What pattern is clear with Tom is that he had been incredibly successful at leap-frogging from one position to a higher position, from one powerful woman to another more powerful woman, right into the height of the radio world and Loretta's very high movie star profile life. It certainly hadn't hurt him that he was already hobnobbing in the highest Hollywood circles via his marriage to Loretta, to help him secure his commission for Armed Forces Radio.

As the glory days of the war years were fading, and his leap-frogging progression apparently stalled or exhausted, Tom was becoming more and more resentful of Loretta's prominence. He no longer had patience with fans who approached her for an autograph and would be positively incensed if he suspected that a maitre d was sitting them at a more preferred table because of Loretta's stature rather than his own. Once, at an Elsa Maxwell dinner party, after they had been seated, he insisted on their leaving immediately because Loretta had been placed at a more prestigious table.

What it really came down to was that both Loretta and Tom were individuals who thrived on being the center of attention. This need had been feeding their ambitions since childhood and with hard work and talent, it had propelled them into a rarified world where strangers knew their names, studied their pictures, and read about their lives. But, now for Tom, his name and picture were only relevant in that world because he was married to Loretta. It was really Loretta who was getting the attention, and as the years were now progressing, she was getting more and more of it as he was getting less and less.