Burying Carla

Next to go was my good name.

My history was altered after the fact. I believe this was done to minimize the history that had preceded the show's white star. The July 26, 1988, issue of Soap Opera Digest featured a cover story celebrating One Life's 20th anniversary. In it I am no longer described as an original star in a founding family, but instead as a jobbed-in player in an early story line. Nixon herself no longer describes Carla to the press as a black actress struggling against discrimination but rather as "a light-skinned black woman who masqueraded as a white woman to win acceptance from the citizens of Llanview." Unfortunately, this cheesier Carla-framed as a social climber, inferred to be ashamed of her race, someone who passed for white to better ingratiate herself with white neighbors-has already made its way into the history books.

In the Nixon profile in the encyclopedia Women and American Television, the description of my character is the revised one that I shrink from:

"In fact, One Life to Live was the first soap opera to offer a black character in a central role. Carla Gray (Ellen Holly) was a light-skinned black woman who pretended to be Italian to gain acceptance into Llanview society."

With One Life now ending its years on ABC, this letter is addressed to fans. I want them to they know that Lillian and I did not desert them by choice. Lillian and I felt a great bond of affection with those who cared about our characters and would have remained to the end had we had the option. It is also addressed to soap opera historians. I hope they will research the true history of the Carla character and not buy into the dirtied-up Carla the show invented after I was gone.