Carly
Manning is the daughter of Henri Von Leuschner. Born Katerina Von
Leuschner, she is the sister of François Von Leuschner (also
known as Frankie Brady.) She is the mother of Nicholas Alamain.
Although she was engaged to Bo
Brady many times, Carly only
managed to marry and divorce Victor
Kiriakis. Carly arrived in
Salem as an enigma; a woman whose past she ran away from, for some
mysterious reason. But as she crossed paths with Bo Brady, she walked
straight into the arms of her past. She helped Bo come to terms with
the death of his wife, while he helped her overcome her past
relationship with Lawrence Alamain. Her strength and her love for Bo
Brady were all that gave Carly hope for happiness, even six feet
underground.
Carly
first caught our eye (and the eye of Justin Kiriakis) in the beaches
of Tahiti. After Justin was bitten by a sea urchin, Carly tried to
help him but he wanted to be seen by "someone who knew what they were
doing." At the local clinic, he was surprised to see that Carly was
the doctor. After she treated Justin, he and his wife
Adrienne
talked about their hometown of Salem. Carly said it sounded like a
great place to live and jokingly offered to trade homes with Justin.
A day later, Justin took Carly up on her offer. She had checked up on
Salem University Medical Center and found it to be a thriving and
innovative facility to work in. So, Carly gave Justin and Adrienne
the keys to her bungalow and they gave her the keys to their
penthouse. The arrangement wasn't permanent, but Justin wanted to
give living in Haiti a try. Meanwhile, Carly arrived in Salem and she
quickly got a job at University Hospital and the Riverfront Emergency
Center as an intern with the help of her new friend Marcus
Hunter.
In addition to Marcus, Carly was shocked to find an old friend in Salem, Jennifer Horton. The two of them had been best friends while attending a boarding school in Switzerland. We then discovered the truth behind Carly. Her real name was Katerina Von Leuschner. She was the daughter of Henri Von Leuschner, and part of a wealthy European family whose lineage descended from royal blood. In fact, Carly was the heiress to a vast fortune. Ever since birth, Carly had been betrothed to marry Lawrence Alamain, a member of an equally powerful European family, on her 25th birthday, so the two families would become one powerful force. However, Carly had always hated her betrothal. One time, while attending school in Switzerland, Katerina (Carly) was to meet her future husband Lawrence. Katerina hadn't wanted to go through with this, so Jennifer had offered herself to pose as Katerina on her date. Lawrence never met Carly, and soon Carly ran away from the Swiss boarding school with Jennifer's help. She had made her own life by studying at La Sorbonne in Paris, eventually becoming a doctor. Carly begged Jennifer to keep her true identity a secret since people were still searching for her to carry out the betrothal. Carly was unaware that Jennifer was already working on a newspaper story about "The Missing Heiress", Katerina Von Leuschner.
Besides
hiding from various people working for her family and Lawrence
Alamain (because Carly's 25th birthday was coming up soon), Carly
became heavily involved in protests against the Jencon Oil Company,
which was setting up oil rigs all over Salem's Riverfront area. She
had also been involved in protests against the same company when she
was living in Tahiti. She also protested against her friends Justin
and Adrienne for making a deal with Jencon to build their oil
refinery! It was during this time that Carly met Bo Brady. Carly
first met Bo on the pier one evening when the protesters were being
particularly loud. Bo had come out to see what was going on because
his son, Shawn-Douglas, couldn't sleep. Carly and Bo would continue
to run into each other after that evening. In fact, Carly wanted Bo
to join the protest against Jencon. Carly showed Bo the dangers of
the oil refinery...from being across from a playground to being too
close to a state park. Bo, having just lost his wife, was in no mood
or condition to lead any protests. One day, however, Shawn-Douglas
fell down a drilling shaft after making his way into the construction
site; he'd been playing in the playground across the street. The
child was trapped there, and Carly risked her life to save the boy by
going into the shaft and getting him to safety. After they both made
out with Bo's help, Carly discovered that Shawn-Douglas was deaf and
that is why he hadn't responded to rescue workers. Carly worked with
Shawn-Douglas on a regular basis to teach him sign language.
Meanwhile, the Riverfront Raider, a saboteur who wanted Jencon Oil to
go out of business, struck. The Raider was none other than Bo, who
was seeking revenge against Jencon for causing Shawn-Douglas' loss of
hearing.
While this was going on, a representative of the Von Leuschner family, Werner Bayer, showed up in Salem searching for Katerina. He needed to locate her, as her 25th birthday was very soon. Unbeknownst to Carly, Jennifer once again posed as Katerina. Meanwhile, Carly continued to be followed by agents working for Jencon Oil. One night, an individual roughed her up at the pier but Carly managed to get away. Upon further investigation, Carly discovered that Jencon Oil had files on her. At this time, Bo noticed that Carly seemed to hide from certain people and demanded to know what was going on. Carly admitted to him her past and her suspicions that someone from that past was involved with Jencon...and looking for her. After Steve Johnson was seriously injured in an explosion that Jencon Oil was suspected of engineering, Carly and Bo traveled to New York City to further investigate Jencon Oil and its obsession with Carly. In NYC, Carly and Bo discovered that Lawrence Alamain, her former fiancé, was the head of Jencon Oil, although Carly didn't tell Bo that she knew Lawrence. They also learned that he'd recently left New York to go back to his country and marry Katerina Von Leuschner. Since Carly was Katerina, that only meant that Lawrence had taken Jennifer! Bo and Carly traveled to Lawrence's country and made their way to Hôtel Alamain, Lawrence's villa. Once arrived, Carly led Bo straight to Lawrence. This had all been a trap. Carly had led Bo to Lawrence in order to exchange him for her brother François, who was being kept hostage by Lawrence. François was none other than Frankie Brady, who had lived in Salem years before with the Brady family!
In
1983, Katerina had been in love with a man named James in Paris, who
she later found out was Lawrence Alamain. Furious at Lawrence's ruse,
Katerina had decided to run away. Lawrence had tried to stop her but
a merchant marine named Bo Brady had stopped Lawrence long enough to
allow Katerina to get away. Now, Lawrence sought revenge against Bo
and thus the exchange for Frankie. However, Lawrence fell through on
his promise and threw Bo and Carly in with the rest of his hostages
(Jack
Deveraux, Alice
Horton, Jennifer,
Kayla
Brady, Shane Donovan, and
Julie
Williams were all Lawrence's
"guests." Everyone tried to escape, but Lawrence engineered an
earthquake which caused a cave-in, trapping everyone in a perilous
tunnel. After quite some time, Roman
Brady and Leopold Alamain,
Lawrence's father, were able to dig the party out of the tunnels and
get them to safety. Carly, meanwhile, explained to Bo her actions.
Although a little miffed, Bo eventually forgave her. Once back in
Salem, Carly offered to help get Lawrence in prison for causing the
explosion that killed Steve Johnson, among other things.
Unfortunately, no evidence turned up that would put away Lawrence.
Meanwhile, Lawrence wouldn't divorce Jennifer without getting the Von
Leuschner inheritance. Though Carly refused to hand over her
inheritance at first, Lawrence harassed her. During this time, Bo
asked Carly to move in with him for her protection. After two weeks,
Carly and Frankie finally decided to give up their fortune in order
to free Jennifer of Lawrence.
At
this time, Carly and Bo opened themselves up to a relationship with
Bo. However, he was unsure about getting close to her. Soon after
this, Bo was arrested for his deeds as the Riverfront Raider. But at
his trial, Carly's passionate testimony on Bo's behalf swayed the
judge to impose a light sentence, forcing Bo to volunteer at
University Hospital. Despite Carly's obvious devotion to Bo, he
refused to get close to her fearing that he'd only bring her harm
like he did to Hope. Soon, Bo began pushing Carly away and started to
spend a lot of time with Emmy Borden. Carly and Bo made several
attempts at reconciliation, but none panned out for good. As time
went by, the rift between them grew bigger. During this time, Carly
became Victor Kiriakis' physical therapist, helping him to recover
from a stroke. As Victor recovered, he grew fond of Carly, and
vice-versa. Of course, this didn't sit well with Bo because bad blood
ran between him and Victor. He sought com fort with Emmy, who made no
secret of the fact that she wanted a relationship with Bo. Also
during this time, Dr. Jordan Bishop, an old colleague of Carly's from
Tahiti, came to Salem to open up the hospital's new Immunology Lab
financed by Shane and Julie. One of the Lab's first missions was to
find a cure for a mysterious virus that was killing ISA agents.
Wanting to contribute to the project, Carly asked to be part of it,
unaware that the virus had been designed by none other than Jordan
himself. Soon, however, Carly began to suspect Jordan of unscrupulous
practices, and discovered that he was connected to Victor. Working
with Isabella Toscano, Carly hoped to figure out exactly what
Jordan's connection to Victor was. Before they could do so, however,
Jordan disappeared.
Meanwhile,
Carly made headway with Victor's recovery. By the time he was able to
walk and talk without difficulty, he admitted to Carly that he'd
fallen in love with her. He soon asked her to marry him. Carly was
NOT in love with Victor and she made that clear to him. She liked him
and cared for him, but that was it. However, Victor hoped that she
would develop feelings for him in time, all the while being taken
care of by him. Carly didn't give him an immediate answer, still
longing for Bo, but ultimately accepted the proposal given Bo's
continued indifference. The night that she accepted the proposal, Bo
came over to Carly's appartment. He was visibly pained by her
decision to marry Victor, but he couldn't come forward and tell her.
She only needed to hear him tell her that he loved her to cancel the
engagement. However, Bo only congratulated her and left. A day later,
Carly received a letter he sent back. In it, Bo told her to go ahead
and marry Victor because he was the best thing for her -- it was what
would make her happy, he said. Carly was appalled that Bo would throw
away their relationship like that. Since Bo didn't care about her,
Carly accepted Victor's proposal. On her wedding day, Bo came to see
Carly before the ceremony, but Carly was too hurt by that letter to
talk to him. Feeling rejected, Bo stepped away and let Carly marry
Victor. Even after the wedding, however, Bo insisted that Carly was
making a mistake; he even kissed her during the wedding reception,
and followed Carly and Victor on their honeymoon. Still, the words
from the letter were to harsh for Carly to listen to Bo. After a
while, he gave up on getting Carly back and moved on with Emmy. The
relationship between them was not that serious or meaningful, but
Emmy made it seem that way in front of Carly, which confirmed to her
everything that Bo had said in his letter -- that their relationship
was over.
Marriage to Victor wasn't all that
bad. He pampered Carly with the best and protected her night and day.
But Carly didn't love him and he knew that. Therefore, she refused to
make love to him, and he accepted that decision hoping that it would
change in the future. Meanwhile, Bo and Shane discovered that the
infamous virus was spread by Lawrence. Lawrence was soon arrested for
the spread of the virus, but ultimately got off by framing someone
else for the crime. That still didn't change the fact that Carly had
to develop a cure for the virus. The research of the virus was halted
various times by break-ins at the lab, all of the involving Bo, which
only caused more friction between he and Carly. Unbeknownst to her,
Bo had been infected with the virus and was trying to steal Carly's
experimental serums. Meanwhile, Carly noticed that Victor received
very secretive phone calls from a man named Crockett, whose address
Victor kept in the safe. Thinking that Victor was perhaps falling ill
and trying to hide it from her, Carly sought Isabella's help in
breaking into Victor's safe. When she finally did, Carly contacted
Crockett, whose reluctance to talk to her made Carly realize that his
business with Victor was of much more importance than his health.
Crockett only decided to meet Carly when she offered to give him a
large reward. When they finally met in a warehouse, Carly gave
Crockett an expensive bracelet as payment -- a gift from Victor. As
it turned out, Crockett's business was forging documents. In the past
months, he had forged a letter for Victor. It was the letter that Bo
had supposedly sent her which urged her to marry Victor. Crockett
also had the real letter that Bo had sent her, which held a
completely different message:
"Carly,
They say you don't appreciate what
you have until you lose it. That's what almost happened to me
tonight. I have a second chance now. But if you marry Victor I'll
lose you forever, and I couldn't stand that because I love you,
Carly. I want to make you happy. I want to spend the rest of my life
with you. - Bo"
Carly
was destroyed when she read it; in it, Bo urged her NOT to marry
Victor and professed his love for her. Realizing that Bo had loved
her all along and that Victor had played her and Bo for fools, Carly
ran to the Fancy Face. Upon seeing him, Carly ran to him and, without
saying a word, they kissed. Afterwards, Carly explained to Bo the
truth about the misunderstanding, Victor's machinations, and how she
really felt about him. But what Carly thought would be a glorious
reunion with the man she loved quickly soured to a catastrophic
level. Even knowing Victor's plot to keep them apart, Bo claimed that
he didn't love her anymore and that his life was with Emmy
now.
Bo's rejection only fueled Carly's anger toward Victor because everything was his fault. When she confronted him, he claimed to have done everything out of love for her. Unmoved by his excuse for pulling her strings, Carly moved out of the mansion. Soon after this, Bo was rushed to the hospital after falling unconscious. Despite Bo's bad appearance, his blood tests showed nothing wrong and Carly released him, unaware that the virus was killing him. Meanwhile, Victor tried to win Carly back by financing her virus research, but the pain he'd caused her was too much to be forgiven. At this time, Bo became missing, and Kayla's behavior regarding Bo became highly suspicious. In no time, Carly began to suspect that something was wrong with Bo. When she discovered that Kayla was alone in the lab the night that Bo was rushed to the hospital, Carly wondered if she had tampered with his blood tests to cover something up and ordered a blood test of Kayla. Upon analyzing a sample of her blood, Carly found that it was the same as the blood that was supposedly from Bo. This increased Carly's fear that Bo had somehow become infected with the virus, explaining his inexplicable rejection of her. With Bo's life on the line, Carly travelled to Washington, D.C. to speak with the FDA about approval of her experimental serum. The effort was futile. When she returned, she found that all of her work at the lab was destroyed. Later, she found a note asking her to meet Isabella, but instead found Bo. When Bo saw Carly, he confessed that he still loved her. Then, he collapsed. Finally, Kayla and Isabella admitted to Carly that Bo was infected with the virus. They also had reason to believe that Victor had the cure and begged her to seek his help. Desperate to keep Bo from dying, Carly sought Victor's help. Although he didn't have the cure, he promised Carly that he could get it on condition: that she return to him as his wife. For Bo's sake, she agreed to Victor's bargain. The following evening, Victor met with Carly to give her the cure, which was hidden in a wine bottle. However, someone shot at it as the exchange was being made, causing the cure to spill. Carly managed to salvage enough to work with. Guessing on one final missing ingredient, Carly developed a formula that would either save or kill Bo. Luckily, Bo's condition immediately improved and he awoke. The same serum was soon given to all of the sick ISA agents, and they all improved as well. The virus threat was finally over.
Bo improved dramatically and did nothing but profess his love for Carly all throughout his recovery. However, Carly still feared that she would have to stay with Victor. When she confessed to Bo the deal she'd had to make with Victor, he told her to disregard. Bo insisted for her to begin the process to annul her marriage believing that Victor would never do anything to harm her. And Bo was right. Victor would never harm Carly. When she informed Victor about her decision, he threatened to kill Bo. Meanwhile, the FDA filed charges against Carly for administering her experimental serum without approval. Ultimately, the charges were dismissed...thanks to Victor's influence. Despite his help, Carly continued the annulment proceedings. When she finally signed the annulment papers, an anger in Victor was unleashed that no one, not even Bo, could have ever expected. Carly and Bo decided to celebrate their hopeful future together by spending a romantic evening in the penthouse suite at the Salem Inn. Carly got off work early that evening and showed up sooner than expected. But when she stepped into the penthouse's private elevator, it fell ten stories with Carly trapped inside.
Carly
was almost killed, but Bo found her in time and climbed into the
elevator shaft to save her. Following a dangerous surgical procedure,
she slowly recovered in the hospital. Because of her delicate
condition, no one told her that it was likely that Victor had rigged
the elevator to kill Bo. Soon after she was released, however, she
finally began to figure out that Bo was keeping something from her.
On the night of the opening of the hospital's Trauma Center, Carly
met Brent Maller, the thug Victor had hired to cause the elevator
accident. Brent told her that someone (Victor) had hired him to cut
the elevator cables and kill Bo, and then gave Carly a gun with which
to put an end to Victor. Furious, Carly left the hospital with the
gun and decided to confront Victor at his house. But she didn't get a
chance to do that. When she arrived, she found Victor's dead body in
the living room; someone had shot him. Carly innocently checked out
his body and then stupidly picked up the gun that the murderer had
left behind. At that moment, Bo arrived and found her in a very
incriminating position. Soon after, the police arrived. To protect
Carly, Bo quickly confessed to the crime.
Unfortunately, nobody bought Bo's confession. Carly's fingerprints were all over the murder weapon, and Victor's servants swore that they had seen Carly come into the house moments before they heard the shots. Also, Carly's story didn't check out. While she claimed that she had thrown the gun Brent had given her in the bushes before entering Victor's house, the police found nothing. As a result, she was arrested, charged with murder, and placed in jail. Once out on bail, Mickey Horton recommended that Carly and Bo remain apart until her trial was over in order to avoid any scandalous publicity. As the trial commenced, Isabella became convinced that Victor was still alive and left the country to find him. Meanwhile, Bo joined the search and boarded a plane to Mexico. Deciding that she needed to help Bo, Carly joined Bo on his flight to Mexico and, in the process, became a fugitive from the law. Bo and Carly arrived in Cancun and teamed up with Isabella, who had tracked Victor down and believed that he was after whatever Lawrence Alamain was after (he was in Cancun as well.) Also in Cancun were Roman Brady, his wife Marlena, and John Black, the man Carly had previously known as Roman. They were also there to unlock a mystery that was tied to Victor and Lawrence, and the key to the puzzle was in the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itzá.
With
the help of an American professor, the group realized that Lawrence
and Victor were probably after priceless lost Mayan codices that were
said to be hidden deep within the pyramids of Chichen Itzá.
So, if they found the codices, they would find Victor. And so, they
all headed to the ancient Mayan city to search for clues. Feeling
particularly inspired by the beauty of the ruins, Carly made a
disappearing act to go sightseeing. Bo came looking for her and
finally found her at the opposite end of a peculiar stadium court.
Because of the acoustics of the court, Bo and Carly could stand at
opposite ends, about a hundred yards away from each other, and hear
each other perfectly without having to raise their voices. There,
they declared their love for each other, and Bo asked Carly to marry
him. However, before they could make any plans, they needed to
resolve the mystery that was currently haunting them and continued to
search the ruins. While trekking through one of the pyramids, they
were shocked to find Victor alive but not exactly well; he was
shackled in a dungeon deep within the pyramid. Furthermore, Victor
told them that neither he nor Lawrence were behind this entire plot.
As soon as he told them who the real enemy was, Bo ran out of the
pyramid to warn John, Marlena, and Roman. The enemy was none other
than Stefano
DiMera. In the end, Stefano
DiMera was seemingly killed in a fire and the Mayan codices were
found and returned to the Mexican authorities. After releasing
Victor, Carly was obviously cleared of the murder charges in Salem.
Her annulment to Victor was finalized and she brought criminal
charges against him.
Meanwhile,
Bo and Carly remained in Cancun to celebrate their union in a
symbolic Mayan "Marriage of the Heart." Dressed in typical Mayan
wedding attire, Bo and Carly climbed one-hundred steps to arrive at
the top of a Mayan pyramid, where they opened their hearts to each
other. Carly recited this ancient marriage vow to
Bo:
I know not if the voice of man
can reach the sky
I know not if the gods will hear as I pray
I know not if the gifts I ask for will be granted
I know not what will come to pass in our future days
I hope that only good will come, my love, to
you.
After saying these words, she placed a jade ring on his finger and
continued:
I know now that the voice of man can
reach the sky
I know now that the gods have heard as I prayed
I know now that the gifts I asked for have all been granted
I know now that the word of old we truly have heard
I know now that our future days will have no number
I know that only good will come, my love, to us.
Following this, they exchanged the
typical marriage vows and pledged to love each other for the rest of
their lives.
More information to
follow soon!
The character of Carly Manning was
played by Crystal Chappell from 1990-1993
Thanks to J.Hindo for the majority of the information regarding Carly's early days in Salem.
Thanks to Emily Lay for correcting
various details about how Carly and Bo met