Fireball
Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3
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Narrated by:
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Tavia Gilbert
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By:
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Robert Matzen
About this listen
This fresh look at Hollywood's "Queen of Screwball", Carole Lombard, presents a first-ever examination of the events that led to the shocking flight mishap that took her life on the side of a Nevada mountain in 1942. It also provides a day-by-day account of the struggles of Lombard's husband, Clark Gable, and other family, friends, and fans to cope with the tragedy. In effect, having just completed the first sale of war bonds and stamps in the nation following its entry into World War II, Lombard became the first Hollywood star to sacrifice her life in the war.
The War Department offered Gable a funeral service with full military honors, but he refused it, knowing his wife would not approve of such spectacle. Based on extensive research rather than gossip, this investigation further explores the lives of the 21 others on the plane, including 15 members of the US Army Air Corps, and addresses one of the most enduring mysteries of World War II. On a clear night full of stars, with TWA's most experienced pilot at the controls of a 10-month-old aircraft under the power of two fully functioning engines, why did the flight crash into that Nevada mountainside?
This gripping page-turner presents the story of the people on the plane, the friends and families left behind, and the heroic first responders who struggled up a mountain hoping to perform a miracle rescue. It is a story of accomplishment, bravery, sacrifice, and loss.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2013 Robert Matzen (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Man Who Flew The Memphis Belle
- By: Robert Morgan, Ron Powers
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
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As a young man growing up in Asheville, North Carolina, Robert Morgan was a fast-driving party boy - a hell-raiser. But when his mother committed suicide upon learning she had inoperable brain cancer, Morgan's life changed dramatically. He was no longer a carefree playboy; he was a man searching for meaning. He found that meaning at the controls of an airplane, and in the flak-and fighter-filled skies over Occupied France and Nazi Germany.
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Abridged Version = Butchered
- By Kyle on 01-03-17
By: Robert Morgan, and others
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Bird Dream
- Adventures at the Extremes of Human Flight
- By: Matt Higgins
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Human flight is one of the last great challenges on Earth. Not like how the Wright brothers flew, but how we fly in our dreams. This is the goal of the Wingsuit Landing Project: to soar through the sky at speeds up to one hundred miles per hour and to land without the aid of a parachute. This project is the creation of 37-year-old Jeb Corliss, Jr., a Southern Californian who seeks to emulate a mode of flight more like a flying squirrel than bird or plane.
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Good read
- By Jowly on 04-22-15
By: Matt Higgins
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Riding Rockets
- The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
- By: Mike Mullane
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
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In 1978, the first group of space shuttle astronauts was introduced to the world - 29 men and six women who would carry NASA through the most tumultuous years of the space shuttle program. Among them was USAF Colonel Mike Mullane, who, in his memoir Riding Rockets, strips the heroic veneer from the astronaut corps and paints them as they are - human.
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Not for the young...
- By Collecting Warehouse on 11-14-18
By: Mike Mullane
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The Limit
- Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit
- By: Michael Cannell
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Phil Hill, a lowly California mechanic who, defying all expectations, became the first American to win the Grand Prix championship. In the tradition of Seabiscuit and The Right Stuff, Cannell’s high-octane narrative evokes the lives of the daredevils who tempted fate each Sunday by driving well over 150 mph without benefit of seat belts or roll bars.
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Great Intro to F1 History
- By Aser Tolentino on 01-19-13
By: Michael Cannell
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Why Planes Crash
- An Accident Investigator's Fight for Safe Skies
- By: David Soucie, Ozzie Cheek
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
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Boarding an airplane strikes at least a small sense of fear into most people. Even though we all have heard that the odds of being struck by lightning are greater than the odds of perishing in a plane crash, it still doesn't feel that way. Airplane crashes might be rare, but they do happen, and they’re usually fatal. David Soucie insists that most of these deaths could be prevented. He’s worked as a pilot, a mechanic, an FAA inspector, and an aviation executive. He’s seen death up close and personal - deaths of colleagues and friends that might have been prevented if he had approved certain safety measures in the aircrafts they were handling.
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Me, Me, Me
- By WakeNCAgent on 09-13-19
By: David Soucie, and others
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The Last Man On the Moon
- By: Eugene Cernan
- Narrated by: Eugene Cernan
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
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This is the story of a unique American hero who came of age as an astronaut during the few dramatic years when man reached the moon. Cernan's career spanned the entire Apollo program, from the tragic fire that killed three of his comrades on Apollo 1, through the moment when he left man's last footprint on the moon as commander of Apollo 17.
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Yet Another Perspective
- By Shellbin on 12-28-12
By: Eugene Cernan
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Bridge of Spies
- A True Story of the Cold War
- By: Giles Whittell
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
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Who were the three men the American and Soviet superpowers exchanged at Berlin’s Glienicke Bridge and Checkpoint Charlie in the first prisoner exchange of the nuclear age? Bridge of Spies vividly traces their paths to that electrifying moment on February 10, 1962, when their fates helped to define the conflicts and lethal undercurrents of the most dangerous years of the cold war.
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Bridge of Spies
- By BookReader on 09-28-15
By: Giles Whittell
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Rocket Men
- The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon
- By: Robert Kurson
- Narrated by: Ray Porter, Robert Kurson
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
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By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the moon by President Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the moon - in just four months.
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The Men Who Saved 1968
- By Gillian on 04-04-18
By: Robert Kurson
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Dutch
- A Memoir of Ronald Reagan
- By: Edmund Morris
- Narrated by: Edmund Morris
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
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This book, the only biography ever authorized by a sitting President - yet written with complete interpretive freedom - is as revolutionary in method as it is formidable in scholarship. When Ronald Reagan moved into the White House in 1981, one of his first literary guests was Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. Morris developed a fascination for the genial yet inscrutable President and, after Reagan's landslide reelection in 1984, put aside the second volume of his life of Roosevelt to become an observing eye and ear at the White House.
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Painful
- By john on 02-06-13
By: Edmund Morris
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Sully
- My Search for What Really Matters
- By: Chesley B. Sullenberger, Jeffrey Zaslow
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie, Chesley B. Sullenberger
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
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On January 15, 2009, the world witnessed a remarkable emergency landing when Captain "Sully" Sullenberger skillfully glided US Airways flight 1549 onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew. His cool actions not only averted tragedy but made him a hero and an inspiration worldwide. His story is now a major motion picture from director/producer Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks, Laura Linney, and Aaron Eckhart.
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Really Dull.
- By Nick on 09-14-16
By: Chesley B. Sullenberger, and others
What listeners say about Fireball
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DFW
- 06-26-21
Never Knew This Was a Mystery
I did know that Carol Lombard died in a plane crash but never knew the circumstances. This book brought that to life and gave many grizzly details. It also describes the other passengers and the people who were supposed to be on that flight and didn't make if for one reason or another. Very, very compelling book.
Love the narration and will definitely listen to other books read by Tavia Gilbert.
Great job, Robert Matzen!!
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- Wonder Woman
- 04-19-22
Incredibly Interesting
I love biographies and while this one zeros in on the events leading up to and surrounding Carole’s death, I was still captivated by it. I was afraid it might use too much aviation jargon and be too technical to be interesting to me, but thankfully it wasn’t.
The author swaps back and forth from perspectives and keeps you hanging on for the continuation.
The narrator was just fabulous to listen to. Often I find myself speeding up the narration to about 1.3 on certain narrators just to tolerate their voices (and sometimes to get me out of my misery sooner). This lady was great - her inflections and her speed of reading made for a very pleasant listen.
**Be aware that there is some offensive language.**
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- Molly
- 09-20-20
Great story, overly dramatic narrator
Compelling narrative that kept my attention the entire time. The description of the crash scene investigation went on a bit longer than I would have preferred. But the only real criticism I have is the narrator’s inflection is overdone and too dramatic, lending an unsophisticated and annoying quality to the audiobook. But overall it was a good listen, particularly the relationship between Lombard, Gable, and their friends.
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1 person found this helpful
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- TcbColorado
- 10-31-21
Very detailed
Learned a lot about Carol and Gable. Details about the accident that killed her were new to me. Liked it very much.
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- Corey brix
- 04-27-21
GREAT READ
This book is very well written. other reviews had mentioned that the performance was distracting and too much. I didn't think it was as bad as some said. it's an intense book and the performance helped with that. Highly recommend this book.
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- Islandgirl
- 11-28-21
Observation
We know the plane was overloaded, and witnesses saw one engine smoking, and the beacons were turned off.
Why would they not think the plane was trying to climb, and the load caused the engine to work harder.
The plane just could not get to altitude to make it over the mountain.
The second plane that hit the mountain in 2007, had a lot of equipment onboard, that should helped them over the mountain.
After the crash in 1942, no one thought of lighting the mountain at night, or have a beacon emitting a sound.
If the mountain was in the ocean, and they need to avoid it, a light house would have been built.
It is kind of absurd that 65 years after the crash of Flight 3, two men lost their lives, because someone could not make a
simple decision.
The pilots, why are the pilots always blamed. I believe the blame for Flight 3 going down sits squarely on the shoulders of the guy, who decided to manipulated the weight on that flight.
Lets not forget the Bahamas Flight August 2001, that flight also went down, cause, overloading.
I will say I enjoyed the book, it took me on an emotional ride.
Such a loss for all involved, the ones who lived and the ones who died.
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- Kindle Customer
- 05-04-22
Well done.
Some of the best books/ listens are in the Audible Plus Catalog. This is one of them. This book has it all ... Hollywood, a Love Story, A Tragedy, it stirs many emotions on many levels.
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- Kindle Customer
- 06-28-21
Sad, but wonderfully written
I'm a big fan of Carole Lombard and I'd read this in hardcover when it first came out and thought that it was very good. I still think that it's very well written AND now I also feel that the narrator made it even better. She read it with the proper amount and placement of emotion (not overly, but not flat either).
This is not just about Carole Lombard though, it's about her mother and Otto Winkler, and the service men and flight crew all of whom also died in that crash.
It's a great reminder (I think anyway) to lead a good life, love and appreciate your loved ones, have good fun..and don't make important decisions based on emotion...and listen to other people who also have a part in your decision making and understand their feelings.
Highly recommend it!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Kathleen
- 04-14-21
SO GREAT!!!!
Loved how the author went back and forth between her history and the crash. Learned a lot. Such a crazy story. I wish they would make this book into a movie, ASAP!!
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- Robyn
- 09-25-16
Good story, sparkling narration
My preferred genre is non-fiction and when I heard a lot of reconstructed dialogue and the thoughts of people who died in the crash, I was prepared not to enjoy this book much. But the book quickly captured my interest and held it all the way through. I would also have preferred the events to be recounted chronologically, but running separate strands was not too distracting. The best thing about this book, for me, is Tavia Gilbert's narration - with her very agreeable voice and her ability to capture and convey all the different emotions she is perfect. I look forward to hearing her again.
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