Letters From Carole

Carole loved writing to her friends and fans. Although she was very busy Carole typed (and in some cases hand wrote) all of the letters herself. Here is a collection of twenty letters from Carole ...

Quotes From Carole

Here is a collection of rare quotes from Carole ...


On achieving her goals: "If you want to do something or be someone set your mind to it and never give up - no matter how rough the going becomes. I didn't have a college education, but I learned that there's no obstacle too big which can't be surmounted."

On her ambitions: "I want to be as good an actress as Bette Davis, and I'd like to be a great singer. But more than that I'd like to be happily married and have some children."

On wealthy husbands: "A man should be wealthy before marriage. It may be his last chance."

 On finding the right man: "Let me tell you this: Every girl in the world wants to find the right man, someone who is sympathetic and understanding and helpful and strong, someone she can love madly. Actresses are no exception; the glamour and the tinsel, the fame and the money mean very little if there is hurt in the heart."





On being divorced three times: "Why do people attack me for getting three divorces? It's legal; if there's something wrong about it, why don't they attack the laws of the land, and let me alone?"

On love: "The only thing I've found out about love is that I don't know anything about it. I wish somebody would tell me what it's really like. I've made a couple of guesses. But that business about 'women's intuition' just isn't true. Not in my case, anyway."

On her future: "I have no intention of ending my career in a rooming house, with full scrapbooks and an empty stomach."

  On her friends: "I hate to lose any friends because I feel that a little part of me goes with them. The sense of loss is painful. Now I know upon whom I can rely."

On marriages ending: "Whenever an actress marries and the marriage ends in divorce the public always seems to blame the girl. Golly, it might be the husband's fault you know - and again it might be nobody's fault. Sometimes a marriage just trickles out. It's over and you can't do a thing about it."

On her dreams: "My dreams are mad, silly things. I've started reading Freud. Very interesting."

On her 1942 U.S.O. tour: "We had a wonderful time everywhere overseas. But it was hard. For five months we never gave less than five shows a day. It was too cold to sleep nights and there wasn't water enough to take a bath. We bathed and shampooed in cold water - there was no hot. I had to do my own washing. And I ate more sand and fog, than food. I was hairdresser for the gang; at that we didn't look too bad."

On rumors: "Anyone in public life gets used to unkind rumors after a time. Though all of them are very upsetting when they are published and spoken about publicly, particularly by those in the business who are, shall I say, jealous of your success. I have learned to stand up to them by ignoring them and not dignifying them with an answer."

On writing Four Jills In A Jeep: "The studio gave me two ghost writers but they stunk it all up. I finally decided to talk it to a steno typist. Naturally with some Scotch and soda under my belt. Yes, it was very droll. I'd go out to the kitchen and sneak a drink, and come back again with a lot of new inspirations. I had too many swear words, like Hell, damn and Christ in it. Edwin Seaver, the writer whom I know, went over it and he said , "I think this part stinks", or "that part stinks"...and I cut a lot out. But I sweated it out and wrote it."

On money: "I'm pretty good at saving up to a certain point. When the money bags start getting heavy I have an awful urge to lighten them. But the business manager is curing me of that."

On her close friend Cesar Romero: "I demand a sense of humor in any man in my life. Cesar Romero, for example, has a wonderful sense of humor, plus a wonderful quality of humility. He makes fun of his face. Calls himself "Cowface". He doesn't think he is the great Adonis, as so many actors do."

On going to Hollywood: "I had thought of going across the street to the drugstore for a malted milk, for the purpose of being discovered for movies but decided instead to take the money I'd saved and go to Hollywood. Funny thing - I found Hollywood already had plenty of blondes."

On glamour: "If glamour is something you have to put in a glass case I don't want any of it."

On working as a waitress: "Three orders at a time had me nuts. I'd bring in the beef stew and give it to the wrong man and he'd start in on it. By that time I'd realize the error and give grab it away. The man who was supposed to get the beef stew then wouldn't take it. Before I was through the manager would be making me pay for half the orders."

On the possibility of marrying for a third time: "I only hope it's true that the third time is the charm. Because I'm pretty sure I'll marry again. I like the things marriage stands for. I'm just praying I can wait long enough next time to be sure it's love. I don't want to be guessing all my life."

On sex appeal: "I think sex is definitely here to stay so I don't see any necessity for throwing it in people's faces. I don't think a girl has to wear dresses cut down to her tummy to exhibit what is known as feminine allure. She can exhibit it in a high neck dress but subtly. Heaven knows I want people to think I have sex appeal. But I also want to think I have something besides sex appeal."

On entertaining the troops: "It's not only a duty, it's a lark. Even if your clothes are wrinkled, your face is chapped to the ears and you're deaf from flying in bombers, it's like home when you come down in the midst of Americans. It's living such as I have never known back here."



 

On real love: "In my opinion real love has nothing to do with friendship or respect. They help, but they don't make it. A man can be an absolute heel and a woman, knowing it, can still be madly in love with him."

On getting married: "Ever since I was a very small child, I wanted marriage and children more than I wanted anything else, including a career. Because I wanted marriage and children so badly, I constantly sought for love, I was too eager for it. I read into people things that weren't there, so that the minute a personable fellow, with whom I felt the least 'sympatica' showed me the least persuasive interest, I just went overboard for it."

On moving to New York City: "We're going to call New York home. My husband's business keeps him in New York most of the time so we decided we could hardly make Hollywood as a permanent home."

On not being allowed to visit soldiers in dangerous areas: "The boys were counting on us to come and perform for them, and we could not go. It broke my heart. Once I sent cables to the commanding officer, asking special permission to make trips to Hollandia and Biak, because I knew the fellows were waiting for us. Permission was refused by headquarters."

On attracting men: "If you want to interest men, you have to have the courage to attract them. Most men, I've found, like a girl who's daring enough to get their attention - if she's demure enough to appreciate it after she gets it. As long as it's a man's world, a girl has to be daring to get ahead."

On getting noticed: "The first time I wore a bare midriff gown, Hollywood noticed me. Hollywood didn't discover me, I discovered it."

On gossip: "Don't gossip - particularly about other women. Don't make sarcastic and catty remarks. Kindness is the secret to true femininity."

On fame: "Stardom is merely some talent, a few breaks and a lot of publicity. I have the talent, the publicity will come and so will the breaks. Just give me a couple of years."

On playing the piano: "Every girl has, in the back of her wish department, some unsatisfied longing held over from childhood. Personally, I always wanted to play the piano. Now that I have a piano and some spare time between pictures, I've been taking lessons. I'm not good, but I'm getting better and I've obtained a lot of satisfaction out of the effort."

On why movies are important: "Movies are a tremendous power for the good. In wartime they helped stave off countless cases of homesickness, they entertained our men and kept them informed about people and things back home. Ask any veteran how important those nightly movies in the jungle rain were to him and his buddies. I know because I sat though many myself."

Carole Loved Hats

 

Carole's favorite fashion accessory was a big, beautiful hat. Many of the ones that she wore were designed by her friend Don Loper. Here is Carole modeling a variety of hats ...

   With Alan Gordon                                                                                           

With Major Gus Daymond                                                                         

                                                       

   With designer Don Loper