#school bus fairfax

[thislovintime]

Peter Tork with the Fairfax Street Choir (in their bass vocal section); pictured in photo 1 with Ralph Pennuneri, Hosanna Bauer, and Bill Craig. Via the Fairfax Street Choir Facebook page, except for photo 4 (courtesy of Mark Kleiner).

Photo 2: “Peter Tork has his banjo but never played it with the choir that I remember but He was a really good musician and I remember him playing at the Lady. [...] I've heard some of his live stuff on tape that he did at the Sleeping Lady and was blown away by how great he really was as a musician.” - Marla Hunt Hanson, Facebook, January 3, 2021

“Peter showed me some banjo picking patterns... he was a nice guy fun to play music with.” - David Carlson, Facebook, January 2021

“To us, he wasn’t famous, he was just Peter. [...] He was just a sweet, dear man that, you know, everybody loved... He was just a good guy. You know, ‘Sleep on the couch, have a good one. You know, we love you. Come on in.’ [...] His destiny in this lifetime was with The Monkees. We were like his backup friends, or his backup band, whatever you want to call it.He came to us wounded, like a wounded bird, really. […] He never really got to escape from being one of The Monkees. It was very hard, you know, it was hard for him. I wish we could have given him more. [...] I said to him, ‘Well, why are you going back when they treated you so badly, and blah blah blah?’ And he said, they offered him something he couldn’t turn down, something like that, so it had to do with money of course, because… so, yeah, he went back, poor thing. God bless him. [...] [W]hen you’re a Monkee, the fans will come out of, you know, somehow they’ll seep in through the furnace floor or a little crack in the window. You’re always on display, you’re always having someone looking at you or tagging at you or pulling at you or saying, ‘God, I remember that episode…’You know, and you’re always having to be on the stage or on— in gear, or answering with a smile to your fan group, whatever that is. You’re trained to do that through the industry itself. You know, anyway, I don’t want to go that far. In this group consciousness that he was a part of for a short period of time, he didn’t have to do that. He just didn’t have to do that. And that’s why I think that was — he’ll never forget that group or the Sleeping Lady however many lifetimes he lives. And I’ll tell you this, he was happy in a very strange way for as long as he was there with us. He was happy in a different way, not in the way that you are when you’re famous. In the way you are when you’re happy. [...] Someone like Peter Tork, who shines a light out onto this world, can only shine as brightly as we allow them to. […] When you see a flame, move back and let it shine, don’t go in there and try to get it, because the reason that it’s alive is because it’s got oxygen, air, and there’s not a lot of moths hanging out around it trying to, you know, take its life. I think a lot of that is true about Peter. That’s how — what I think.” - Marla Hunt Hanson, interview with the Nesmith Tork Goffin & King podcast, February 2020

"Back in Marin. Peter Tork began to hang out at the Sleeping Lady. (He works there as a waiter now). One night The Fairfax Street Choir was there. He was amazed, saw a home, and joined. He grins as he adds: ‘In some ways I was a cold, lonely hitchhiker being picked up by a warm school bus.’ [...] He’s happy. Content. And hopeful. For the Choir. And himself." - San Diego Reader, December 6, 1973 (originally published in the Chicago Reader; interview conducted by Chuck Stepner) (read more here)

“What a group! 35 voices strong; some harmonies! It was something, very encouraging, very comforting.” - Peter Tork, Goldmine, May 1982 (x)

Peter Tork: "As soon as The Monkees was over, I went to Marin County to try to recapture some of my Greenwich-Village-days happiness, and I did. I was very, I was very lucky, there was a lovely scene in Fairfax, Marin County, and I had a great time up there for a couple of years, worked as a waiter in a cooperative restaurant and it was great, it was actually great. The thing about The Monkees, it was so difficult, was to be yanked out of — off the street, flung to the pinnacle and then, you know, and then dropped.” Q: “Yeah.” PT: “So, so I went back to the street, where I’d, you know, gotten my roots together. It was great.” - GOLD 104.5, 1999 (x)

[lboogie1906]

Louise A. Reeves Archer (October 23, 1893 – April 1, 1948) was a teacher and activist who fought to educate African Americans during the 1930s and 1940s. They had limited resources compared to white children and were deprived of education beyond seventh grade — when twelve grades were already common practice.

A dedicated teacher, she brought Vienna’s African American community together in service to its school.

She grew up in North Carolina and attended Livingstone College. She taught school in Southampton County, Virginia, where she married Romulus C. Archer Jr. (1915). They moved to DC in 1922 and she continued her education, earning a BS from Morgan State College.

In 1922 she became a teacher and principal for a one-room segregated school in Vienna, Virginia. Devoted to her students, she transported children to school herself and worked to improve their learning experience. She organized a Parent-Teacher Association to raise funds for supplies and a new building, which opened in 1939 with three rooms. In 1941 students, parents, and faculty raised $300, which paid for a music teacher, bus expenses, kitchen supplies, and the installation of electric lights. She established one of Fairfax County’s earliest 4-H Clubs for African Americans and her students participated in garden projects to raise vegetables for lunches prepared at school.

She provided a high-quality education. She taught sewing, cooking, music, and poetry to her students in fifth through seventh grades, which was then the highest level of public education available to African Americans in the county. After her death, families petitioned the county to name the school in her honor. Louise Archer Elementary School continues to remember her service to the community with an annual celebration in her honor. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[dialecticzander]

Playing around with IQ math

IQ is a funny metric because it's quite vague. It basically tells you how many people score higher & lower than you on IQ tests, & that's all. It doesn't tell you how much smarter you are than the next-best scorer, because we don't understand the brain well enough to measure that. It's just another way of writing percentile, & you can map percentile to fun metrics like 'best in group of size X' & 'top Y of the world'.

(However, fictional universes that have superpowers/firebending/etc could have very fun numerical mappings between the size of a city & the power level of its most formidable hero.)

Here are some fun little translations of specific IQs into English, from my spreadsheet:

200 IQ = Best in 9.4 Earths (200 IQ cannot* exist in the present, because a person simply cannot score higher than 76 billion people) 199 IQ = Best in 6.0 Earths 198 IQ = Best in 3.8 Earths 197 IQ = Best in 2.5 Earths 196 IQ = Best in 1.6 Earths 195 IQ = Best in Earth (Highest possible IQ today) 194 IQ = Best in Eurasia 193 IQ = Best in Asia 192 IQ = Best in Christianity 191 IQ = Best in all English speakers 190 IQ = Best in Africa 189 IQ = Best in Europe 188 IQ = Best in South America 187 IQ = Best in USA 186 IQ = Best in Brazil 184 IQ = Best in Vietnam 182 IQ = Best in California 181 IQ = Best in Jakarta 180 IQ = Best in New York State 179 IQ = Best in Ontario 178 IQ = Best in Seoul 177 IQ = Best in Massachusetts 176 IQ = Best in Ireland (country) 175 IQ = Best in Baja California 174 IQ = Best in Queens 173 IQ = Best in Manhattan 172 IQ = Best in Dublin 171 IQ = Best in San Francisco proper 170 IQ = Best in Oklahoma City 168 IQ = Best in Harlem 164 IQ = Best in a large stadium 161 IQ = Best in a stadium 159 IQ = Best in a university 157 IQ = Best in Fairfax, LA 149 IQ = Best in a large high school 143 IQ = Best in a high school year 141 IQ = Best in a large lecture hall 139 IQ = Best in a church 131 IQ = Best in a bus 127 IQ = Best in a classroom 120 IQ = Best in a soccer team 116 IQ = Best in a minivan 113 IQ = Best in a family of 5 110 IQ = Best in a family of 4 107 IQ = Best in an Apex team 101 IQ = Best in a couple 100 IQ = Normal test result

*There are multiple scoring techniques for IQ; what i'm saying is true for the technique i'm familiar with.

[cavenewstimes]

Virginia school bus hits DMV building, injures driver and two students, officials say

Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]   FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A school bus struck a Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles building Thursday morning after swerving to avoid hitting a car, injuring two students and the bus driver, officials said. The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department said in a social media post that three people were taken to a hospital with…

[centrevillesentinel]

Unmarked Bus Tries to Pick Up Students in Fairfax Virginia

On April 13th, 2023, Fairfax residents reported two yellow school buses, one arriving on an irregular schedule and one that was unmarked, that came to pick up students. However, when the parents tried to speak with the driver, the bus driver closed the door and drove off. About 15 minutes later, an unmarked bus arrived to come and drive the students to the school, which has now been confirmed to…

[alexanderrogge]

Chris Eberhart - Virginia school bus video shows student choking 7th-grader in bullying incident, mom says:

https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-school-bus-video-shows-student-choking-7th-grader-bullying-incident-mom-says

#StopBullyingSpeakUp #StopBullying #Bullying #ISpeakUp #SpeakUp #FairfaxCounty #PublicSchools #SchoolViolence #AbusiveBehavior #WhereAreTheParents #Darkness

[deltamusings]

As long as the parents are living in such a way these kids think this is ok, and as long as the media, celebs and politicians are making excuses for this kind of behavior, nothing will change.  This is a societal problem.  This is what happens when responsibility is not taught.  This is how kids process CRT, popular culture and the reparations demands.  Nothing changes until we do.  Step one: get rid of all politicians at all levels of government who support CRT, DEI, BLM, or has been in their office for more than 10 years.  

[rnewspost]

Virginia school bus video shows student choking 7th-grader in bullying incident, mom says

A Virginia mother says her seventh-grade son was choked on a school bus by another student during an alleged bullying incident that left bruises and marks around his neck and face. The violent altercation from Jan. 23 was captured on video and brought to the attention of Fairfax County Public Schools officials, but they didn’t do enough to protect him, the boy’s mom, Taylor Brock, said.  “They…

[best2daynews]

Virginia school bus video shows student choking 7th-grader in bullying incident, mom says

A Virginia mother says her seventh-grade son was choked on a school bus by another student during an alleged bullying incident that left bruises and marks around his neck and face. The violent altercation from Jan. 23 was captured on video and brought to the attention of Fairfax County Public Schools officials, but they didn’t do enough to protect him, the boy’s mom, Taylor Brock, said.  “They…

[veale2006-blog]

Video: Black Girl Strangles White Boy on Fairfax County School Bus Despite Multiple Protective Orders https://nationalfile.com/video-black-girl-strangles-white-boy-on-fairfax-county-school-bus-despite-multiple-protective-orders/

[simplelimos12]

Environmental Benefits of Choosing Executive Bus Services in Fairfax

Given the growing emphasis on sustainability among many organizations and businesses, Fairfax enterprises must take advantage of the opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of executive bus services. Therefore, switching to executive buses in Fairfax comes with several unique environmental benefits that make them more ecologically beneficial going forward.

Decreased Carbon Footprint: The executive bus in Fairfax also helps to reduce the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by business travel. Since a bus can accommodate a large number of passengers, there won't be many little automobiles or other private vehicles. As a result, this kind of trip consolidation helps to relieve environmental pressure by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and reducing traffic congestion.

Read more!

[thislovintime]

The Fairfax Street Choir (including Peter Tork), 1970s; photo provided by the Fairfax Street Choir to The Sacramento Bee in 2013.

As with 1970 and 1971 (e.g. here and here), researching turned up a few gig ads, this time from 1973:

“Sleeping Lady: Peter Tork, May 10; Fairfax Street Choir, May 11” - San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 10 through May 23, 1973

“Sleeping Lady: Peter Tork and Wood Nymphs, June 30” - San Francisco Bay Guardian, June 21 through July 4, 1973

“Sunday, [July] 29 Fairfax Street Choir, Peter Tork interlocutes, dancing ladies tap dance and 30 people play and sing some of the sweetest music around, Lions Share, 60 Redhill, San Anselmo” - San Francisco Bay Guardian, July 19 through August 1, 1973

“Peter Tork began to hang out at the Sleeping Lady. (He works there as a waiter now). One night The Fairfax Street Choir was there. He was amazed, saw a home, and joined. He grins as he adds: ‘In some ways I was a cold, lonely hitchhiker being picked up by a warm school bus.’ That school bus consists of thirty or so people. Not just singers either. There’s a complete rhythm section, horns and dancers. Yes, dancers. A total communication operation. Only this one works. They do make fine music. It’s the kind of music that makes you feel good. If they ever play in town, see them and see if their new brand of old gospel doesn’t get you smiling before they’re three bars into the first number. They’re infectious that way. It makes Peter Tork happy. He feels The Fairfax Street Choir is capable of shaking the world to its foundations. Tearing it up and taking the world by storm… if it wants to. Addressing himself to the ‘if it wants to.’ Peter tries to whip the group into professional quality and some elements won’t stand for his trying. And Peter hasn’t abandoned his solo career either. He tells you matter-of-factly he’s got an album or two in him, and the way he says it, you believe him. With no regrets about his years as a Monkee, Peter Tork has adjusted. He’s happy. Content. And hopeful. For the Choir. And himself. Talking to Peter Tork you know he’ll be back. ‘I feel the next ride will be much more sedate and won’t be quite as phenomenal… but you never can tell.’” - San Diego Reader, December 6, 1973 (originally published in the Chicago Reader; interview conducted by Chuck Stepner) (x)

“I belonged to a thing called the Fairfax Street Choir, which had 35 voices in the rock section and was very hard to stage. (laughs) Those little coffee house stages, 35 guys and women.” - Peter Tork, NPR, June 1983 (x)

[deans-baby-momma]

Wounded Hearts 14

Fairfax, IN  2002  Rebecca’s POV

Kindergarten

“Will I like it?” Whitney asks me as we stand at the curb in front of our house. A year ago, I moved my daughter and myself out of my parents’ home and into a small little ranch style residence not far from them. 

“Whitney, you will love it,” I tell her. “You’ll get to make new friends and learn things that will blow your mind. You will probably even have to teach me all about it.”

“Really?!” she asks, excitedly.

“For sure. Now here comes the bus. Remember, sit in your seat and listen to the instructions. No getting up and moving, especially while the bus is, okay?”

“Okay Mommy,” she says as the bus pulls up and stops. The door opens and I watch as Whitney hesitates to board. She looks back at me one last time, smiles and says, “I love you Mommy.”

“I love you too my sweet peach,” I say as she rushes up the steps and begins conversing with the driver. 

Three months later, Whitney comes off the bus much less enthusiastic as she has been. My daughter loves school, absolutely adores learning and playing with her new friends. Every day she has come home with a story of a different kid she is ‘best friends” with and I listen intently. 

But today, when Whitney gets off the bus she doesn’t look up at me, she doesn’t say hi, she just mopes up the driveway pulling her backpack behind her. I wait until we get inside to inquire about her change in attitude. 

“Whit, honey,” I speak up as soon as the door is closed. Whitney is standing at the kitchen table unpacking her bag. “What’s with the sad?”

“Nothing,” she mumbles and continues pulling out papers. I see a bright blue one that looks like it’s been balled up and then smoothed out. I reach out to grab it but Whitney’s next words stop me in my tracks.

“Do I have a daddy?”

My blood runs cold in my veins and the color in my face drains. I’ve been awaiting this line of questioning since she was old enough to talk but Whitney had yet to bring it up...until now.

“What?” I clear my throat so my voice isn’t so high-pitched. “Why are you asking that? Did something happen at school?”

Whitney picks up the crumpled paper and hands it to me. On the top is a banner that says “Fairfax Elementary School Presents” and then a silhouette of a man and a little girl dancing. Below the picture are the words that make it all make sense now. ‘14th Annual Daddy/Daughter Dance’.

“Oh peach,” I say as I lay the paper on the table and look down at her. Her green eyes are dull and sad and looks like she might have even been crying. “I’m sorry. Did someone say you didn’t have one?”

“Tayler and Samantha laughed at me when I asked what if you don’t have a dad. They were making fun of me. Everyone was laughing at me because I don’t have one. Even Kimber, and she’s supposed to be my bestest friend but she was laughing with everyone else. Mommy, where’s my daddy?”

“Oh sweetheart. Come here,” I say as I open my arms and motion for her to step to me. As soon as she does, I wrap her up in a big hug and then pick her up, sitting her on my hip. I walk into the living room and sit on the sofa,  placing my baby girl on my lap.

“You have a dad, Whitney. You do, you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. But that’s a story for a later time,” I begin as I wipe her tears and tuck her hair behind her ear. “Your daddy’s name is Dean. Dean Winchester. I knew him when I was still in high school.”

“Is that why my middle name is Deana? I’m named after him?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he? Does he know about me? Does he want to?”

I smile at the rapid questions. “I don’t know where he is baby. He just disappeared one day.”

“Like magic?” Whitney asks, enthralled that maybe her dad was magical like in her Disney movies.

“No,” I laugh. “His family moved away. I didn’t find out I was pregnant with you until long after they were gone. So no, I don’t think he knows about you but I’m sure if he did, he would want to get to know you.”

“Do you have a picture of him?”

“No sweetie, I sure don’t. He wasn’t even in school long enough to get put in the yearbook. He was here maybe two weeks before his family left town.”

“So, if my daddy isn’t here who is going to take me to the daddy/daughter dance?”

For once, I have no answers for my little girl.

2004  2nd grade

“Whitney, for the last time!” I yell toward her room. “It is time to get up and get ready.”

I step back into the kitchen and continue drinking my coffee and waiting for my daughter to come in for a ride to school. Since her school is on the way to my job, it has become easier to just take her myself. 

“Mommy?” Whitney says, as she enters the kitchen. I sigh as she is still in her pajamas. “I don’t feel good.”

“Whitney Deana Quentin, you cannot miss school. I have to work and there is no one here to stay with you.”

“But Mommy, my stomach hurts,” Whitney whines.

“Probably just hungry. Now go get dressed and we’ll go through the drive-thru on the way okay?”

She nods and slouches, turning and heading to her room.

The phone rings right before the lunch rush but I pay no mind to it while I’m wiping down tables and sitting the condiment bottles back in their little basket.

“Becka,” my friend and co-worker Elise calls for me. “Phone’s for you.”

I sit the rag down and wipe my hands on my apron as I approach the wall where the phone is located.

“Hello?”

“Ms. Quentin? This is Kara, the on-site nurse at Fairfax Elementary. Your daughter Whitney has been in my care. She got sick on the playground and is still complaining of stomach aches and that her side is hurting her. She is also running a slight temperature.”

“Oh god!” I gasp as I cover my mouth with my hand. Maybe Whitney hadn’t been lying this morning when she said she wasn’t feeling well. 

“Now we’ve found some extra clothes in her cube in the classroom and I helped clean her up and she changed herself but she is pretty lethargic and irritable. I think it’d be best if you come pick her up and have her seen by her primary physician,” the nurse continues.

“Yes, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Thank you for calling.”

“Just come to the front office and have the secretary call me on the intercom and I’ll bring Whitney out to you.”

I hang up the phone and am frozen. My little girl, my baby, is sick and apparently threw up at playtime and it’s my fault she is even there to begin with.

Elise jolts me back to the present as she asks what’s wrong.

“Whitney is sick. I have to go pick her up,” I tell her as I rush around the counter toward the backroom. Suddenly remembering what time it is I stop and turn. “Oh god. El, the lunch rush.”

“Don’t worry about a thing darlin’,” she tells me with a smile. “You go get that little girl taken care of. Tell her Aunt El will come by and see her later, ok?”

After picking Whitney up and seeing just how sickly she looks, I head straight for the hospital. There is something wrong with my baby and I got to get it fixed.

@tftumblin​ @spnbaby-67​ @markofdean79​ @lostinaseaoffictionalbliss​ @travelingriversideblues-x​ @akshi8278​ @keymology​ @hoboal87​ @squirrelnotsam​ @natura1phenomenon​ @drakelover78​ @larajadeschmidt13​ @blacktithe7​ @atc74​ @sea040561​ @delightfullykrispypeach​ @vicariouslythruspn​ @sandlee44​ @mogaruke​ @deanwanddamons​ @supraveng​ @deandreamernp​ @lyarr24​

[carole-lombard-screwball-queen]

Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. She was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s and in 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

Lombard was born into a wealthy family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but was raised in Los Angeles by her single mother. At 12, she was recruited by director Allan Dwan and made her screen debut in A Perfect Crime (1921). Eager to become an actress, she signed a contract with the Fox Film Corporation at age 16, but mainly played bit parts. She was dropped by Fox just before her 18th birthday after a shattered windshield from a car accident left a scar on her face. Lombard appeared in fifteen short comedies for Mack Sennett between 1927 and 1929, and then began appearing in feature films such as High Voltage (1929) and The Racketeer (1929). After a successful appearance in The Arizona Kid (1930), she was signed to a contract with Paramount Pictures.

Paramount quickly began casting Lombard as a leading lady, primarily in drama films. Her profile increased when she married William Powell in 1931, but the couple divorced amicably after two years. A turning point in Lombard's career came when she starred in Howard Hawks's pioneering screwball comedy Twentieth Century (1934). The actress found her niche in this genre, and continued to appear in films such as Hands Across the Table (1935) (forming a popular partnership with Fred MacMurray), My Man Godfrey (1936), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and Nothing Sacred (1937). At this time, Lombard married "The King of Hollywood", Clark Gable, and the supercouple gained much attention from the media. Keen to win an Oscar, Lombard began to move towards more serious roles at the end of the decade. Unsuccessful in this aim, she returned to comedy in Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be (1942), her final film role.

Lombard's career was cut short when she died at the age of 33 aboard TWA Flight 3, which crashed on Mount Potosi, Nevada, while returning from a war bond tour. Today, she is remembered as one of the definitive actresses of the screwball comedy genre and American comedy, and icon of American cinema.

Lombard was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 6, 1908 at 704 Rockhill Street. Christened with the name Jane Alice Peters, she was the third child and only daughter of Frederick Christian Peters (1875–1935) and Elizabeth Jayne "Bessie" (Knight) Peters (1876–1942). Her two older brothers, to each of whom she was close, both growing up and in adulthood, were Frederick Charles (1902–1979) and John Stuart (1906–1956). Lombard's parents both descended from wealthy families and her early years were lived in comfort, with the biographer Robert Matzen calling it her "silver spoon period". The marriage between her parents was strained, however, and in October 1914, her mother took the children and moved to Los Angeles. Although the couple did not divorce, the separation was permanent. Her father's continued financial support allowed the family to live without worry, if not with the same affluence they had enjoyed in Indiana, and they settled into an apartment near Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Described by her biographer Wes Gehring as "a free-spirited tomboy", the young Lombard was passionately involved in sports and enjoyed watching movies. At Virgil Junior High School, she participated in tennis, volleyball, and swimming, and won trophies for her achievements in athletics. At the age of 12, this hobby unexpectedly landed Lombard her first screen role. While playing baseball with friends, she caught the attention of the film director Allan Dwan, who later recalled seeing "a cute-looking little tomboy ... out there knocking the hell out of the other kids, playing better baseball than they were. And I needed someone of her type for this picture." With the encouragement of her mother, Lombard happily took a small role in the melodrama A Perfect Crime (1921). She was on set for two days, playing the sister of Monte Blue. Dwan later commented, "She ate it up".

A Perfect Crime was not widely distributed, but the brief experience spurred Lombard and her mother to look for more film work. The teenager attended several auditions, but none was successful.[11] While appearing as the queen of Fairfax High School's May Day Carnival at the age of 15, she was scouted by an employee of Charlie Chaplin and offered a screen test to appear in his film The Gold Rush (1925). Lombard was not given the role, but it raised Hollywood's awareness of the aspiring actress. Her test was seen by the Vitagraph Film Company, which expressed an interest in signing her to a contract. Although this did not materialize, the condition that she adopt a new first name ("Jane" was considered too dull) lasted with Lombard throughout her career. She selected the name "Carol" after a girl with whom she played tennis in middle school.

In October 1924, shortly after these disappointments, 16-year-old Lombard was signed to a contract with the Fox Film Corporation. How this came about is uncertain: in her lifetime, it was reported that a director for the studio scouted her at a dinner party, but more recent evidence suggests that Lombard's mother contacted Louella Parsons, the gossip columnist, who then got her a screen test. According to the biographer Larry Swindell, Lombard's beauty convinced Winfield Sheehan, head of the studio, to sign her to a $75-per-week contract. The teenager abandoned her schooling to embark on this new career. Fox was happy to use the name Carol, but unlike Vitagraph, disliked her surname. From this point, she became "Carol Lombard", the new name taken from a family friend.

The majority of Lombard's appearances with Fox were bit parts in low-budget Westerns and adventure films. She later commented on her dissatisfaction with these roles: "All I had to do was simper prettily at the hero and scream with terror when he battled with the villain." She fully enjoyed the other aspects of film work, however, such as photo shoots, costume fittings, and socializing with actors on the studio set. Lombard embraced the flapper lifestyle and became a regular at the Coconut Grove nightclub, where she won several Charleston dance competitions.

In March 1925, Fox gave Lombard a leading role in the drama Marriage in Transit, opposite Edmund Lowe. Her performance was well received, with a reviewer for Motion Picture News writing that she displayed "good poise and considerable charm." Despite this, the studio heads were unconvinced that Lombard was leading lady material, and her one-year contract was not renewed. Gehring has suggested that a facial scar she obtained in an automobile accident was a factor in this decision. Fearing that the scar—which ran across her cheek—would ruin her career, the 17-year-old had an early plastic surgery procedure to make it less visible. For the remainder of her career, Lombard learned to hide the mark with make-up and careful lighting.

After a year without work, Lombard obtained a screen test for the "King of Comedy" Mack Sennett. She was offered a contract, and although she initially had reservations about performing in slapstick comedies, the actress joined his company as one of the "Sennett Bathing Beauties". She appeared in 15 short films between September 1927 and March 1929, and greatly enjoyed her time at the studio. It gave Lombard her first experiences in comedy and provided valuable training for her future work in the genre. In 1940, she called her Sennett years "the turning point of [my] acting career."

Sennett's productions were distributed by Pathé Exchange, and the company began casting Lombard in feature films. She had prominent roles in Show Folks and Ned McCobb's Daughter (both 1928), where reviewers observed that she made a "good impression" and was "worth watching". The following year, Pathé elevated Lombard from a supporting player to a leading lady. Her success in Raoul Walsh's picture Me, Gangster (also 1928), opposite June Collyer and Don Terry on his film debut, finally eased the pressure her family had been putting on her to succeed. In Howard Higgin's High Voltage (1929), her first talking picture, she played a criminal in the custody of a deputy sheriff, both of whom are among bus passengers stranded in deep snow. Her next film, the comedy Big News (1929), cast her opposite Robert Armstrong and was a critical and commercial success. Lombard was reunited with Armstrong for the crime drama The Racketeer, released in late 1929. The review in Film Daily wrote, "Carol Lombard proves a real surprise, and does her best work to date. In fact, this is the first opportunity she has had to prove that she has the stuff to go over."

Lombard returned to Fox for a one-off role in the western The Arizona Kid (1930). It was a big release for the studio, starring the popular actor Warner Baxter, in which Lombard received third billing. Following the success of the film, Paramount Pictures recruited Lombard and signed her to a $350-per-week contract, gradually increasing to $3,500 per week by 1936. They cast her in the Buddy Rogers comedy Safety in Numbers (also 1930), and one critic observed of her work, "Lombard proves [to be] an ace comedienne." For her second assignment, Fast and Loose (also 1930) with Miriam Hopkins, Paramount mistakenly credited the actress as "Carole Lombard". She decided she liked this spelling and it became her permanent screen name.

Lombard appeared in five films released during 1931, beginning with the Frank Tuttle comedy It Pays to Advertise. Her next two films, Man of the World and Ladies Man, both featured William Powell, Paramount's top male star. Lombard had been a fan of the actor before they met, attracted to his good looks and debonair screen persona, and they were soon in a relationship. The differences between the pair have been noted by biographers: she was 22, carefree, and famously foul-mouthed, while he was 38, intellectual, and sophisticated. Despite their disparate personalities, Lombard married Powell on June 6, 1931, at her Beverly Hills home. Talking to the media, she argued for the benefits of "love between two people who are diametrically different", claiming that their relationship allowed for a "perfect see-saw love".

The marriage to Powell increased Lombard's fame, while she continued to please critics with her work in Up Pops the Devil and I Take this Woman (both 1931). In reviews for the latter film, which co-starred Gary Cooper, several critics predicted that Lombard was set to become a major star. She went on to appear in five films throughout 1932. No One Man and Sinners in the Sun were not successful, but Edward Buzzell's romantic picture Virtue was well received. After featuring in the drama No More Orchids, Lombard was cast as the wife of a con artist in No Man of Her Own. Her co-star for the picture was Clark Gable, who was rapidly becoming one of Hollywood's top stars. The film was a critical and commercial success, and Wes Gehring writes that it was "arguably Lombard's finest film appearance" to that point. It was the only picture that Gable and Lombard, future husband and wife, made together. There was no romantic interest at this time, however, as she recounted to Garson Kanin: "[we] did all kinds of hot love scenes ... and I never got any kind of tremble out of him at all".

In August 1933, Lombard and Powell divorced after 26 months of marriage, although they remained very good friends until the end of Lombard's life. At the time, she blamed it on their careers, but in a 1936 interview, she admitted that this "had little to do with the divorce. We were just two completely incompatible people". She appeared in five films that year, beginning with the drama From Hell to Heaven and continuing with Supernatural, her only horror vehicle. After a small role in The Eagle and the Hawk, a war film starring Fredric March and Cary Grant, she starred in two melodramas: Brief Moment, which critics enjoyed, and White Woman, where she was paired with Charles Laughton. “We would have married,” said Carole Lombard during her interview with magazine writer Sonia Lee for Movie Screen Magazine in 1934 about her relationship with Russ Columbo, the famous singer killed in a tragic accident whose movie and radio career she had been guiding.

The year 1934 marked a high point in Lombard's career. She began with Wesley Ruggles's musical drama Bolero, where George Raft and she showcased their dancing skills in an extravagantly staged performance to Maurice Ravel's "Boléro". Before filming began, she was offered the lead female role in It Happened One Night, but turned it down because of scheduling conflicts with this production Bolero was favorably received, while her next film, the musical comedy We're Not Dressing with Bing Crosby, was a box-office hit.

Lombard was then recruited by the director Howard Hawks, a second cousin, to star in his screwball comedy film Twentieth Century which proved a watershed in her career and made her a major star. Hawks had seen the actress inebriated at a party, where he found her to be "hilarious and uninhibited and just what the part needed", and she was cast opposite John Barrymore. In Twentieth Century, Lombard played an actress who is pursued by her former mentor, a flamboyant Broadway impresario. Hawks and Barrymore were unimpressed with her work in rehearsals, finding that she was "acting" too hard and giving a stiff performance. The director encouraged Lombard to relax, be herself, and act on her instincts. She responded well to this tutoring, and reviews for the film commented on her unexpectedly "fiery talent"—"a Lombard like no Lombard you've ever seen". The Los Angeles Times' critic felt that she was "entirely different" from her formerly cool, "calculated" persona, adding, "she vibrates with life and passion, abandon and diablerie".

The next films in which Lombard appeared were Henry Hathaway's Now and Forever (1934), featuring Gary Cooper and the new child star Shirley Temple, and Lady by Choice (1934), which was a critical and commercial success. The Gay Bride (1934) placed her opposite Chester Morris in a gangster comedy, but this outing was panned by critics. After reuniting with George Raft for another dance picture, Rumba (1935), Lombard was given the opportunity to repeat the screwball success of Twentieth Century. In Mitchell Leisen's Hands Across the Table (1935), she portrayed a manicurist in search of a rich husband, played by Fred MacMurray. Critics praised the film, and Photoplay's reviewer stated that Lombard had reaffirmed her talent for the genre. It is remembered as one of her best films, and the pairing of Lombard and MacMurray proved so successful that they made three more pictures together.

Lombard's first film of 1936 was Love Before Breakfast, described by Gehring as "The Taming of the Shrew, screwball style". In William K. Howard's The Princess Comes Across, her second comedy with MacMurray, she played a budding actress who wins a film contract by masquerading as a Swedish princess. The performance was considered a satire of Greta Garbo, and was widely praised by critics. Lombard's success continued as she was recruited by Universal Studios to star in the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (1936). William Powell, who was playing the eponymous Godfrey, insisted on her being cast as the female lead; despite their divorce, the pair remained friendly and Powell felt she would be perfect in the role of Irene, a zany heiress who employs a "forgotten man" as the family butler. The film was directed by Gregory LaCava, who knew Lombard personally and advised that she draw on her "eccentric nature" for the role. She worked hard on the performance, particularly with finding the appropriate facial expressions for Irene. My Man Godfrey was released to great acclaim and was a box office hit. It received six nominations at the 9th Academy Awards, including Lombard for Best Actress. Biographers cite it as her finest performance, and Frederick Ott says it "clearly established [her] as a comedienne of the first rank."

By 1937, Lombard was one of Hollywood's most popular actresses, and also the highest-paid star in Hollywood following the deal which Myron Selznick negotiated with Paramount that brought her $450,000, more than five times the salary of the U.S. President. As her salary was widely reported in the press, Lombard stated that 80 percent of her earnings went in taxes, but that she was happy to help improve her country. The comments earned her much positive publicity, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent her a personal letter of thanks.

Her first release of the year was Leisen's Swing High, Swing Low, a third pairing with MacMurray. The film focused on a romance between two cabaret performers, and was a critical and commercial success. It had been primarily a drama, with occasional moments of comedy, but for her next project, Nothing Sacred, Lombard returned to the screwball genre. Producer David O. Selznick, impressed by her work in My Man Godfrey, was eager to make a comedy with the actress and hired Ben Hecht to write an original screenplay for her. Nothing Sacred, directed by William Wellman and co-starring Fredric March, satirized the journalism industry and "the gullible urban masses". Lombard portrayed a small-town girl who pretends to be dying and finds her story exploited by a New York reporter. Marking her only appearance in Technicolor, the film was highly praised and was one of Lombard's personal favorites.

Lombard continued with screwball comedies, next starring in what Swindell calls one of her "wackiest" films, True Confession (1937). She played a compulsive liar who wrongly confesses to murder. Lombard loved the script and was excited about the project, which reunited her with John Barrymore and was her final appearance with MacMurray. Her prediction that it "smacked of a surefire success" proved accurate, as critics responded positively and it was popular at the box office.

True Confession was the last film Lombard made on her Paramount contract, and she remained an independent performer for the rest of her career. Her next film was made at Warner Bros., where she played a famous actress in Mervyn LeRoy's Fools for Scandal (1938). The comedy met with scathing reviews and was a commercial failure, with Swindell calling it "one of the most horrendous flops of the thirties".

Fools for Scandal was the only film Lombard made in 1938. By this time, she was devoted to a relationship with Clark Gable. Four years after their teaming on No Man of Her Own, the pair had reunited at a Hollywood party and began a romance early in 1936. The media took great interest in their partnership and frequently questioned if they would wed. Gable was separated from his wife, Rhea Langham, but she did not want to grant him a divorce. As his relationship with Lombard became serious, Langham eventually agreed to a settlement worth half a million dollars. The divorce was finalized in March 1939, and Gable and Lombard eloped in Kingman, Arizona, on March 29. The couple, both lovers of the outdoors, bought a 20-acre ranch in Encino, California, where they kept barnyard animals and enjoyed hunting trips. Almost immediately, Lombard wanted to start a family, but her attempts failed; after two miscarriages and numerous trips to fertility specialists, she was unable to have children. In early 1938, Lombard officially joined the Baháʼí Faith, of which her mother had been a member since 1922.

While continuing with a slower work-rate, Lombard decided to move away from comedies and return to dramatic roles. She appeared in a second David O. Selznick production, Made for Each Other (1939), which paired her with James Stewart to play a couple facing domestic difficulties. Reviews for the film were highly positive, and praised Lombard's dramatic effort; financially, it was a disappointment. Lombard's next appearance came opposite Cary Grant in the John Cromwell romance In Name Only (1939), a credit she personally negotiated with RKO Radio Pictures upon hearing of the script and Grant's involvement. The role mirrored her recent experiences, as she played a woman in love with a married man whose wife refuses to divorce. She was paid $150,000 for the film, continuing her status as one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses, and it was a moderate success.

Lombard was eager to win an Academy Award, and selected her next project—from several possible scripts—with the expectation that it would bring her the trophy. Vigil in the Night (1940), directed by George Stevens, featured Lombard as a nurse who faces a series of personal difficulties. Although the performance was praised, she did not get her nomination, as the sombre mood of the picture turned audiences away and box-office returns were poor. Despite the realization that she was best suited to comedies, Lombard completed one more drama: They Knew What They Wanted (1940), co-starring Charles Laughton, which was mildly successful.

Accepting that "my name doesn't sell tickets to serious pictures", Lombard returned to comedy for the first time in three years to film Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), about a couple who learns that their marriage is invalid, with Robert Montgomery. Lombard was influential in bringing Alfred Hitchcock, whom she knew through David O. Selznick, to direct one of his most atypical films. It was a commercial success, as audiences were happy with what Swindell calls "the belated happy news ... that Carole Lombard was a screwball once more."

It was nearly a year before Lombard committed to another film, as she focused instead on her home and marriage. Determined that her next film be "an unqualified smash hit", she was also careful in selecting a new project. Through her agent, Lombard heard of Ernst Lubitsch's upcoming film: To Be or Not to Be (1942), a dark comedy that satirized the Nazi takeover of Poland. The actress had long wanted to work with Lubitsch, her favorite comedy director, and felt that the material—although controversial—was a worthy subject. Lombard accepted the role of actress Maria Tura, despite it being a smaller part than she was used to, and was given top billing over the film's lead, Jack Benny. Filming took place in the fall of 1941, and was reportedly one of the happiest experiences of Lombard's career.

When the U.S. entered World War II at the end of 1941, Lombard traveled to her home state of Indiana for a war bond rally with her mother, Bess Peters, and Clark Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler. Lombard was able to raise over $2 million in defense bonds in a single evening. Her party had initially been scheduled to return to Los Angeles by train, but Lombard was anxious to reach home more quickly and wanted to fly by a scheduled airline. Her mother and Winkler were both afraid of flying and insisted they follow their original travel plans. Lombard suggested they flip a coin; they agreed and Lombard won the toss.

In the early morning hours of January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother, and Winkler boarded a Transcontinental and Western Air Douglas DST (Douglas Sleeper Transport) aircraft to return to California. After refueling in Las Vegas, TWA Flight 3 took off at 7:07 p.m. and crashed into "Double Up Peak" near the 8,300-foot (2,530 m) level of Potosi Mountain, 32 statute miles (51 km) southwest of the Las Vegas airport. All 22 aboard, including Lombard, her mother, and 15 U.S. Army soldiers, were killed instantly. The cause of the crash was determined to be linked to the pilot and crew's inability to properly navigate over the mountains surrounding Las Vegas. As a precaution against the possibility of enemy Japanese bomber aircraft coming into American airspace from the Pacific, safety beacons used to direct night flights were turned off, leaving the pilot and crew of the TWA flight without visual warnings of the mountains in their flight path. The crash on the mountainside occurred three miles outside of Las Vegas.

Gable was flown to Las Vegas after learning of the tragedy to claim the bodies of his wife, mother-in-law, and Winkler, who aside from being his press agent, had been a close friend. Lombard's funeral was January 21 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. She was interred beside her mother under the name of Carole Lombard Gable. Despite remarrying twice following her death, Gable chose to be interred beside Lombard when he died in 1960.

Lombard's final film, To Be or Not to Be, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and co-starring Jack Benny, a satire about Nazism and World War II, was in post-production at the time of her death. The film's producers decided to cut part of the film in which Lombard's character asks, "What can happen on a plane?" out of respect for the circumstances surrounding her death. When the film was released, it received mixed reviews, particularly about its controversial content, but Lombard's performance was hailed as the perfect send-off to one of 1930s Hollywood's most important stars.

At the time of her death, Lombard had been scheduled to star in the film They All Kissed the Bride; when production started, she was replaced by Joan Crawford. Crawford donated all of her salary for the film to the Red Cross, which had helped extensively in the recovery of bodies from the air crash. Shortly after Lombard's death, Gable, who was inconsolable and devastated by his loss, joined the United States Army Air Forces. Lombard had asked him to do that numerous times after the United States had entered World War II. After officer training, Gable headed a six-man motion picture unit attached to a B-17 bomb group in England to film aerial gunners in combat, flying five missions himself. In December 1943, the United States Maritime Commission announced that a Liberty ship named after Carole Lombard would be launched. Gable attended the launch of the SS Carole Lombard on January 15, 1944, the two-year anniversary of Lombard's record-breaking war bond drive. The ship was involved in rescuing hundreds of survivors from sunken ships in the Pacific and returning them to safety.

In 1962, Jill Winkler Rath, widow of publicist Otto Winkler, filed a $100,000 lawsuit against the $2,000,000 estate of Clark Gable in connection with Winkler's death in the plane crash with Carole Lombard. The suit was dismissed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Rath, in her action, claimed Gable promised to provide financial aid for her if she would not bring suit against the airline involved. Rath stated she later learned that Gable settled his claim against the airline for $10. He did so because he did not want to repeat his grief in court and subsequently provided her no financial aid in his will.

[vomitdodger]

Cooks and bus drivers not laid off...despite not working. Virginia’s solution? Run the busses empty. Unbelievable.