“PROFANE ANGEL – – The Life and Career of CAROLE LOMBARD”, by Jerry Vermilye. McFarland& Company., Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina: 2024, 177 pages, 5 ¾”x 8 ¾”; softcover;$39.95. Visit, www.mcfarlandpub.com.Reviewed and highly, highly recommended by Don DeNeviCarole on husband Clark Gable: “If Clark had one inch less, he’d be the ‘Queen of Hollywood’instead of ‘the king’.”
Patsy Ruth Miller said of Carole in 1988, “I was fond of her- – it was impossible not to like Carole
- – but she used to love to shock me by using language that no nice girl should use, and every
time she did, I would react just as she knew I would. I think she often threw in a four-letterword just to see the expression on my face”.Carole was active and creative up to the very end of her short life. And, lest we forget,movie-lovers, we’re still decades away, perhaps longer, from being truly appreciative, nay,recognizing with endearing significance, what she gave our eyes and minds and dreams. Indeed,most, if not all, her feature-length movies are available from one source or another. Watchingthem all, or even a portion, will position us sooner or later to render this fabulous woman theverdict of posterity she, dedicated moviegoing buffs, their offspring and their furthestgeneration-descendants deserve. Jerry Vermilye reminds us that Carole lived a life of truth andhonesty on and off the screen. Her mind was not only inquisitive and insistent but also foreverpatient and persistent, always oriented to the good, the future, loving who andwhatever she saw. When we see her before us again and again, no matter who she portrays,our minds tell us how warm and wonderful life and most people are.Thanks again, Jerry, for placing us, especially this emotionally wrought reviewer, within the
bright shining circle of Carol’s iridescent, captivating mind and loving femininity.
