knows how to handle Lupe.” Unfortunately, however, this was just a fantasy and the romance suddenly floundered towards the end of 1944.

On 9 December, Lupe told waiting reporters that her engagement was off due to a huge argument about politics. “We had one grand big battle,” she said. “I told him to get out.” She seemed very blasé about the whole thing, but in reality the fight had nothing to do with politics at all, and everything to do with the fact that the actress was pregnant with his child.

After a series of arguments, misunderstandings and language barriers, it seemed as though her lover had no wish to marry or even be with her and the child, and Lupe was distraught. Could she raise the child alone? Not likely given the era and the scandal that would hit if she did. Could she terminate the pregnancy and start again with her life? She just could not bring herself to even think about the idea. Finally, with no happy ending in sight and with the shame of an illegitimate baby hanging over her head, Lupe decided there was only one way forward: to get out permanently.

On the evening of 14 December 1944, just before Christmas, Lupe entertained her friends, Estelle Taylor and Mrs Jack Oakie. She was depressed and full of remorse over her lost love and pregnancy. “I have had plenty of opportunities to get rid of it,” she told the shocked Taylor. “But it’s my baby. I could not commit murder and still live with myself. I would rather kill myself.”

Her friends tried to talk her out of the mood but it was no use. After saying goodnight, Lupe dressed herself in her favourite blue pyjamas and sat down to write a note to her estranged lover:

“Harald. May God forgive you and forgive me too. But I prefer to take my life away and our baby’s before I bring him such shame or killing him. How could you fake such great love for me and our baby when all the time you didn’t want us? I see no other way out for me, so goodbye and good luck to you. Love Lupe.”