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Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3
At 5:00 A.M. on January 16, 1942, actress Carole Lombard, Hollywood's "Queen of Screwball" and the wife of the king of the movies, Clark Gable, stepped onto a Transcontinental & Western Airlines DC-3, designated as Flight 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana with her mother, Elizabeth Peters, and MGM publicity man Otto Winkler. Lombard had just completed the first sale of war bonds and stamps in the nation following its entry into World War II. Exhausted from five days on the road, Carole intended to return to her husband and Encino, California home and by the fastest means possible. Fourteen hours later, Flight 3 lay a flaming pile of debris strewn across the side of Potosi Mountain, Nevada.Fireball provides a fresh look at Carole Lombard's life, with plenty of focus on her list of lovers that included Howard Hughes and Clark Gable, and presents a first-ever examination of the events that led to that final flight and her death. The book also provides a day-by-day look at the struggles of Clark Gable and Lombard's family, friends, and fans, to cope with the tragedy. Lombard became the first Hollywood star to sacrifice her life in World War II. The War Department offered Gable a funeral service with full military honors but he refused it knowing that his wife would not approve of such spectacle.But Fireball goes much further and explores the lives of the 21 others on the plane, including 15 members of the U.S. Army Air Corps, and addresses one of the most enduring mysteries of World War II: On a clear night full of stars, with TWA's most experienced pilot at the controls of a 10-month-old aircraft under the power of two fully functioning engines, why did Flight 3 crash into that Nevada mountainside?Author Robert Matzen digs deep into never-before-explored corners of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences Library to offer fresh new perspectives on Carole Lombard, “the Queen of Screwball.” He also explored 2,000 pages of federal government and TWA records on the crash and spoke to friends of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable as well as crash experts and family members of the passengers on Flight 3 to tell not one but 22 heartbreaking stories, one for each of the souls aboard the doomed airliner.The gripping page-turner Fireball presents the story of the people on the plane, the friends and families left behind, and the heroic first responders who struggled up a mountain hoping to perform a miracle rescue. From the first page to the last, Fireball tells a story of accomplishment, bravery, sacrifice, and loss.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 16, 2014
495 people are currently reading
1925 people want to read
About the author
Robert Matzen
12 books208 followersRobert Matzen is the author of eight books, including the bestsellers Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe and Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3, which won the 2015 ‘Biography of the Year’ Benjamin Franklin Award and earned praise from the Smithsonian Institution.
His forthcoming Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II, involved three years of intense research and several trips to the Netherlands, where Audrey spent the war. He worked in close consultation with Luca Dotti, Audrey Hepburn's younger son, and with many Dutch citizens who survived the war with Audrey in the town of Velp.
Robert has appeared on the BBC, Talk Radio Europe, Radio Russia, and many U.S. television and radio outlets, including NPR. His previous print work includes many articles about classic films and national bylines for the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets. His work as a filmmaker earned national awards and his feature documentary about George Washington, When the Forest Ran Red, is a genre classic that premiered on PBS in 2001. He is a former communications professional for NASA, where he spent 10 years.
His forthcoming Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II, involved three years of intense research and several trips to the Netherlands, where Audrey spent the war. He worked in close consultation with Luca Dotti, Audrey Hepburn's younger son, and with many Dutch citizens who survived the war with Audrey in the town of Velp.
Robert has appeared on the BBC, Talk Radio Europe, Radio Russia, and many U.S. television and radio outlets, including NPR. His previous print work includes many articles about classic films and national bylines for the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets. His work as a filmmaker earned national awards and his feature documentary about George Washington, When the Forest Ran Red, is a genre classic that premiered on PBS in 2001. He is a former communications professional for NASA, where he spent 10 years.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 182 reviews
November 22, 2017
After completing this book, I'm not sure if I would categorize it as a biography of Carole Lombard or a historical look at a tragic event that took place in an era when commercial air travel was in its infancy.
The author does a commendable job of setting the scene of late 1930s and early 40s Hollywood and introducing us to the various players who attracted movie-goers willing to spend a dime to escape in the celluloid, bigger-than-life "pictures" and contract players of the time.
I confess that I knew a bit about the lives of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, and the 1942 crash of a DC-3 that took Lombard's life and changed the life of Gable - Hollywood's "king". This book goes in to great detail and relies on original files from sources such as TWA, and film studio archives, to provide a full picture of the period and places.
As the book concludes, the reader is well oriented to the select circle of family and friends (along with military service men) who were on the flight or affected by the spectacular crash in the mountains high above Las Vegas. The stories meld together to form an unbiased depiction of this early commercial air disaster.
I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the era of glamour in Hollywood, celebrity relationships at the outset of World War II, and pioneering air travel.
The author does a commendable job of setting the scene of late 1930s and early 40s Hollywood and introducing us to the various players who attracted movie-goers willing to spend a dime to escape in the celluloid, bigger-than-life "pictures" and contract players of the time.
I confess that I knew a bit about the lives of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, and the 1942 crash of a DC-3 that took Lombard's life and changed the life of Gable - Hollywood's "king". This book goes in to great detail and relies on original files from sources such as TWA, and film studio archives, to provide a full picture of the period and places.
As the book concludes, the reader is well oriented to the select circle of family and friends (along with military service men) who were on the flight or affected by the spectacular crash in the mountains high above Las Vegas. The stories meld together to form an unbiased depiction of this early commercial air disaster.
I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the era of glamour in Hollywood, celebrity relationships at the outset of World War II, and pioneering air travel.
March 24, 2021
I began to read this with some trepidation… I didn't want these two, Gable and Lombard, to lose their luster. I also didn't want to cry over them, but I was resigned to that – when one of a loving couple is going to crash into a mountain in the course of a book, tears are going to happen.
In the end, was the Great Love Affair between Gable and Lombard everything fond fans say it was? I don't know. Probably not. (Two words: Lana Turner.) Would they have been divorced in a few years? Maybe. But it doesn't really matter. It's sort of like JFK's presidency – cut untimely short, there's so much room left for fantasy and imagining.
And, also like JFK's presidency, press coverage resulted in a public perception of the situation which didn't bear much resemblance to reality. Which goes back to the beginning of this review. I kind of like the fantasy, the he-for-her-only-and-she-for-him illusion. It's not any fun to become resigned to the fact that Gable was a dog, and Lombard was no saint herself. But … well, the couple in this book are human beings, not Movie Stars. There's the difference.
This is the story of a woman described as the kind of friend everyone longs for, energetic and loyal and fierce – a fireball – and the fireball that ended her. I knew little enough about her, except for her earlier marriage to William Powell, her love of animals, and the romance with Gable; I had no idea about the other accident that changed the course of Carole Lombard's life. Shocked, I felt stunningly unobservant never to have noticed the scars … until I went looking for them. They're most definitely there in some pictures – I can't say I'm not unobservant – but in my defense, makeup and lighting were used skillfully to hide or at least minimize them. Her tremendous heart, her "salty" language – and the reason for the language; her "Causes" which ranged from parrots to people and everywhere in between… No, this exploration of her life and death did not dim Carole Lombard in my eyes.
Supplemental to the tale of Gable and Lombard and that damned mountain, this was a look inside Hollywood of the 20's and 30's, and how Gable hated playing Rhett Butler but Lombard longed to play Scarlett, and the often vicious process of casting and celebrity. "The result is equal parts biography, rescue effort, and mystery; it’s also a love story and an unimaginable tragedy that continues to haunt me, as it may haunt you." And it's about early air travel, the uncertain first steps of the country into war, about the other people who were on that damned plane and the people they left behind. It could have been a scattered mess – but it's not. The method in which Matzen tells the history, in which the timeline is cut in half and braided until about the 60% point where they catch up to each other, and the story of Gable and Lombard is woven together with that of all the other people involved in the fireball, works to deepen the story. I don't think it's easy to tell a story with a foregone conclusion; reading another biography of a beloved celebrity, I thought about how I would probably get his death out of the way early and soften the blow a bit. I mean, as with this book, I went into it knowing full well that he died some years ago, but the exploration of the long illness that killed him, culminating in his death and funeral and a brief aftermath, left me a bit wrecked at the end – testament more to how I felt about the actor than to the book. So I liked the fact that there is no coyness or artificial buildup to the very definitely foregone conclusion in Fireball. The emotional impact is still powerful, the description of the crash is horrific in its detail, but it's not what the reader closes the book with for the last time.
The cause, or rather possible cause of the crash is explored, and no real answer attained. I found it remarkable that even in this story there are conspiracy theories.
Yeah, I cried. "If I can do it, so can you." I learned a bit more about the Golden Age Hollywood stars I love so much – Spencer Tracy, and Lucille Ball, and William Powell. Gable and Lombard. And it didn't hurt my affection for them – on the contrary. They are more fully formed in my mind's eye, and knowing that I like them as human beings will enhance my enjoyment of their performances.
We're not really supposed to quote from advance copies of books, but … well, that never really stopped me before, and I want to make note of: "…Stand your ground, and make it look like you were planting flowers on that ground all the while." I'd like that cross-stitched and framed.
And I want to close with another quote, the author's summation of why I wish I'd known the woman born as Jane Alice Peters: "the soft-hearted, hard-charging, caffeine-fueled, self-promoting, profanity-laced, nicotine-addicted, business-oriented, and usually optimistic sexpot and perpetual motion machine known to the world as Carole Lombard". God bless – and angels keep.
In the end, was the Great Love Affair between Gable and Lombard everything fond fans say it was? I don't know. Probably not. (Two words: Lana Turner.) Would they have been divorced in a few years? Maybe. But it doesn't really matter. It's sort of like JFK's presidency – cut untimely short, there's so much room left for fantasy and imagining.
And, also like JFK's presidency, press coverage resulted in a public perception of the situation which didn't bear much resemblance to reality. Which goes back to the beginning of this review. I kind of like the fantasy, the he-for-her-only-and-she-for-him illusion. It's not any fun to become resigned to the fact that Gable was a dog, and Lombard was no saint herself. But … well, the couple in this book are human beings, not Movie Stars. There's the difference.
This is the story of a woman described as the kind of friend everyone longs for, energetic and loyal and fierce – a fireball – and the fireball that ended her. I knew little enough about her, except for her earlier marriage to William Powell, her love of animals, and the romance with Gable; I had no idea about the other accident that changed the course of Carole Lombard's life. Shocked, I felt stunningly unobservant never to have noticed the scars … until I went looking for them. They're most definitely there in some pictures – I can't say I'm not unobservant – but in my defense, makeup and lighting were used skillfully to hide or at least minimize them. Her tremendous heart, her "salty" language – and the reason for the language; her "Causes" which ranged from parrots to people and everywhere in between… No, this exploration of her life and death did not dim Carole Lombard in my eyes.
Supplemental to the tale of Gable and Lombard and that damned mountain, this was a look inside Hollywood of the 20's and 30's, and how Gable hated playing Rhett Butler but Lombard longed to play Scarlett, and the often vicious process of casting and celebrity. "The result is equal parts biography, rescue effort, and mystery; it’s also a love story and an unimaginable tragedy that continues to haunt me, as it may haunt you." And it's about early air travel, the uncertain first steps of the country into war, about the other people who were on that damned plane and the people they left behind. It could have been a scattered mess – but it's not. The method in which Matzen tells the history, in which the timeline is cut in half and braided until about the 60% point where they catch up to each other, and the story of Gable and Lombard is woven together with that of all the other people involved in the fireball, works to deepen the story. I don't think it's easy to tell a story with a foregone conclusion; reading another biography of a beloved celebrity, I thought about how I would probably get his death out of the way early and soften the blow a bit. I mean, as with this book, I went into it knowing full well that he died some years ago, but the exploration of the long illness that killed him, culminating in his death and funeral and a brief aftermath, left me a bit wrecked at the end – testament more to how I felt about the actor than to the book. So I liked the fact that there is no coyness or artificial buildup to the very definitely foregone conclusion in Fireball. The emotional impact is still powerful, the description of the crash is horrific in its detail, but it's not what the reader closes the book with for the last time.
The cause, or rather possible cause of the crash is explored, and no real answer attained. I found it remarkable that even in this story there are conspiracy theories.
Yeah, I cried. "If I can do it, so can you." I learned a bit more about the Golden Age Hollywood stars I love so much – Spencer Tracy, and Lucille Ball, and William Powell. Gable and Lombard. And it didn't hurt my affection for them – on the contrary. They are more fully formed in my mind's eye, and knowing that I like them as human beings will enhance my enjoyment of their performances.
We're not really supposed to quote from advance copies of books, but … well, that never really stopped me before, and I want to make note of: "…Stand your ground, and make it look like you were planting flowers on that ground all the while." I'd like that cross-stitched and framed.
And I want to close with another quote, the author's summation of why I wish I'd known the woman born as Jane Alice Peters: "the soft-hearted, hard-charging, caffeine-fueled, self-promoting, profanity-laced, nicotine-addicted, business-oriented, and usually optimistic sexpot and perpetual motion machine known to the world as Carole Lombard". God bless – and angels keep.
July 2, 2014
Carole Lombard was one of those rare people in perpetually catty Hollywood who seems not have left behind anyone who could say a bad word about her. Her boundless energy, generous heart, delicious sense of humor, down-to-earth sexiness, and general exuberance have endeared her to generations of fans so that she is still lovingly remembered more than 70 years after her shocking, tragic death. I cannot remember how I ever discovered Carole Lombard -- perhaps in My Man Godfrey? -- but I have enjoyed both the on-screen and off-screen Carole for years. She lived an interesting and, ultimately, gracious life.
Robert Matzen compiled more than a few years back what is called a 'bio-bibliography' on Carole Lombard. Basically, it is a listing of all magazine articles and books about Ms. Lombard, with a synopsis of each of her movies, with a short biography and some photos added in. It is not a glamorous book, but an essential one for the true Lombard fan. Of course, I've had it in my collection for years.
Now, he has taken his excellent, in-depth research and used it to good purpose in his latest book, Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3. This book is unique amidst the Lombard biographies, because Matzen, whose impressive CV includes work with NASA Aeronautics in addition to his film work and Golden Age Hollywood expertise, focuses on the airplane crash that took her and 21 others' lives on January 16, 1942. The wealth of information, of course, is about Carole (and Clark Gable), but he treats the other victims with due consideration and respect.
We'll never really know what happened that cold, clear night that caused a beautiful, functional aircraft piloted by immensely qualified crew to fly as surely into a mountain as if it were steered directly. Matzen considers every possible reason and comes to reasonable conclusions. But, the details of the crash (while interesting in themselves) are not the ultimate focus of the book. It is about those twists of fate or personality that can swing the story of a life this way and that. Carole Lombard's death was a tragedy in the classic sense. Her tragic flaw of stubborn determination led to her demise. She was not supposed to have been on that fatal flight. The studios forbade her from flying on her war bond selling tour; her mother begged her not to fly; her publicist had a premonition of his own death should he board an airplane in the course of their tour; the airline tried to bump her and her entourage off the flight in Nevada to make more room for service men; but, Carole was determined to get on that airplane. And we lost too, too soon one of the brightest lights that ever glowed in Hollywood.
Robert Matzen compiled more than a few years back what is called a 'bio-bibliography' on Carole Lombard. Basically, it is a listing of all magazine articles and books about Ms. Lombard, with a synopsis of each of her movies, with a short biography and some photos added in. It is not a glamorous book, but an essential one for the true Lombard fan. Of course, I've had it in my collection for years.
Now, he has taken his excellent, in-depth research and used it to good purpose in his latest book, Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3. This book is unique amidst the Lombard biographies, because Matzen, whose impressive CV includes work with NASA Aeronautics in addition to his film work and Golden Age Hollywood expertise, focuses on the airplane crash that took her and 21 others' lives on January 16, 1942. The wealth of information, of course, is about Carole (and Clark Gable), but he treats the other victims with due consideration and respect.
We'll never really know what happened that cold, clear night that caused a beautiful, functional aircraft piloted by immensely qualified crew to fly as surely into a mountain as if it were steered directly. Matzen considers every possible reason and comes to reasonable conclusions. But, the details of the crash (while interesting in themselves) are not the ultimate focus of the book. It is about those twists of fate or personality that can swing the story of a life this way and that. Carole Lombard's death was a tragedy in the classic sense. Her tragic flaw of stubborn determination led to her demise. She was not supposed to have been on that fatal flight. The studios forbade her from flying on her war bond selling tour; her mother begged her not to fly; her publicist had a premonition of his own death should he board an airplane in the course of their tour; the airline tried to bump her and her entourage off the flight in Nevada to make more room for service men; but, Carole was determined to get on that airplane. And we lost too, too soon one of the brightest lights that ever glowed in Hollywood.
April 10, 2015
This certainly was a page-turner. I had no problem with the switch between the Lombard biography and the events leading up to the crash. I found the biography of Lombard to be "bio-lite" easy to skim and clearly cribbed from the sources. The meat of the research went into the files on the crash and the aftermath, recovery and final investigation, this was very good. I like that he gave names and stories of the other victims of this accident, Lombard was the big name, but there were others on board. That was nice, it completed the story.
Where the author completely lost me had to do with either ridiculously easy errors in the text to correct such as the oft-repeated "Robert Stack Academy Award Winner," no he was a nominee. The real deal breaker for me were the pages and pages where the author put himself in Clark Gable's head and was expressing thoughts, feelings and memories of Lombard for which he had no source. I suppose it was to make Gable a more human tragic figure, but, it made me groan. The notes in the kindle edition were scanty and I assume the same in the HB edition.
It was a fast read, nicely paced.
Where the author completely lost me had to do with either ridiculously easy errors in the text to correct such as the oft-repeated "Robert Stack Academy Award Winner," no he was a nominee. The real deal breaker for me were the pages and pages where the author put himself in Clark Gable's head and was expressing thoughts, feelings and memories of Lombard for which he had no source. I suppose it was to make Gable a more human tragic figure, but, it made me groan. The notes in the kindle edition were scanty and I assume the same in the HB edition.
It was a fast read, nicely paced.
January 6, 2014
This book is part biography and part the story of a tragic accident, in which actress Carole Lombard and twenty one other people lost their lives. Much of the wreckage of TWA Flight 3, the commercial airliner which crashed on the evening of January 16th, 1942, is still strewn across the side of Mount Potosi in Nevada. The author actually climbed to the crash site and it took him four and a half hours to ascend the steep mountain slope. It can only be imagined how hard it was to mount a rescue mission on that dark night, so long ago.
However, despite so much time passing, the author does a wonderful job in recreating those events – tracking down living eyewitnesses and accounts from people that were there. He tells of how the plane was refuelled at McCarren airfield in Los Vegas, where it took off without problems; heading for the Birbank Air Terminal, where Clark Gable, Lombard’s husband, and the wife of the Hollywood publicist accompanying her, were waiting for the plane. Lombard should not have even been on board, having promised not to fly. As well as being accompanied by publicist Otto Winkler, she was also with her mother – who had made her promise to travel by train, due to her fear of flying. Desperate to get home quickly, Lombard insisted on taking a flight. Her mother, Elizabeth Peters was a student of numerology and begged her not to take the plane. Three was apparently an unlucky number and they were taking Flight , arriving at Indianapolis at 3am, there were three of them flying and her daughter was 33 years and months old... The omens were not good. Once aboard, they were even asked to disembark, to give priority to service personnel; but the actress insisted that she was doing valid war work, travelling the country selling bonds and fundraising for the war effort and they were allowed to re-board.
This book gives you a biography of Carole Lombard, plus gives information on the other passengers. These included a young army wife, going to join her husband, several passengers from the US Army Air Corps Ferrying Command, flying bombers to be delivered overseas and, obviously, the crew. After the accident there was a desperate rescue attempt, in difficult conditions. The book follows what happened, the investigation and asks why the accident happened. It is a very readable account of a tragic event and the author gives an amazingly detailed account of what happened and the people involved.
Lastly, I received a copy of this book, from the publisher, for review.
However, despite so much time passing, the author does a wonderful job in recreating those events – tracking down living eyewitnesses and accounts from people that were there. He tells of how the plane was refuelled at McCarren airfield in Los Vegas, where it took off without problems; heading for the Birbank Air Terminal, where Clark Gable, Lombard’s husband, and the wife of the Hollywood publicist accompanying her, were waiting for the plane. Lombard should not have even been on board, having promised not to fly. As well as being accompanied by publicist Otto Winkler, she was also with her mother – who had made her promise to travel by train, due to her fear of flying. Desperate to get home quickly, Lombard insisted on taking a flight. Her mother, Elizabeth Peters was a student of numerology and begged her not to take the plane. Three was apparently an unlucky number and they were taking Flight , arriving at Indianapolis at 3am, there were three of them flying and her daughter was 33 years and months old... The omens were not good. Once aboard, they were even asked to disembark, to give priority to service personnel; but the actress insisted that she was doing valid war work, travelling the country selling bonds and fundraising for the war effort and they were allowed to re-board.
This book gives you a biography of Carole Lombard, plus gives information on the other passengers. These included a young army wife, going to join her husband, several passengers from the US Army Air Corps Ferrying Command, flying bombers to be delivered overseas and, obviously, the crew. After the accident there was a desperate rescue attempt, in difficult conditions. The book follows what happened, the investigation and asks why the accident happened. It is a very readable account of a tragic event and the author gives an amazingly detailed account of what happened and the people involved.
Lastly, I received a copy of this book, from the publisher, for review.
October 21, 2023
OK, I devoured this in a day, given the intersection of my love of vintage Hollywood, calamities, and WWII. Matzen does a great job with research, but I'm giving him four stars instead of five because of his unfortunate reliance on what he called "extrapolation," or the insertion of his thoughts into the unknowable, interior lives of Gable, Lombard, and others. I don't understand this intrusion because it weakens his book. His chapters on the crash and its investigation are stronger than the Hollywood chapters, perhaps reflecting his aeronautical background. Still, a valuable contribution to the literature on classic Hollywood. Recommended.
Re-read in Feb 2020. Still great.
Re-re-read in Oct 2023. Still great. Revising my stars to a full five.
Re-read in Feb 2020. Still great.
Re-re-read in Oct 2023. Still great. Revising my stars to a full five.
December 27, 2016
This is a very informative book about one of Hollywood's best-loved stars, the "Dream" romance of Hollywood royalty, and the tragedy of a plane crash that has long served as fodder for conspiracy theorists. The danger of such a book is that it may be nothing but a bare-bones rehashing of details ... but, put your mind to rest. FIREBALL is very much worth the read and is mostly engaging.
"Mostly engaging." Okay, that does deserve an explanation. The writer chose a stylistic approach that I found to be quite distracting. Instead of presenting his narrative in timeline fashion, he jumps back and forth from the events leading up to the infamous crash to details of Carole Lombard's life. I could understand this back and forth alternating between chapters if the life details were dull, but they're not. How Jane Peters became Carole Lombard and grew into a show business icon is both fanciful and intriguing. There is absolutely no need to skip forward and backward in time as if we were reading a novel by Kurt Vonnegut.
What are the strong points? Everything else.
The writer does an excellent job of allowing the Reader to be an observer of occurrences. Insights are appropriate (not the writer's imaginings, but based on sources who had personal knowledge), the photographs are worthy of study (including one of the writer at the crash site), and resources aren't just listed as reference, but offered with a narrative explanation of how they were used.
Even though this is a non-fiction work, there were a number of moments when I (as observer) felt compelled to root for a different ending. The decision to board the plane based on a coin-toss is a perfect example. I knew that Carole Lombard boarded that plane ... yet, for just a moment ....
If there is ever an occasion to update the book with new material, I do hope the writer will test a chronological approach with some sample Readers. That would have made it a 5-star recommendation for me. As it is, it is still highly recommended for fans of Hollywood magic from the 1930's and 1940's.
"Mostly engaging." Okay, that does deserve an explanation. The writer chose a stylistic approach that I found to be quite distracting. Instead of presenting his narrative in timeline fashion, he jumps back and forth from the events leading up to the infamous crash to details of Carole Lombard's life. I could understand this back and forth alternating between chapters if the life details were dull, but they're not. How Jane Peters became Carole Lombard and grew into a show business icon is both fanciful and intriguing. There is absolutely no need to skip forward and backward in time as if we were reading a novel by Kurt Vonnegut.
What are the strong points? Everything else.
The writer does an excellent job of allowing the Reader to be an observer of occurrences. Insights are appropriate (not the writer's imaginings, but based on sources who had personal knowledge), the photographs are worthy of study (including one of the writer at the crash site), and resources aren't just listed as reference, but offered with a narrative explanation of how they were used.
Even though this is a non-fiction work, there were a number of moments when I (as observer) felt compelled to root for a different ending. The decision to board the plane based on a coin-toss is a perfect example. I knew that Carole Lombard boarded that plane ... yet, for just a moment ....
If there is ever an occasion to update the book with new material, I do hope the writer will test a chronological approach with some sample Readers. That would have made it a 5-star recommendation for me. As it is, it is still highly recommended for fans of Hollywood magic from the 1930's and 1940's.
March 2, 2015
The author suggests at the start of the book that he has "discovered" something about the plane crash that killed Carole Lombard. We are led to believe it is, perhaps, something sinister because Orson Welles once said at lunch to Henry Jaglom, "the plane was shot down, and those who know, know." Really--that's a revelation? With no evidence to support it; it's just a man talking at lunch. Also Matzen uses the word surreal at least a dozen times and always incorrectly.
In fact, Matzen has absolutely nothing new to add to reams of paper spent on the death of Lombard. He has TWA's review of the accident, and he climbed the mountain himself. Do I care?
The information on Carole Lombard would be much better reading if the chapters were not divided between Lombard's life and the crash of Lombard's plane. After an engaging chapter on Lombard, a reader must be depressed by the events leading up to her death. And there was a dearth of pictures. I also didn't want to read the chapters on the other people who were on the plane. I wanted a book about Carole Lombard. Instead I got a book with an incredibly tacky title. The author even had the bad taste to say that Lombard was a fireball and she died in a fireball. Tasteless.
In fact, Matzen has absolutely nothing new to add to reams of paper spent on the death of Lombard. He has TWA's review of the accident, and he climbed the mountain himself. Do I care?
The information on Carole Lombard would be much better reading if the chapters were not divided between Lombard's life and the crash of Lombard's plane. After an engaging chapter on Lombard, a reader must be depressed by the events leading up to her death. And there was a dearth of pictures. I also didn't want to read the chapters on the other people who were on the plane. I wanted a book about Carole Lombard. Instead I got a book with an incredibly tacky title. The author even had the bad taste to say that Lombard was a fireball and she died in a fireball. Tasteless.
February 22, 2017
GNab I received a free electronic copy of this biography from Netgalley, Robert Matzen, and GoodKnight Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.
This biography covering the last few years of the life and of the death of Carole Lombard, and the effect of the tragedy of Flight 3 on both Hollywood and the families of the other victims of that plane crash on January 16, 1942. This is an thorough follow-up on the Air Transport Command, Army Air Force pilots and airmen aboard the TWA DC-3, and the three members of the TWA crew, and the two passengers who were neither military nor a part of Lombard's party- two who talked their way onto the doomed plane. Matzen even follows the lives of the people bumped off of this flight in Albuquerque to make seats for the military pilots to return to California and ferry more planes to the east coast, and the war.
This is also an enlightening story of the Cessna T182t accident on November 8, 2007 in the same place, same circumstances.
This is a very interesting read. I would recommend it to anyone interested in WWII, Hollywood, and flying.
Robert Matzen
pub date Jan 16, 2017
GoodKnight Publishing
This biography covering the last few years of the life and of the death of Carole Lombard, and the effect of the tragedy of Flight 3 on both Hollywood and the families of the other victims of that plane crash on January 16, 1942. This is an thorough follow-up on the Air Transport Command, Army Air Force pilots and airmen aboard the TWA DC-3, and the three members of the TWA crew, and the two passengers who were neither military nor a part of Lombard's party- two who talked their way onto the doomed plane. Matzen even follows the lives of the people bumped off of this flight in Albuquerque to make seats for the military pilots to return to California and ferry more planes to the east coast, and the war.
This is also an enlightening story of the Cessna T182t accident on November 8, 2007 in the same place, same circumstances.
This is a very interesting read. I would recommend it to anyone interested in WWII, Hollywood, and flying.
Robert Matzen
pub date Jan 16, 2017
GoodKnight Publishing
July 29, 2021
Spellbinding, sad, and very well written.
May 16, 2014
FIREBALL by Robert Matzen
One of Hollywood's biggest tragedies involving one of its biggest mysteries and one of its biggest love stories.
It would have been so easy for Robert Matzen to fill 300 pages with Hollywood glitz, romance, and grief. He would not have been lying, or even exaggerating this part of the story that is the crash of TWA3. But those headlines have been covered before: Hollywood's Queen of Screwball marries the unchallenged King of Hollywood, but their happily ever after is cut short by a tragic plane crash. The end. Such a book would have sold well.
Matzen went further behind the headlines. Who was Carole Lombard? What was her journey from being Jane Alice Peters to being the Queen of Screwball and Mrs Clark Gable? And what made her so determined to change her travel plans and make that flight back to California over the protest of her mother and her friend who accompanied her?
Who was Clark Gable? What was his journey from being poor Billy Gable from a coal mining area of eastern Ohio to being the only man that movie fans could imagine playing Rhett Butler? And how did losing his young wife change his life forever?
Telling this story would have been a guaranteed high selling book. And Matzen does indeed tell these stories in a way you've never heard them told before. But it wasn't the WHOLE story, and standing on that fate-changing mountain just outside of Las Vegas, Matzen saw the wreckage that is to this day still strewn over a widespread area and knew there was far more to tell.
Carole Lombard and her 2 companions weren't the only people who lost their lives on that mountain that clear and starry night. Clark Gable and his 2 brothers-in-law weren't the only loved ones grieving. And their stories needed to be told as well.
By the time you finish "Fireball" you will learn all of the names, all of their stories - Carole's mother, Bess Peters, who was afraid of flying but gave in to her daughter's need to get home as soon as possible; Clark's right-hand man and friend Otto Winkler whose young bride grieved right along with Gable, over a dozen army pilots whose deaths were a big loss to our mobilization for WWII and an even bigger loss to their own loved ones; the flight crew, including TWA's best pilot, a solid copilot, and a lovely flight attendant who could only be identified by her wings pinned on her chest. Each of these people Matzen brings to life like shooting stars that flare all too briefly before being snuffed out.
And the other story no one has ever told: The locals who heard and/or saw the crash and fireball, those folks who knew all too well how deadly Mount Potosi could be, yet who braved the climb before any authorities got there in the desperate hope that there might be survivors. These people who put their own lives in jeopardy facing the cold and the mountain that doesn't want to be climbed on the just-in-case that even one of those passengers' lives could be saved. These people who until now were nameless but who stayed and guarded the still smouldering crash site in freezing weather until the officials got there to takeover so these men could make the trek back down to their homes, taking horrific visions of what they found with them to their beds.
Here also are the words of the army officials who retrieved all the human remains from the wreckage, trying to piece together the evidence and make sense of what happened while their eyes took in the unthinkable. And always, always, on the lookout for the body of Carole Lombard.
Robert Matzen gathers all the findable data on the investigations into TWA3 and combining it with witness and expert testimony plus past records of the pilot and copilot, tries to figure out how a 10-month old plane, apparently working fine, with TWA's most experienced pilot could have flown on a perfectly clear night straight into a mountain peak. A hundred feet up, left, or right, and they would have completely missed the mountain. So what in the world happened?
The fact that Matzen could squeeze all this information into one book is amazing. That he could write it all with such feeling is astonishing. That even while acknowledging that EXACTLY what happened can never be absolutely known, he can still make the reader feel that he has written the definitive work on this tragedy and no more needs be said, is astounding. This book and the multiple journeys it takes you on feels... complete.
Yet even on the last page, you find yourself wishing that everyone on that flight could have had their happily ever after before the final curtain fell.
My usual rule for giving a book a 5 star rating is that it must be imminently re-readable. For Robert Matzen, I am breaking this rule. "Fireball" is such a complete, clear, compendium that I felt I have without a doubt absorbed every fact, story, and emotion it contains. And yet because it is so complete, so well put together, and because it is so apparent that the author threw himself totally into every aspect of this book - and effortlessly draws the reader right in with him just as totally - I think this work deserves 5 stars and a place on my bookshelf.
~In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.~
One of Hollywood's biggest tragedies involving one of its biggest mysteries and one of its biggest love stories.
It would have been so easy for Robert Matzen to fill 300 pages with Hollywood glitz, romance, and grief. He would not have been lying, or even exaggerating this part of the story that is the crash of TWA3. But those headlines have been covered before: Hollywood's Queen of Screwball marries the unchallenged King of Hollywood, but their happily ever after is cut short by a tragic plane crash. The end. Such a book would have sold well.
Matzen went further behind the headlines. Who was Carole Lombard? What was her journey from being Jane Alice Peters to being the Queen of Screwball and Mrs Clark Gable? And what made her so determined to change her travel plans and make that flight back to California over the protest of her mother and her friend who accompanied her?
Who was Clark Gable? What was his journey from being poor Billy Gable from a coal mining area of eastern Ohio to being the only man that movie fans could imagine playing Rhett Butler? And how did losing his young wife change his life forever?
Telling this story would have been a guaranteed high selling book. And Matzen does indeed tell these stories in a way you've never heard them told before. But it wasn't the WHOLE story, and standing on that fate-changing mountain just outside of Las Vegas, Matzen saw the wreckage that is to this day still strewn over a widespread area and knew there was far more to tell.
Carole Lombard and her 2 companions weren't the only people who lost their lives on that mountain that clear and starry night. Clark Gable and his 2 brothers-in-law weren't the only loved ones grieving. And their stories needed to be told as well.
By the time you finish "Fireball" you will learn all of the names, all of their stories - Carole's mother, Bess Peters, who was afraid of flying but gave in to her daughter's need to get home as soon as possible; Clark's right-hand man and friend Otto Winkler whose young bride grieved right along with Gable, over a dozen army pilots whose deaths were a big loss to our mobilization for WWII and an even bigger loss to their own loved ones; the flight crew, including TWA's best pilot, a solid copilot, and a lovely flight attendant who could only be identified by her wings pinned on her chest. Each of these people Matzen brings to life like shooting stars that flare all too briefly before being snuffed out.
And the other story no one has ever told: The locals who heard and/or saw the crash and fireball, those folks who knew all too well how deadly Mount Potosi could be, yet who braved the climb before any authorities got there in the desperate hope that there might be survivors. These people who put their own lives in jeopardy facing the cold and the mountain that doesn't want to be climbed on the just-in-case that even one of those passengers' lives could be saved. These people who until now were nameless but who stayed and guarded the still smouldering crash site in freezing weather until the officials got there to takeover so these men could make the trek back down to their homes, taking horrific visions of what they found with them to their beds.
Here also are the words of the army officials who retrieved all the human remains from the wreckage, trying to piece together the evidence and make sense of what happened while their eyes took in the unthinkable. And always, always, on the lookout for the body of Carole Lombard.
Robert Matzen gathers all the findable data on the investigations into TWA3 and combining it with witness and expert testimony plus past records of the pilot and copilot, tries to figure out how a 10-month old plane, apparently working fine, with TWA's most experienced pilot could have flown on a perfectly clear night straight into a mountain peak. A hundred feet up, left, or right, and they would have completely missed the mountain. So what in the world happened?
The fact that Matzen could squeeze all this information into one book is amazing. That he could write it all with such feeling is astonishing. That even while acknowledging that EXACTLY what happened can never be absolutely known, he can still make the reader feel that he has written the definitive work on this tragedy and no more needs be said, is astounding. This book and the multiple journeys it takes you on feels... complete.
Yet even on the last page, you find yourself wishing that everyone on that flight could have had their happily ever after before the final curtain fell.
My usual rule for giving a book a 5 star rating is that it must be imminently re-readable. For Robert Matzen, I am breaking this rule. "Fireball" is such a complete, clear, compendium that I felt I have without a doubt absorbed every fact, story, and emotion it contains. And yet because it is so complete, so well put together, and because it is so apparent that the author threw himself totally into every aspect of this book - and effortlessly draws the reader right in with him just as totally - I think this work deserves 5 stars and a place on my bookshelf.
~In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.~
March 6, 2015
The further I got into this book the less I liked it. The first part is a fairly shallow biography of Carole Lombard, with brief flash-forwards to the plane crash that took her life. Around midway through, the focus of the book shifts entirely to the crash itself and the investigation into its possible causes. I would have preferred that the book spend more time on Lombard's life and less on her death, but what annoyed me about the book was the style of the writing.
Author Robert Matzen so frequently referred to Lombard as an "ingénue" that I started rolling my eyes at each occurrence. But then when Clark Gable entered the story the references to Gable as "the king of Hollywood" were so numerous they reached the point of absurdity. It would sometimes happen two or three times on a single page.
But here's what spoiled the book for me: Matzen sometimes crossed the line into fiction writing, which is fine for a novel, of course, but should be taboo in works of non-fiction. There's no way that Matzen could have known what was going through Clark Gable's head as he was processing the news of his wife's death, but that doesn't prevent the author from presenting a stream-of-consciousness narrative. He even gives us the thoughts of some of the passengers who died on Lombard's flight, people who couldn't have lived to relate that they were checking out Carole Lombard's legs from a few rows back on the plane.
The book was breezy, so it didn't take me too long to read, and it was interesting in parts, but overall I can't recommend it to anybody. If there's not a better book about Carole Lombard out there, then there certainly should be. She deserves better than this.
Author Robert Matzen so frequently referred to Lombard as an "ingénue" that I started rolling my eyes at each occurrence. But then when Clark Gable entered the story the references to Gable as "the king of Hollywood" were so numerous they reached the point of absurdity. It would sometimes happen two or three times on a single page.
But here's what spoiled the book for me: Matzen sometimes crossed the line into fiction writing, which is fine for a novel, of course, but should be taboo in works of non-fiction. There's no way that Matzen could have known what was going through Clark Gable's head as he was processing the news of his wife's death, but that doesn't prevent the author from presenting a stream-of-consciousness narrative. He even gives us the thoughts of some of the passengers who died on Lombard's flight, people who couldn't have lived to relate that they were checking out Carole Lombard's legs from a few rows back on the plane.
The book was breezy, so it didn't take me too long to read, and it was interesting in parts, but overall I can't recommend it to anybody. If there's not a better book about Carole Lombard out there, then there certainly should be. She deserves better than this.
December 30, 2013
This book is more biography and telling of the events that surround the crash rather than the mystery of it. It doesn't really seem like there was too much of a mystery and not a lot of stock was placed in the idea of sabotage or foul play.
What this book does do well is tell an abbreviated story of the life of Carole Lombard, her upbringing, her love life and her rise to fame. It also does a good job of chronicling the life of her friends and especially of Clark Gable.
The story of the hike to the wreckage dragged a bit for me as did the lengthy description of the flight report although important to trying to develop the mystery and the story of the crash.
I was not very familiar with Carole Lombard prior to reading this book and it does make me want to search out more about her and watch her movies as well.
What this book does do well is tell an abbreviated story of the life of Carole Lombard, her upbringing, her love life and her rise to fame. It also does a good job of chronicling the life of her friends and especially of Clark Gable.
The story of the hike to the wreckage dragged a bit for me as did the lengthy description of the flight report although important to trying to develop the mystery and the story of the crash.
I was not very familiar with Carole Lombard prior to reading this book and it does make me want to search out more about her and watch her movies as well.
April 9, 2019
Now why exactly I thought I would really want to read an extremely detailed account of the plane crash that killed Carole Lombard I have no idea. Which is not the book's fault, it covered everything you could think of from mini-bios of Carole and Clark Gable, the movie industry at the time, mini-er bios of the other victims or others peripherally involved . But it's all very sad. Hard to rate, this is a compromise. I thought the writing itself was a bit funky now and then, but it's meticulously researched and well presented. It did keep my interest throughout, but at the same time I was not enjoying myself much.
May 15, 2018
(2-1/2 stars) Before I picked this up, I had no idea that there was any mystery about the plane crash that killed Carole Lombard, her mother, and several Army Air Corps men. After finishing the book, I feel like I know too much. The first part has chapters that alternate between the crash and its immediate aftermath, and the story of Lombard's life. This half is worth reading. But a little more than halfway through, her life catches up with her death, and the last half is padded out mercilessly with numbing, repetitive details about the climb up to the crash site on Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas and the state of mind of Lombard's husband, Clark Gable.
To the author's credit, he did do quite a bit of deep research, and he does not neglect the 21 other people on board who were killed--we get their stories in varying detail. And the first few chapters concerning what people on the ground saw when the plane crashed into the mountain are quite compelling. But in addition to the padding out of the last half, Matzen basically fictionalizes much of the story, in the sense that he creates dialogue and internal thoughts that he couldn't possibly have known about, with almost an entire chapter told inside Gable's head. And the writing in these instances becomes overwrought. This would have fared much better as a long Vanity Fair article, without the padding to get this over 300 pages.
To the author's credit, he did do quite a bit of deep research, and he does not neglect the 21 other people on board who were killed--we get their stories in varying detail. And the first few chapters concerning what people on the ground saw when the plane crashed into the mountain are quite compelling. But in addition to the padding out of the last half, Matzen basically fictionalizes much of the story, in the sense that he creates dialogue and internal thoughts that he couldn't possibly have known about, with almost an entire chapter told inside Gable's head. And the writing in these instances becomes overwrought. This would have fared much better as a long Vanity Fair article, without the padding to get this over 300 pages.
January 6, 2017
This is a very fast read. I'm also sick in bed, so I didn't do much else but read, so I could be wrong about that. I read it in a day though, so you probably could too.
What I'm not wrong about is that you should never put fiction into a nonfiction book. No one but Clark Gable knows what he thought when he heard that Carole Lombard was dead. Since he is also dead, that knowledge isn't ever going to be available and all of the research in the world isn't going to make it appear. The thoughts in the minds of deceased passengers and opinions of other people that the author never met were blazing neon signs of shoddy writing.
There were a lot of things promised in the book that never appeared. There was no new information about what happened. There was no real new information on Ms. Lombard and I didn't even know that much about her going in.
All in all, I just can't recommend it to anyone besides completists.
This was a free copy from NetGalley, and I really wish I'd appreciated it more.
What I'm not wrong about is that you should never put fiction into a nonfiction book. No one but Clark Gable knows what he thought when he heard that Carole Lombard was dead. Since he is also dead, that knowledge isn't ever going to be available and all of the research in the world isn't going to make it appear. The thoughts in the minds of deceased passengers and opinions of other people that the author never met were blazing neon signs of shoddy writing.
There were a lot of things promised in the book that never appeared. There was no new information about what happened. There was no real new information on Ms. Lombard and I didn't even know that much about her going in.
All in all, I just can't recommend it to anyone besides completists.
This was a free copy from NetGalley, and I really wish I'd appreciated it more.
September 5, 2019
This is probably one of the most heartbreaking non-fiction books I've read. Author Robert Matzen takes us back in time to that fateful plane trip in which actress Carole Lombard, her mother Petey, friend Otto Winkler, and everyone else on board - the crew and many service men - died when they crashed into a mountainside. Matzen details the crash, events leading up to it, the investigations and probable causes with intricate research. But he also tells of how each person came to be on that plane, and the many reasons Lombard, Petey, and Otto were not supposed to be on that plane. At the heart of the book is Lombard's relationship and marriage to Clark Gable, which intertwined with her being on the plane. This is a must read for fans of Lombard, Gable, or anyone interested in aviation. Just have the tissues handy.
April 18, 2017
Good read for those who like old Hollywood. Sad that if one small change had occurred, she would have lived. She was a great actress and wonderful person. Shame her life was taken at such a young age.
Want to read
November 4, 2021I got my copy autographed at Cinevent in 2019.
Author Robert Matzen will be doing a book signing at the Columbus Moving Picture Show in Columbus, Ohio in May 2022.
Author Robert Matzen will be doing a book signing at the Columbus Moving Picture Show in Columbus, Ohio in May 2022.
November 17, 2021
2021 bk 347. Matzen again does an amazing job of bringing celebrity's to life through his massive amounts of research. I knew Carole Lombard was a Hoosier, I had seen My Man Godfrey and her last film, To be or Not to be. I did not realize her impact on the world of film, and indeed on the world of war bond fundraising. Her tragic death was not a solo event, indeed, her mother and manager died at her side, along with the army air force pilots being transferred to California, a few civilans, and the flight crew. I did not realize that this crash happened at the end of the first celebrity War Bonds tour and that Lombard had far exceeded her goals. Matzen does a fine, careful, and respectful handling of the grief of the relatives aboard the flight - bringing all of their stories to light, not just that of Lombard.
January 10, 2018
Rather perfect match of author and subject. This dude CLIMBED THE MOUNTAIN WHERE CAROLE'S PLANE CRASHED. [There are still pieces of the plane up there because it's so remote and hard to get to!] Matzen tells a full and fair story, including the heartwrenching backgrounds of the other 21 souls on the plane that night and not making Lombard out to be too saintly or too tainted. An excellent addition to both the scholarship and worship of Golden Hollywood.
March 9, 2023
Robert Matzen tells the Lombard\Gable story with great compassion and respect. He manages to introduce the reader to the real people behind the Hollywood glamour and glitz. Carole Lombard was a star whose accension to stardom was well known to fans during the depression. As she grew into a comedian she became more and more in demand. Marrying Clark Gable was a match of the "king" and "queen". Her sudden death in Jan 1942 was a shock to the movie picture community as she was the first star to die in WWII. Her patriotism was well known and her recently concluded successful war bond drive was evidence of her popularity. Gable was devastated by her death. Matzen gives life to their love story and insight into the others who died with her.
September 4, 2019
Great story on the life and death of Carole Lombard
I knew of Carole Lombard but did not know the circumstances of her death. Fascinating read about Hollywood and early commercial plane travel. Ultimately a tragic story of a woman the author had a great deal of respect and admiration for.
I knew of Carole Lombard but did not know the circumstances of her death. Fascinating read about Hollywood and early commercial plane travel. Ultimately a tragic story of a woman the author had a great deal of respect and admiration for.
March 27, 2014
The author opens the book by talking about his climb to the wreckage and how steep it is and that still to this day there is no trail to the top of the mountain. Once at the crash site he describes that even after all of these years there are still pieces of the plane on the mountain, scattered about along with other objects that he found along with the guide who took him there. From there he begins the story with Carole Lombard, born Jane Alice Peters, from Fort Wayne Indiana. After her father was injured in an accident the mother took her and her two older brothers to California for vacation but they ended up staying. While in high school she got a job at fox studio as a contract actor and it looked like she was on her way. Out with a boyfriend Harry Copper, his car was struck by another car and the brakes failed sending the car crashing down a Hollywood hill. With glass slicing through her left eyebrow to the bone and nearly severed her lip. She though remained calm and Harry seeing what had happened tried to slow the bleeding and rushed her to an emergency room. Bess her mom after seeing her and them talking called a few friends and got in touch with a plastic surgeon. He did not promise that there could be no scarring but that he would do all he could. He had to do the surgery without any anesthetic, for the fully awake and alert patient had to keep facial muscles in proper position. Then she could not move her head for 6 months. She would end up with a scare one inch long on her eyebrow and an inch and half long scar across her upper lip. From there he talks about how she fought to get back in front of the camera, her first marriage and that divorced and a boyfriend who killed himself. Until she was a fairly big star and then Clark Gable. How they got together and then got married and how she was a very opinionated and how they argued about certain things, this all added to their chemistry. When the war started many stars signed for war bond tour and she was one of the first. They planned for her to go Indiana round trip by train. After her time there and ready to go home she decided she wanted to try going in a plane saying it would be faster, because before she left her and gable got into an argument and she left before he got up that morning. The flit was good in Texas they had a layover and some people got bumped for military men then they took off for Las Vegas. After changing pilots refueling, checking oil, they took off again and it was not to long after that, that they knew or thought they knew there was a problem. Once they realized there was a crash they had to wait until first light to really make an effort up the mountain once there at the crash site they had to leave some men there overnight so others could go back and bring more materials’ and animals to carry the remains down the mountain know knew just how steep or rocky that terrain was. The author does go into the lives of the pilots, stewardess and other military personal aboard the flight which I thought was very nice and had never read about before. Mt. Potosi, in Nevada is 8,200 elevation and Miss Lombard was projected to raise 500,000. On her trip when she actually raised 2 million dollars. Through all of the paper work and files he searched they stilled blamed pilot error. But on a moonless night November 8, 2007, a flight took off from North Las Vegas Airport at 7:05 at the controls a NASA pilot Col. Ed. Lewis and his co- pilot Dion DeCamp they had 60,000 hours of flight time between them. Having a relatively new plane with 300 hours and with a Garmin G1000 glass cockpit tracked by sophisticated radar in Vegas and Daggett control center. 13 minutes after takeoff Col. Ed Lewis aircraft slammed into the vertical cliff wall of Mt. Potosi Mountain. The FAA made almost the same finding as 1942, the pilot flew into the side of the mountain. Just makes you wonder? A very good story and I am glad he talks about all the people that were on the plane. I got this book from net galley.
September 1, 2018
I love how much research and heart was put into this book. Not only was every detail of Carole’s Hollywood career and personal life covered, but so was the investigation into the crash and the lives of all the passengers that perished (sabotage theories and all).
Sometimes, biographies can be all about the facts, just launching them one after another. But the writing in Fireball really made me vividly see Carole as a full-fledged woman with qualities and faults like everyone. The first person accounts of her personality from important people in her life like Fieldsie, Jean Garceau and Alice Marble really brought her down to earth from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood (which I also love hearing about! True TCM devotee here).
I also found it refreshing that Gable and Lombard’s love story was told truthfully, flaws and all. I only felt compassion for Carole, who was trying so hard to make their relationship work, even though her husband couldn’t open up the way she wanted him to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m also a Gable fan (more of his movies than him personally). But Matzen recounts everything in a neutral tone that makes you take a step back and think everything over.
The whole storyline about the crash and the search for the site in Potosi Mountain is heartbreaking. You go into the book realizing Carole’s death might have eclipsed her career, all these years later. But upon reading, you realize how much she had going for her, how alive she was and how abrupt her life ended. Matzen does an amazing job of covering every detail of Carole’s last days, from the war bonds tour she was on, up until she was laid to rest back in Hollywood.
Gable’s life after January 16th 1942 seems like it’s straight out of a melodrama. Unfortunately it’s very real. His guilt is palpable through his friends’ recollections, a guilt he obviously took with him to the grave.
This book is a haunting homage to Old Hollywood Couples: how they’re portrayed in the media vs. their true lives. The last sentences of this book exude this notion perfectly, making Gable and Lombard’s lives tragic despite their best efforts.
Sometimes, biographies can be all about the facts, just launching them one after another. But the writing in Fireball really made me vividly see Carole as a full-fledged woman with qualities and faults like everyone. The first person accounts of her personality from important people in her life like Fieldsie, Jean Garceau and Alice Marble really brought her down to earth from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood (which I also love hearing about! True TCM devotee here).
I also found it refreshing that Gable and Lombard’s love story was told truthfully, flaws and all. I only felt compassion for Carole, who was trying so hard to make their relationship work, even though her husband couldn’t open up the way she wanted him to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m also a Gable fan (more of his movies than him personally). But Matzen recounts everything in a neutral tone that makes you take a step back and think everything over.
The whole storyline about the crash and the search for the site in Potosi Mountain is heartbreaking. You go into the book realizing Carole’s death might have eclipsed her career, all these years later. But upon reading, you realize how much she had going for her, how alive she was and how abrupt her life ended. Matzen does an amazing job of covering every detail of Carole’s last days, from the war bonds tour she was on, up until she was laid to rest back in Hollywood.
Gable’s life after January 16th 1942 seems like it’s straight out of a melodrama. Unfortunately it’s very real. His guilt is palpable through his friends’ recollections, a guilt he obviously took with him to the grave.
This book is a haunting homage to Old Hollywood Couples: how they’re portrayed in the media vs. their true lives. The last sentences of this book exude this notion perfectly, making Gable and Lombard’s lives tragic despite their best efforts.
October 23, 2013
I received this as a free copy for review from NetGalley.
An interesting book, but somewhat disappointing. Given the title of the book, I knew not to expect a biography on Lombard, but was still expecting a bit more than what was given. While this was a book that was meant to explore Lombard's death in a mysterious plane crash, I rarely felt like I cared about her at all. She was described as a fireball, sweet, a woman who cussed, and one who was unbelievably generous. The problem was these descriptions of her were presented in very short, abrupt ways. I blame this on the format of the book. For most of it, the author alternates chapters between Lombard's life in Hollywood and those focused on the plane crashing. It became very disjointed, and I felt that every time just when Carole was coming alive in the chapter, it switched to her death. Because of this I felt that the chapters detailing the reactions to the crash and the aftermath of it were far more compelling than those actually dealing with Lombard. In fact the chapters describing her life in Hollywood often seemed sensationalist and pulp-like. Describing Norma Shearer as attention-whoring, and other phrases I imagine in old 1930's crime novels. The ending was disappointing, too. The title makes it seem that we may get an idea as to what happened to that flight. Instead we get an overview of the investigation and a still resounding question mark as to the actual cause. It is an interesting book, especially if you have never read about this incident. I think I would prefer an actual biography of Lombard, though.
An interesting book, but somewhat disappointing. Given the title of the book, I knew not to expect a biography on Lombard, but was still expecting a bit more than what was given. While this was a book that was meant to explore Lombard's death in a mysterious plane crash, I rarely felt like I cared about her at all. She was described as a fireball, sweet, a woman who cussed, and one who was unbelievably generous. The problem was these descriptions of her were presented in very short, abrupt ways. I blame this on the format of the book. For most of it, the author alternates chapters between Lombard's life in Hollywood and those focused on the plane crashing. It became very disjointed, and I felt that every time just when Carole was coming alive in the chapter, it switched to her death. Because of this I felt that the chapters detailing the reactions to the crash and the aftermath of it were far more compelling than those actually dealing with Lombard. In fact the chapters describing her life in Hollywood often seemed sensationalist and pulp-like. Describing Norma Shearer as attention-whoring, and other phrases I imagine in old 1930's crime novels. The ending was disappointing, too. The title makes it seem that we may get an idea as to what happened to that flight. Instead we get an overview of the investigation and a still resounding question mark as to the actual cause. It is an interesting book, especially if you have never read about this incident. I think I would prefer an actual biography of Lombard, though.
March 3, 2017
**#28 of 120 books pledged to read/review during 2017**
June 30, 2014
There are very few books out there about Carole Lombard, but this one is, by far, the best, because I feel it captures her personality in a really authentic way, while balancing the historical and social factors weighing in at the time. But the most important part of this book is the fact that, as readers, we finally got a chance to know more about the other victims and their stories, what instances led them to that flight. You will also get an in-depth look into the people who were affected by the crash and its aftermath, i.e. the families and friends of those that perished. And you will be left wondering what exactly happened up there. Truthfully, though, as the author says… none of us can ever know because we were not on that plane.
The only drawback was that the writing sometimes started to drift and get into specifics and details that were not important to the story at hand, which made it hard to wander back into the actual storyline. But once you get back there, you will definitely want to keep reading on.
The only drawback was that the writing sometimes started to drift and get into specifics and details that were not important to the story at hand, which made it hard to wander back into the actual storyline. But once you get back there, you will definitely want to keep reading on.
March 18, 2014
Was led to this one by my favorite old-timey movie blog, http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspo..., and I have yet to get a bad film book recommendation through it. (The blogger and the author are bros.) If you're looking for a pretty exhaustive exploration into the time before and after the plane crash that claimed Carole Lombard's life, this here is the one. The author also gives significant time to everyone else on that flight and goes waaaay into Clark Gable's psychological makeup as well. Yeah, compelling stuff if you're geeky along those lines.
June 11, 2014
A solid, appropriately emotional book on one of Hollywood's seldom spoken tragedies. The writing can get too conversational at times, and despite the attempt at neutrally presenting possible causes of the crash, the author greatly implies sabotage was the likeliest culprit. Not that there's anything wrong with that conclusion. Unlike the majority of books on Hollywood, "Fireball" is astoundingly researched, with plenty of fresh interviews and documentation to back up any claims. Recommended for anyone with an interest in film, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, WWII, or just plain sob stories. 5/5.
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