Heartbreaking Facts About Carol Wayne, The Matinee Girl
She Was The Matinee Girl
With her high voice, buxom figure, and comedic timing, Carol Wayne more than earned her regular spot as the naive “Matinee Girl” on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. But her brutal and mysterious end dug up secrets that were far from innocent.
If anyone was chewed up and spit out by the dark side of Hollywood, it was Carol Wayne.
1. She Was A Teen Star
Carol Wayne got a taste for fame from an incredibly young age. Born in Chicago in 1942, she and her younger sister Nina were promising ice skaters, and got jobs at 15 and 16 performing a 42-city tour with the Ice Capades. It had its cost. They not only dropped out of high school to do the gig—but disaster struck soon after.
2. She Had A Horrible Fall
One day, Carol was performing her usual tricks on the ice when she tripped—possibly on a penny or another item that someone had thrown on the ice—and fell.
It was no simple accident either, and the fall resulted in a five-inch scar running down her knee.
It would have even bigger consequences for her career.
3. She Missed Her Childhood
Although Carol later finished the tour with the Ice Capades, the injury meant the end of her skating long-term. This drove her to a devastating realization. She had spent all her supposedly carefree years devoted to skating, missing “a childhood of growing up, dating," and she didn’t even have a high school diploma to show for it.
So, she kept doing the only thing she knew how to do: Get attention.
4. She Became A Showgirl
When Carol exited the Ice Capades, so too did her sister Nina. The girls found employment in a more scandalous place. With their curvy figures, the pair became showgirls in Las Vegas at the Tropicana, much to their mother’s horror.
According to Wayne, her mother once looked their barely-there outfits up and down and said “could you ask them for a couple more feathers?”
But Wayne was about to hit the big leagues.
