Here is a collection of vintage clippings about Carole from newspapers and magazines -
(Click on an image to see a larger version)
This is an article Sidney Skolsky wrote in 1943 -
Carole Landis tried to get into the movies by working as a waitress. She had seen several movies in which directors look up at the waitresses serving them and discover an actress. But times have changed since then. Now, directors sit in restaurants waiting for a waitress to discover them, and she has become the movie star who has entertained more servicemen and covered more territory doing it than any other actress. She has played more than 250 camps in this country, and has entertained in England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Africa and Brazil. Along with Kay Francis, Martha Raye and Mitzi Mayfair, she gave a command performance at Windsor Palace. After the performance, Queen Elizabeth spoke to her personally. This is a long haul for Frances Lillian Mary Ridste, who got her initial big publicity by being billed as "The Ping Girl - She Makes You Purr." It was when she started working seriously on a career as a dancer-singer-actress that she changed her name. Carole was always her favorite name. She immediately took it. Then she went through a telephone book and jotted down about 200 named to go with Carole. Landis appealed to her, and Landis it is now legally. She was born in Fairchild, Wisconsin, on Hangover Day, Jan. 1, 1919. She is 5 feet 5 1/4 inches tall, weighs 118 pounds. Her eyes are blue, and she is not a natural blonde. Her chest measurement is 36 1/2 inches, and that's without taking a deep breath. She appeared on a "Command Performance" broadcast, and, answering a serviceman's desire, she merely "sighed" over the radio. It is said that D.W. Griffith discovered her for pictures. The truth of the matter is that she discovered D.W. Griffith and made him discover her. Griffith was searching for a girl to play the lead in Hal Roach's One Million B.C. She had her agent take her to the Roach Studio and leave her there. Then she got busy. She found Griffith's office. Got in to see him. Told him about herself. Enacted a scene in the office for him, and impressed him so much that he said he'd give her a screen test. She wore a sweater that afternoon. She's an outdoor girl. She swims a lot, rides horseback, and plays tennis. She says she's not very fond of the indoor type of man, the fellow who wants to sit and sit.
Her favorite man is her husband, Capt. Thomas G. Wallace, formerly of the Eagle Squadron, RAF, and now with the American Air Force. He doesn't just sit, having seen action in the Battle of Britain, all over England, occupied France, Norway, as well as on convoy protection duty. She was introduced to Captain Wallace by Neil Lang, estranged husband of Martha Raye, when she landed in England. She went for him immediately. The romance started with a cigarette. She admired the service wings on his lighter. He promptly insisted on trading lighters with her, saying, "I'd rather have your lighter. Think how impressed people will be if I can show them a lighter with Carole Landis' name on it." They had their first date the night following their introduction. After a drink in the American bar at the Savoy, dinner at Pastori's, a ride to Victoria on the tube, a sight-seeing return to London on a doubledeck bus, they danced and talked for hours at the 400 Club where he proposed. She didn't say "no," but she didn't say "Yes," although she wanted to. A week later she did. He is expected in this country for reassignment shortly. Her finger nails used to be an inch and a quarter long, but are now normal since taking piano lessons. She never uses polish on her nails. She thinks it is vulgar. Her favorite breakfast consists of orange juice, eggs, and coffee. She rarely eats lunch, and when she does it's invariably an omelette. Her favorite dinner is anything with corn on the cob. She always drinks plenty of milk followed by coffee. She loves going to the movies, and she believes that Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman are the best actresses. Her favorite actors are Charles Boyer, Cary Grant and Franchot Tone. She has never appeared with any of them in a picture. Her leading man in her latest picture, Wintertime, is Cornel Wilde. She resides in a beach house on the ocean front at Santa Monica. It is practically a boarding house for servicemen. Although the house is done in early Spanish, her living room has a Chinese motif. Her bedroom, upstairs, is her favorite room. She sleeps in a modern bed-sitting room decorated in pale rose, eggshell, and intriguing olive tones. She sleeps in a low double bed, with quilted eggshell satin covered back, and there is a bedspread bordered in rose. She used to sleep in the nude, but now wears sheer nightgowns, usually trimmed with black lace. She dreams every night. And mostly, her dreams are the kind Freud would love to analyze.
Thank you to author E.J. Fleming for sharing that article!
