Murdering Carole Lombard

MURDERING CAROLE LOMBARD

(Actress Carole Lombard died in the crash of TWA Flight 3 on January 16, 1942; she had

earlier used her clout to bump another passenger from the flight.)

It’s not a story a fellow tells if it’s true

Though there is a nugget of truth in it

I was in Nevada that Friday afternoon

In Carson City—merely a short flight

Of fancy down to the Las Vegas airport

Then another jaunt to book a reservation

And soon enough I see myself settled

Third row, aisle—Uncle Sam earplugs

Black coffee, Old Golds—nearly dozing

When Miss Lombard routs the airline

Crew and stampedes the cabin, gabbing

Rather madcap like in My Man Godfrey

A maelstrom of carpet bags, hatboxes.

She’s playful, chirpy, but pushy as sin,

As though I wasn’t doing my own part

For the war effort, but what’s an army

Doc compared with Hollywood royalty

So I’m off the plane, raging I’ll write

To Mr. Howard Hughes personally, to

General MacArthur, Secretary Stimson:

For hours I’m fuming at a dead woman. 

That’s how I tell my story—at weddings,

Surgical shindigs, glad to confab across

Armrests on those sleek-bodied 707 jets

And de Havilland Comets that grounded

The last Douglas DC-3s. Ever heard of

More or less. Fifteen minutes of fame,

They say. If I wasn’t that traveler then,

I tell myself, I’m as much the fellow now

As anyone. More so from years of practice.

Time and tide dare not claim otherwise.

And then one layover in Dallas, delayed

While Delta searches for a part, I impart

My story one last time while chin-wagging

With a pair of pharma reps from Pittsburgh

Too young to recognize Lombard’s name.

My voice must carry, because he’s twenty

Yards away, burly with a graying buzz-cut,

And he eyes me like I’m sitting in his chair.

I let my story drift away as he approaches,

And somehow I know where this man sat

One Friday in 1942. “Row three on the aisle,”

Is what he says, without humor or menace,

As though he’s waited a lifetime to say it.

“You should’ve fought harder for that seat.”