A True Alfred Hitchcock Ghost Story

Hitchcock’s Haunted Houseful: Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, and the Curse of the Shrunken Head

Want to get your partner the kind of romantic gift that leading man Clark Gable, the King of Classic Hollywood, might buy?

Try a shrunken head. (Or don’t cause that would be wrong in so many ways—but you can get a spooky prop shrunken head instead because apparently this is a thing.)

It seems that Clark Gable once gave Carole a shrunken head as a gift, because he thought this was the next step to upping the ante on their eternal quest to prank each other.

But this time, Clark had gone too far. Carole felt the head had cursed her, and she it out the window on a drive through Coldwater Canyon. It is well-documented that they went back to pick up the head -- it seems she was afraid of the fury of the shrunken head. Lombard was known to consult with psychics and mediums, and I am sure they would advise her that was not good ju-ju. 

The house where the shrunken head is supposedly buried -- perhaps it is still there?

This is where the story diverges. Gable later said they made an anonymously gifted the head to Alfred Hitchcock. Is it any wonder that the genius mind behind such Hitchcock movies as The Birds, Rear Window, and of course Psycho, accepted the gift? Reportedly, Hithcock buried the head in his garden. Lombard said they buried it in their own, all the while she accused Gable, "If our marriage doesn't work out it’s your fault... yours, and its." Yet another account says Hitchcock purchased the home where Lombard and Gable had buried the head, without knowing it was there. 

But my favorite account, and the one that seems most likely to me, is that supposedly they were to make a publicity stunt out of the whole thing, inviting the press to an exhumation of the shrunken head. In today's terms, this kind of thing would be sorely frowned upon. But back then it is easier to understand -- the political and ethical considerations weren't so strong, and Lombard was a prankster who, I am sure, meant no harm.

Carole Lombard'S Tragic Death

Sadly, the eerie event did seem to foretell doom -- if you believe in that sort of thing. In 1942, Lombard, Gable's publicity agent Otto Winkler, and Lombard's mother (affectionately known as Petey) took an impromptu flight home from selling bonds for the war effort. They were supposed to take a train, indeed, they had been cautioned numerous times not to take a plane. Commercial aviation wasn't at its safest back then, not to mention the added security risks of wartime in America.  

Carole's mother "Petey" stands alongside her famous son-in-law and daughter.

Petey wasn't happy about the situation at all -- an avid believer in numerology, there were too many 3's swirling around the situation. Lombard was 33, the flight number was 3, you get the idea.

Mount Petosi — where TWA flight crashed with Carole Lombard amongst its passengers.

Ominously, Winkler had told his wife that if he boarded a plane on that trip, he would never come home. 

Sadly he was right.

Lombard’s plane crashed into Mount Potosi, just outside of Vegas, killing all on-board, Winkler included. 

love a good hollywood ghost story? read on!