Fireball

by Robert Matzen

  25. The Computer

  Mary Johnson Savoie recounted her remarkable story of riding 1,500 miles with Carole Lombard aboard Flight 3 in my interview with her in 2013. Mary’s family provided several newspaper articles spanning 1942 to 2011. The actual flight times, landing locations, and crew listings of Flight 3 for January 15 and 16 were found in TWA files located at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Joseph Szigeti’s experiences as a passenger on Flight 3 were recounted in a January 18 story in the Salt Lake Tribune.

  26. Stranded

  Warren Carey’s ongoing attempts to proceed to Las Vegas were covered in the CAB and House investigations.

  27. The Glamorous Life

  Details on the life of Alice Getz were related by her niece, Doris Brieser, and other facts were found in the family scrapbook. Details on Wayne Williams and Morgan Gillette came from TWA files and from obituaries. Careful research in local newspapers yielded vignettes on the Army airmen aboard Flight 3. Ed Knudsen was questioned by both CAB and House investigators about events during the tumultuous layover in Albuquerque. The story of Fred Dittman and Burton Voorhees appeared in wire coverage of the crash. The large amount of gear with the pilots was listed in the TWA files and seat assignments for each of the people on the plane were provided by TWA.

  28. I Won’t Be Coming Home

  Jill Winkler’s manuscript, “Flashback into Oblivion,” provided her perspective on learning of the crash and the flight to Las Vegas. Howard Strickling’s version of the story was found in Lyn Tornabene’s audiotape interview. The story of the confrontation between Mannix and the official at Burbank airport appeared in the April 1942 issue of Photoplay in the Ruth Waterbury article, “What the Loss of Carole Lombard Means to Clark Gable.” Identification of Don Hackett as the charter pilot was made by film historian Richard Roberts, who provided me with his notes from an interview with Hackett conducted in the 1980s.

  29. There’s No Rush

  A visit to the crash site provided perspective on the terrain and the experience of anyone trying to negotiate it. Lyle Van Gordon’s testimony concerning his first moments with Flight 3 was found in the House investigation. Jack Moore’s testimony was found in the CAB investigation. Articles in the Las Vegas Review Journal provided more details, and the official set of 17 crash photos in the TWA files showed exactly what Jack Moore’s team found on the morning of January 17.

  30. Caring Enough to Climb a Mountain

  Extrapolation of Gable’s thoughts on Saturday morning January 17 was based on extensive study of the subject. His exact movements in the Vegas area were difficult to pin down, but finally an AP story recounted his attempt to climb the mountain, with word reaching him en route that the effort was futile. His path was covered during my climb of the mountain.

  31. The Entire Gang Showed Up

  Robert Stack recounted during my interview the moment he learned of Lombard’s death. Mary Benny’s reminiscence was found in Jack Benny, Margaret Wyler’s in the Tornabene audio interview, and Alice Marble’s in Courting Danger. In Dear Mr. G. Jean Garceau talked of Gable’s fixation on whether Lombard knew she was going to die. Other accounts touched on his fear that she knew. The Army response was found in Maj. Anderson’s testimony before the CAB.

  32. Groaning Pines

  The story of the rescue party in which Tom Devlin traveled was related by John F. Cahlan in “Story of Plane Hunt Told by Writer,” which appeared in the January 19, 1942, issue of the Las Vegas Review Journal. Devlin’s odyssey was also covered extensively in his testimony at the coroner’s inquest concerning the remains of Otto Winkler.

  33. Unfixable

  Scott Eyman’s Lion of Hollywood and E.J. Fleming’s The Fixers were consulted for background on Eddie Mannix. Accounts of the ascent of Mt. Potosi by Mannix and Wheelwright were taken from press coverage.

  34. I Still See It in My Dreams

  Various accounts of the search for crash victims, including that of Harry Pursel, were taken from the coroner’s inquest held the evening that Lombard’s body was found. Pursel also testified before the CAB and House investigations. The accounts of Sherman and Guldner were printed in the Monday January 19 issue of the Los Angeles Times. Tommy Young’s account was given to Carole Sampeck, and she provided it to me. In general, a surprising amount of grisly detail made the wire stories that appeared in newspapers from coast to coast.

  35. The Fatal Flaw

  The Strickling version of Gable’s reaction to the news of Lombard’s death is found in wire stories planted by MGM. The story of goings-on at the El Rancho Vegas was compiled from many accounts. Major Anderson and Lt. Hunt both testified at the coroner’s inquests regarding the challenges faced in body recovery at the crash scene.

  36. The Complication

  Jack Benny’s story about the New Year’s Eve party was recounted in Sunday Nights at Seven by Jack and Joan Benny. Transcripts of the inquests for each of the 22 crash victims were provided by Carole Sampeck and the Carole Lombard Archive Foundation.

  37. Just a Few Yards Apart

  All the important “trades” from the time of the crash were reviewed at the Academy Library. Clyde Burkett and Waldon Golien testified before the CAB. Gable’s movements were tracked by the press, including the drive with Al Menasco to the foot of the mountain and the speculation about Ma’s last moments. Tornabene’s Long Live the King also mentioned the desert drive. My experiences in the terrain visited by Gable and the roads traveled enhanced the descriptions.

  38. All in a Day’s Work

  Newspaper accounts chronicled the difficulties of Lt. Hunt in identifying crash victims and told the story of the unfortunate horse in graphic detail. Testimony by Hunt at the Clark County coroner’s inquests provided additional information.

  39. The Little Boy Was Gone

  Press accounts and personal reminiscences of his friends and colleagues filled in all blanks about the grief of Clark Gable, the ongoing planning for his return from Las Vegas to southern California, and his understandable trepidation about life at the ranch minus his wife. Steve Hayes also helped by recounting conversations with his friends, Franchot Tone and Robert Taylor. FDR’s telegram appeared in newspaper stories.

  40. Flying with Full Acceptance

  Waldon Golien’s final search of the crash site was described in an internal TWA memo. Warren Carey’s testimony was found in the CAB report, where he also read his crash-scene report into the record. The struggles of the investigators to understand the crash of Flight 3 were seen in all proceedings of both investigations. Even more than 70 years after the crash, the ground resonates with questions from January 1942. Why had this happened? What was the pilot thinking? What did the passengers experience?

  41. The Under Side

  Newspapers of the day looked at the crash from every angle, including scrutiny on the lost Army fliers. Coverage of the return of Gable and party to the Los Angeles area was provided by the Associated Press in multiple articles and also by the United Press in the article, “Clark Gable Takes Wife’s Body Back to Los Angeles.” Jean Garceau discussed the meeting at Forest Lawn Glendale to make funeral arrangements in Dear Mr. G. Fred Peters III recounted the incident in which his mother placed gowns inside the caskets of Carole Lombard and Elizabeth Peters. The best and most complete report on the funeral of Carole Lombard was contained in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, January 22, 1942. Frederick C. Othman also provided outstanding coverage for United Press. Descriptions of Forest Lawn’s Great Mausoleum and Church of the Recessional were of an eyewitness nature from my observations during multiple visits to Forest Lawn Glendale, including private “backstage” tours.

  42. Even the Unfortunates

  Jill Winkler’s manuscript, “Flashback into Oblivion,” provided valuable insights into the relationship of the Winklers and Gables. The best coverage of the Winkler funeral was found in the Hollywood trades. Damon Runyon’s syndicated “Brighter Side” featured the editorial that was probably written by Thomas J. Devl
in, which also yielded perspective on Otto Winkler. Nazoma Ball, who had met Otto and who attended his funeral, gave a great deal of her time to this project.

  43. The Cream of the Crop

  The Daily Courier in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, provided extensive coverage of the Nygren story; the Pittsburgh Press covered Belejchak. My June 2013 interview with Lois Hamilton’s cousin, Marie Levi, and Marie’s daughter, Donita Dixon, provided details about the Hamilton funeral. Details about Alice Getz’s funeral were found in local newspaper obituaries and in the family scrapbook, and the story of Capt. Williams appeared in the TWA files.

  44. Skyrocketing

  The Strickling interview by Lyn Tornabene contained information about Gable’s return to the ranch; more came from Dear Mr. G. The press also dragged the grief of the king out for popular view. United Artists’ handling of To Be or Not to Be was covered extensively in both Hollywood Reporter and Variety. The former noted Benny’s strange behavior at the picture’s premiere, and Mary Livingstone Benny alluded to it in Jack Benny. My conversations with Robert Stack and Steve Hayes covered the change in Gable, and Lyn Tornabene’s chapter in Long Live the King captures it perfectly.

  45. Mangled

  A review of this chapter by Michael McComb of Lostflights Aviation Technology led to valuable refinement of its conclusions. Transcripts of the CAB and House investigations were used extensively throughout the book, and particularly in this chapter. The August 1992 issue of TARPA Topics, the magazine for The Active Retired Pilots Association of TWA, contained comments by radio operator Earl Korf about Wayne Williams not being at the controls. Wire stories were consulted regarding the blame placed on Williams as a result of his 1933 firing by the company. The American public needed a scapegoat, and TWA was put in the awkward position of needing one as well. Its practices were revealed to be lax—wide flight lanes, a lack of regulations about altitude above terrain, no rules about use of the radio range, and especially a cavalier attitude toward the takeoff weight of its planes. While TWA made a public display of standing behind its pilot, privately, as revealed in company files, the airline fed Williams to the lions. Richard Roberts’ notes from his conversations with Don Hackett were especially helpful. The official investigations noted how close Flight 3 was to escaping disaster, horizontally and vertically. The stories of finding evidence in the spring thaw and of the attempts to dynamite the crash scene were documented in the TWA files. Interviews with family members of some of the victims helped me understand the crash aftermath. The FBI file on Flight 3 could not be accessed through my Freedom of Information Act request, and my follow-up appeal was denied. In 2012 historian and author Jack El-Hai of www.el-hai.com published his notes after reviewing the Lombard FBI file that had been obtained by FOIA expert Michael Ravnitzky. My request for the file took a strange turn: The hard copy was located by an FBI historian, who placed it in interoffice mail for a quick trip to DC and then release under FOIA, but the file was supposedly lost en route, and I never was able to review it.

  46. If I Can Do It, So Can You

  Coaching by David Stenn in phone conversations set me to the task of sorting out the estate issues. Stenn also provided his notes on conversations with Nazoma Ball and Fred Peters III, which led to my conversations with each. Legal documents and press coverage told the story of the estates of Lombard and Peters, and unpublished notes in the Tornabene collection provided details about the strained relationship between Gable and the Peters brothers. Fred Peters III added more insights during my interviews with him. Tornabene’s interviews with Howard Strickling revealed the affection between Gable and Winkler. Steve Hayes described the reactions of his friends Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone, and Lana Turner to changes in Gable. Richard Lang touched on Gable’s suicidal impulses. My interviews with Nazoma Ball detailed Jill’s life after the crash. Press coverage and Long Live the King provided details of Gable’s military career. Howard Strickling talked of the DUI and of Gable’s meeting with Susan Peters, and her article in Photoplay revealed Susan’s side of the story. The Ursula Theiss interview touched on Nedra Etting, and Alice Marble’s Courting Danger provided the story of Gable’s gesture in 1944.

  Epilogue: High-Energy Impact

  I learned of the crash of Col. Ed Lewis’s Cessna T182t while working as a contractor for NASA aeronautics and was dumbfounded to find that he and his co-pilot, Dion DeCamp, had crashed into, of all places, Mt. Potosi, Nevada. National Transportation Safety Board records provided all necessary details of the crash and investigation. The story of Burt Voorhees was sifted from newspapers that followed the course of his life. Lyle Van Gordon’s life was summarized by his sons, Steve and Doug. The fate of Madalynne Fields was described by her son, Richard, in the Tornabene interviews. Descriptions of Jill Winkler’s life after Otto were based on the Strickling interviews and my conversations with Nazoma Ball. Margaret Tallichet Wyler’s interview with Lyn Tornabene was insightful, as was Alice Marble’s. Alice was one interesting character, and I encourage anyone interested to spend time at the Academy with these interview tapes, particularly that of Alice Marble, who sat reminiscing with a cigarette in one hand and a mixed drink in the other. Getting a handle on Gable wasn’t easy. He was a simple man, and terribly complex, from his early self-centeredness to his obsessions. Through the course of writing Fireball, I came to the conclusion that Clark Gable was, in his way, a hero. The king could have become a bitter recluse; instead he made his life count for something, in part through quiet good deeds of the type that had made Carole Lombard beloved.

  Selected Bibliography

  Benny, Jack and Joan Benny. Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story. New York: Warner Books, 1990.

  Benny, Mary Livingstone and Hilliard Marks with Marcia Borie. Jack Benny: A Biography. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978.

  Biskind, Peter, Editor. My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2013.

  Breuer, William. Hitler’s Undercover War: The Nazi Espionage Invasion of the U.S.A. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.

  Civil Aeronautics Board. Investigation of Accident Involving TWA Trip 3, Aircraft NC 1946, which occurred near Las Vegas, Nevada, January 16, 1942. Docket No. SA-58. Washington: Anderson Stenotype Services, 1942.

  Evans, Peter and Ava Gardner. Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013.

  Eyman, Scott. Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

  Eyman, Scott. Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

  Fleming, E.J. The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2005.

  Francisco, Charles. Gentleman: The William Powell Story. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.

  Garceau, Jean with Inez Cocke. Dear Mr. G: The Biography of Clark Gable. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1961.

  Gehring, Wes D. Carole Lombard: The Hoosier Tornado. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2003.

  Heimann, Jim. Out with the Stars: Hollywood Nightlife in the Golden Era. New York: Abbeyville Press, 1985.

  Kanin, Garson. Hollywood. New York: The Viking Press, 1967.

  Lanza, Joseph and Dennis Penna. Russ Columbo and the Crooner Mystique. Los Angeles: Feral House, 2002.

  Lewis, Judy. Uncommon Knowledge. New York: Pocket Books, 1994.

  Marble, Alice with Dale Leatherman. Courting Danger: My Adventures in World-Class Tennis, Golden-Age Hollywood, and High-Stakes Spying. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.

  Marble, Alice. The Road to Wimbledon. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1946.

  Matzen, Robert. Carole Lombard: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988.

  O’Brien, Pat. The Wind at My Back. New York: Avon Books, 1967.

  Ott, Frederick W. The Films of Carole Lombard. Secaucus: Citadel Books, 1972.

  Rath, Jill Winkler. “Flashback into Oblivion.�
�� Unpublished manuscript.

  Schickel, Richard. The Men Who Made the Movies: Interviews with Frank Capra, George Cukor, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Vincente Minnelli, King Vidor, Raoul Walsh, and William A. Wellman. New York: Atheneum, 1975.

  Select Committee on Air Accidents in the United States. House of Representatives. Seventy-Seventh Congress, Second Session. Investigation of Air Accidents in the United States. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1942.

  Sragow, Michael. Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master. New York: Pantheon Books, 2008.

  Stack, Robert with Mark Evans. Straight Shooting. New York: Macmillan, 1980.

  Stenn, David. Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

  Swindell, Larry. Screwball: The Life of Carole Lombard. New York: William Morrow, 1975.

  Szigeti, Joseph. With Strings Attached: Reminiscences and Reflections.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947.

  Tornabene, Lyn. Long Live the King: A Biography of Clark Gable. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1976.

  Turner, Lana. Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth. New York: Pocket Books, 1982.

  TWA files on the crash of Trip Number 3, January 16, 1942. Conserved at the State Historical Society of Missouri.

  Wellman, William A. A Short Time for Insanity: An Autobiography. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1974.

  Wighton, Charles and Gunter Peis. Hitler’s Spies and Saboteurs. New York: Charter Books, 1958.

  About Robert Matzen

  Robert Matzen worked for NASA aeronautics for 10 years and also collaborated with the Astronaut Office and many NASA senior leaders. He is the author of six books, Including the award-winning Errol & Olivia: Ego & Obsession in Golden Era Hollywood. He has appeared as an expert concerning Hollywood history on both radio and television for the BBC and in print for periodicals, including the New York Post and the Palm Beach Post.