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In the pantheon of fictional monsters, the zombie has been around for almost a hundred years. The first popular reference to these resurrected corpses dates back to the book The Magic Island , published by William Seabrook in 1929. Seabrook was an American occultist (and an alcoholic) who found success travelling to various parts of the world and publishing exaggerated accounts of witchcraft and satanism. Written after a trip to the Caribbean island of Haiti, The Magic Island supposedly details Seabrook's real-life encounters with the walking dead. The section dealing with zombies is titled «Black Sorcery» and it colourfully narrates a story a local told to Seabrook about voodoo rites used to revive the dead as soulless slaves to work in the sugar cane fields.   Now in the Public Domain, The Magic Island was praised by critics at the time of its original release for its characterization of the Haitian people and culture, as well as its exploration of voodoo. Although Seabrook...

Carole Lombard is undoubtedly one the greatest comediennes in cinema history. Born Jane Alice Peters to a wealthy Indiana family on October 6, 1908, Lombard began her acting career at the age of 12, when director Allan Dwan cast her as Monta Blue's sister in A Perfect Crime (1921). Although the film was not widely distributed and paid only $50, the experience spurred Lombard's mother to enroll her in drama school. In 1924, just as she turned 16, she was screentested by Fox Film Corporation, which led to a co-starring role opposite Edmund Lowe in Marriage in Transit (1925). Both movies are now considered lost.   Unlike many other actors, Lombard made an easy transition to sound, signing a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures in 1930. Four years later, she was loaned out to Columbia to work on Twentieth Century (1934), a film that not only made her a major star, but also became the prototype of screwball comedies.   LEFT: Carole Lombard and Monta Blue in A Perfect Crim...

A lot happened in 1932. Gandhi was arrested and interned by the British in India; Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the United States Senate; Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was published; women's suffrage was granted in Brazil; James Chadwick discovered the neutron; Goofy made his first ever appearance in a Disney short; the Summer Olympic Games took place in Los Angeles; the first Mars bar was produced; Babe Ruth performed his famous called shot; the BBC World Service began broadcasting; and the iconic Radio City Music Hall opened in Manhattan. It was also in 1932 that Carole Lombard and Clark Gable met for the first time, not knowing each would change the other's life forever.     CHAPTER I: Carole with an «e» Jane Alice Peters was born to a wealthy Indiana family on October 6, 1908. When she was seven years old, her parents separated and her mother, Bessie, took her and her two older brothers to live in Los Angeles. Jane grew up a «tomboy» and was pa...