Roland Drew and Carole Lombard in The Racketeer

Carole Lombard (1908–1942), American actress who was known for her ability to combine elegance and zaniness in some of the most successful and popular film comedies of the 1930s. After studying acting and dancing as a child, she made her screen debut as a 13-year-old tomboy in A Perfect Crime (1921); legend has it that the actress was cast in the role after the film’s director, Allan Dwan, saw her playing baseball in the street. She left school at the age of 15, and she first appeared under the stage name Carol (after 1930, Carole) Lombard in a leading role in Marriage in Transit (1925). She made more than 20 silent films during the 1920s, mostly cast in bit roles or as a supporting player in several Mack Sennett-produced comedy shorts. In 1930 she signed a seven-year contract with Paramount and was occasionally afforded the opportunity to display her comic skills in such films as Fast and Loose (1930), It Pays to Advertise (1931), and Man of the World (1931). It was also during this period that Lombard appeared in No Man of Her Own (1932), her only film with future husband Clark Gable (married 1939).