Carole's greatest accomplishment was her tireless efforts to entertain the troops during World War 2. She toured dozens of Army camps throughout the United States. In September 1942 she went on a U.S.O. tour with actresses Kay Francis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair. The group was part of the Feminine Theatrical Task Force. They traveled more than 50,000 miles by plane, truck, and jeep. The group went to England, Bermuda, Africa, and Ireland. They made 150 personal appearances and performed in 125 shows. Carole enterained thousands of soldiers stationed overseas. Her specialty was singing the song "Strip Polka". The four women became close friends during the tour. They survived illnesses, earthquakes, and bombing raids. Kay was bisexual and developed a crush on Carole. Besides being a talented performer Carole was also a gifted writer. She wrote numerous magazine articles about her experiences during the war. In 1943 she was asked to write a book for Random House. The title of the book was Four Jills In A Jeep. Carole wrote about what is was like traveling with the other actresses and meeting the soldiers. Most of the book is about her wartime romance with her third husband Tommy Wallace. Carole dedicated the book "To the Officers and Enlisted Men Who Made Our Tour So Inspiring". She did have the help of a ghost writer but she wrote the majority of the book herself.
In December 1943 Four Jills In a Jeep was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post. The book was published in the spring of 1944. Before the book had even come out Fox decided to turn Four Jills In A Jeep into a movie. Filming began on October 18, 1943. Carole, Kay, Martha, and Mitzi agreed to play themselves. Phil Silvers, Dick Haymes, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, and Alice Faye also joined the cast. The movie was directed by William A. Seiter. Carole's onscreen romance with John Harvey was based on her real-life relationship with Tommy. The costumes were designed by Yvonne Wood. Carole was furious when the censors refused to let the actresses wear sweaters. In one scene she wore her own wedding dress. There are numerous songs in the film including "Crazy Me" and "You'll Never Know" but several musical numbers were cut from the film before it was released. The musical numbers were staged by Carole's close friend Don Loper. Unfortunately Carole had no creative control over the making of the movie and it ended up being mostly fiction. Many of the characters and scenes in the movie were not in the book. Four Jills In A Jeep was released on March 17, 1944. The movie was not a hit and many critics panned it. Unfortunately Carole would never write another book but she did write the forward to Vic Herman's 1945 book Winnie The Wac.
An excerpt from the book Four Jills In A Jeep -
The platform was slippery from the rain and, to make matters worse for Mitzi, one of the boards was broken. All during her dance she had to keep her eye on that loose board. She got around it and danced beautifully, even though one of her shoes came off in the middle of her number. Mitzi just kicked off her other shoe and went on dancing in her stocking feet. The rain was bad enough, but the wind blew in our faces, and when I tried to sing, it was like singing under water. "Let's Do It," I sang. "Let's glub, glub," and then I would gulp down a mouthful of Bermuda's liquid sunshine and go on with the song again. It was no use trying to sing. "Gosh," I said, "I'm pretty nervous being up her all alone with a thousand men." (Ohs and ahs.) "Well, you can understand how I feel. After all, how would you like to be all alone with a thousand girls?" (General bedlam.) Before the show was half over, we were all drenched to the skin, but a hot dinner served in the officers' mess tent at the top of a nearby hill helped dry us out.
Carole said of writing the book - "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."
