Carole's Great Love
Tommy Wallace was Carole's third husband and her one true love. They got married on January 5, 1943 after a whirlwind 6 week courtship. Captain Thomas Cherry Wallace was a war hero who flew in the Royal Air Force. Carole said she fell in love with him the moment they met (it was Friday, November 13, 1942 at 4:30 p.m.). What she wanted most in her life was a happy marriage and children. She insisted on having a big Catholic wedding and she wore orange blossoms in her hair for fertility. It was a big disappointment when they didn't have children. Carole suffered from endometriosis and couldn't get pregnant. When Tommy was away she wrote to him every day and put photos of him all over her house. In every interview Carole talked about how much she loved Tommy and that he was "the one". She even wrote about their fairytale romance in her book Four Jills In A Jeep.
Although the love was always there they had a lot of problems with there relationship. When he moved in with Carole he made her sell her beach house and made her mother Clara move out. Carole was doing the movie Having A Wonderful Crime and Tommy wasn't with her. They had already so much time away due to the war and here it is a year into the marriage and she is doing another film and then was planning to go to NY to do the play A Lady Says Yes. Tommy really wanted to have them move to a farm in Nevada and to have the family they talked about. He didn't like being in Hollywood and he really hated being called "Mr. Landis". At one of the lowest points in their marriage Carole made an "attention grabbing" suicide attempt.
She had Pat O'Brien right next to her and she knew she would be saved. At the time Tommy and her were talking divorce. She didn't really want to die - she wanted the attention and to have that sweep me off my feet, we are madly in LOVE, passionate relationship that was there when they first saw each other. She knew she had a film she was doing and a play and she wouldn't have jeopardized that for anything. All she wanted was for Tommy to come to her and it worked. They stayed together for a short time, about 6 months, following that incident. Carole and Tommy were really in LOVE but they both were stubborn and she still wanted her career and he wanted a stay at home wife. I think part of the romance in their relationship was due to the time they were apart and that when they were together it was for short, passionate periods of time.
There are stories of her renting places by the air field so she could see his plane leave and come back, how she got eggs for them to eat on their honeymoon. He hadn't had any in a long time it was a treat and a gift. Although their marriage lasted only two years Carole never stopped loving him. She saved all of the letters and gifts he gave her. I think their break-up really broke her heart. She once said "No woman ever loved a man more than I loved Tommy Wallace." The entire family adored Tommy and I always heard nice things about him. My Grandma Dorothy called him Uncle Tommy and kept a framed photo of them in her house. She never talked to me about any of Carole's other husbands because Tommy was the only one she liked. I didn't even know Carole was married to anyone else until I got older.
~ Written by Tammy Powell, Carole's great-niece
WHAT HAPPENED TO TOMMY?
After their divorce Tommy moved back to Pasadena. In 1946 he married 21 year old Joanne Doherty. She was from Texas and her first husband was killed during the war. Tommy and Joanne had two sons (Barry and Nicholas). They traveled all over the world and lived in England for a while. Tommy continued to fly and served in the Air Force during the Korean war. Then he was offered a job with Goodyear and moved to Venezuela. Tragedy struck in November 1968 when Tommy was killed in a shooting accident. He was only 51 years old.
* I want to thank Tommy's son Barry Wallace for meeting with me and telling me about his father *
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