Tom Cudahy started out in Pine Valley as a former football star an restaurateur. In over 25 years, Tom married and divorced, romanced and mourned, loved and lost, and battled alcoholism through it all. Today, Tom is a strong man, but even the strongest of men can't allow themselves to forget the past, or they too will be doomed to repeat it. In 1977, Brooke English took a fancy to former football hero Tom Cudahy. But so did Erica Kane. Erica wheedled her way into the hostess job at The Goalpost, the new restaurant that Tom had just opened. Still, Erica had a "thing" for Nick Davis. She decided that she wanted to marry Nick and she lured him back to her bed. When her mother Mona walked in on them, she almost had a heart attack! Realizing Erica's deceptions, Nick left Erica - once and for all. Erica set her sights on Tom.
Brooke's rivalry with Pine Valley's preeminent troublemaker, Erica Kane, caught fire in 1978. Erica and Brooke battled for Tom's affections, and in the end, Erica won out. By 1978, even though she'd won Tom, she still wanted Nick! Erica was already going after a third husband in Nick, and while working for Tom Cudahy at The Goalpost, Erica plotted to make Nick realize how much he loved her. In New York City, Erica contracted viral pneumonia and was given a 50-50 chance of survival. As Erica was ailing, Brooke stole her job at Tom's eatery, The Goalpost, and tried to steal Tom from her, too. Mona told Nick that only he could give Erica the will to live. He had to ask her to marry him. Against his better judgement, Nick proposed.
Upon her recovery, Nick reconsidered his proposal to Erica. When he walked out on her that last time, she vowed revenge! But she wanted love...and a man she could count on. Tom Cudahy was that man. She quickly decided to do or say whatever she had to, to make him fall for her. First, she reclaimed her job as hostess at his restaurant, ousting Brooke English with relish.
Mona Kane sat silently as Erica married Tom. After a joyous reception at the Pine Valley Country Club, the bride and groom flew off to a St. Croix honeymoon. And Mona looked at Charles Tyler for love and support. She hoped that her daughter would be happy, but in her heart, she knew that Erica still loved Nick. But Nick Davis was gone. He sold The Chateau and moved to Chicago.
In 1979, Erica and Tom were trying very hard to conceive a baby. Or so Erica let Tom believe. She didn't tell him she was taking birth control pills.
Erica was driving her husband Tom crazy with her endless quest for fame. Erica popped birth control pills and, without telling Tom, opened a disco which she proudly named "Erica's." Tom was flabbergasted that she could actually open a disco behind his back! Tom hired Brooke to take Erica's place at the Goalpost. Upon learning that she was carrying the late Eddie Dorrance's baby, Brooke made a tough decision. She chose to have an abortion secretly.
Erica's biggest secret blew up in her face when Tom came across her birth control pills and, waving them in her face, blasted her once and for all! Tom wanted what Joe and Ruth Martin had -- a healthy baby boy.
In 1980, Erica was forced to close her disco when the city rezoned the area, forbidding Erica to play music after midnight. Alone and despairing, the inimitable Erica didn't languish in defeat for long. She quickly regained her spirit and left town to make it as a movie star in Hollywood!
With Erica gone, Tom's friendship with Brooke deepened into love. However, their budding relationship ran into a roadblock when Erica (her movie career a bust) returned to Pine Valley. Miss Kane immediately used a variety of ploys to successfully worm her way back into Tom's life -- and his bed!
Erica promised Tom she would turn over a new leaf, but the allure of fame beckoned again in the person of cosmetics magnate Brandon Kingsley. Brandon offered Erica a top modeling job with Sensuelle Cosmetics, and fearing Tom would not approve of her budding new career, Erica lied about her frequent trips to New York. When he discovered her deception, Tom divorced Erica. Soon after, Tom and Brooke planned to marry.
Tom Cudahy's wayward brother, Sean, arrived in Pine Valley and seduced the married Devon McFadden. For Sean, the thrill was short-lived. When Devon became the pursuer, Sean lost interest in her and set out to seduce sexy nurse Sybil Thorne.
When Tom Cudahy's annulment from Erica went through in 1981, he was finally free to marry Brooke. Erica enjoyed her exciting new life in New York.
A pregnant Brooke left Tom in 1984, after he and Erica had gotten drunk and slept together the night before Erica married wealthy Adam Chandler. Tom tried to get Brooke proven as an unfit mother before she even had the baby. Meanwhile, Brooke and Mark Dalton grew closer and Mark was with her the night her daughter Laura was born.
In 1987, Brooke hired Adam Chandler's daughter Skye as a gofer at Tempo Magazine. Skye soon became involved with Mitch Beck. Skye picked Mitch up when he was hitchhiking and they wound up making love. Skye's friend Tom Cudahy cautioned Skye not to get involved with Mitch because she hardly knew him. Tom comforted Skye after Mitch broke up with her.
Stuart played matchmaker one day and told Tom that Skye didn't have a date for a Tempo party. Tom happily agreed to go with Skye. Skye and Tom began to grow closer. When Tom confided in Skye that he wanted a stable family again, she thought that he wanted Brooke back and was devastated. Skye was thrilled when Tom declared that he was only interested in her. A drunk Skye got into a car accident after she learned that Tom and Brooke were at Willow Lake together. Tom told an unconscious Skye how much he loved her and once Skye recovered, Tom proposed.
When Skye voiced her desire for a big family, Dr. Angie Hubbard told her that because of the accident, she could die if she tried to have a baby. Skye lied to Tom and told him that she was not sure if she was ready to have children yet. After Angie urged her to tell Tom the truth, Skye told Tom about her medical problem. He was furious she hadn't told him the truth immediately, but Tom accepted Skye's apology and the two got married the next day.
Skye became upset every time she saw a woman with a baby. After Skye had a check-up, Angie told her she might never be able to have children. Skye covered her despair and told Tom that the check-up went well. Tom told Skye that he didn't want to have children until he was sure they had a stable relationship. Skye gave Tom a stack of bibles for Christmas and swore on them that she would never lie to him again.
Skye "innocently" revealed to Donna Tyler that Cindy Chandler, Stuart's wife, had AIDS in 1988. When Cindy was harassed and nearly killed in a fire set by a vigilante group, Skye raced into the building and rescued Cindy. While in the building, Skye inhaled the noxious smoke and fell into a long coma. It was later revealed that Skye had planned the fire, but had second thoughts at the last minute.
With Skye in a coma, Tom turned to Barbara Montgomery for comfort and before long, romance blossomed between them and they married. Skye emerged from the coma on Stuart and Cindy's wedding day and when she saw Tom and Barbara together, she pretended to lapse back into her coma. Skye "awoke" again in a few weeks and attempted to keep Tom by faking paralysis.
Tom ended his affair with Barbara and promised to stay with Skye as long as she needed him. Tom made love to Skye, but continued to think of Barbara. While Skye was spying on Tom and Barbara, Sean Cudahy, Tom's brother, found her and realized that she could walk. Sean promised to keep Skye's secret and suggested that Skye try killing Barbara to get her out of the picture.
Skye eventually kidnapped Barbara at gunpoint, but soon gave up and was carted off to jail. She was later taken away to Oak Haven Sanitarium when she slipped into a catatonic state. With that crisis behind him, Tom anticipated a happy life with Barbara. In 1989, while Barbara was babysitting for Tom and Brooke's daughter, Laura, the little girl crossed the street, and was run down and killed instantly. The driver of the car was drunken Police Officer Josh Waleski. Barbara grappled with guilt over the incident, while Brooke and Tom struggled to go on living without their beautiful little girl.
Having served his time in prison for killing Sybil Thorne, Tom's wayward brother Sean returned to Pine Valley determined to start his life over. He set his romantic sights on Cecily Davidson, whose bottomless trust fund made Sean salivate. Against the wishes of her meddling mother, Bitsy, Cecily agreed to marry Sean. Unbeknownst to anyone, Bitsy wanted Sean all to herself!
Having lost much of his memory, Travis alienated himself from Erica and took up with his former wife Barbara. Discovering he had a life-threatening brain tumor, Travis left town to have an operation, lying to his loved ones that he was having a mid-life crisis. What Travis didn't know at the time was that Barbara was pregnant with his child. Tom, feeling sorry for Barbara, offered to marry her. Midway through their wedding ceremony, she went into labor and gave birth to an angelic little girl, Molly.
In 1990, Tom and Barbara's happy homelife was torn apart by the discovery that their daughter Molly suffered from leukemia. To stay alive, she required a bone marrow transplant. Desperately needing to find a match, Barbara was forced to tell a stunned, but compassionate Travis that Molly was his daughter. Barbara and Travis concocted a wild plan to conceive a second child of their own in order to provide a bone marrow donor for Molly. In a hotel room, Barbara and Travis secretly made love. When Tom found out, he asked his wife for a divorce. Erica, too, announced to Travis that their marriage was over.
Tom moved on and threw himself into running his new health club. In 1992, Terrence Frye, the teenage son of attorney Livia Frye, wasn't looking for trouble when he applied for an after-school job at Tom Cudahy's health club. Trouble came looking for him -- because Terrence's skin was black. One day, two white kids, Rod and Jay taunted Terrence, peppering him with racial slurs. Terrence turned the other cheek, an action which angered the ruffians. They were looking for a fight. But Terrence wasn't about to give them one. After hours, Rod and Jay came back and savagely beat Terrence into a coma. A trial ensued, and the two white youths were brought to justice. Terrence made a full recovery, though Pine Valley would never again be the same innocent town after racism had reared its ugly head.
Out of the ugliness of Terrence's ordeal, rose a beautiful love between Tom Cudahy and Livia Frye, and the two married. Terrence went off to college, and Tom and Livia missed him dearly. When troubled youth Jamal Wilson came into their lives in 1993, Tom and Livia became Jamal's foster parents, and their love got Jamal on the right track. Jamal befriended Trevor and Natalie Dillon's son, Tim, and the boys experimented with marijuana, but once the Cudahys and the Dillons found out, Jamal and Tim realized that no good would ever come from drugs.
Embarking upon his new career as a lawyer in 1994, Trevor Dillon represented Tom and Livia's foster son, Jamal, in a most unusual custody case. Young Jamal Wilson desired to "divorce" his natural father, Alec McIntyre. Jamal announced in no uncertain terms, he did not want to live with Alec, and he went to court, in effect, to divorce his dad. The Cudahys gave him all the love he needed. They were his parents. Just as the Judge was about to decide the case, Alec stood up and relinquished his parental rights. In 1995, Tom and Livia moved with Jamal to Washington D.C., where Livia was moving on to becoming a Supreme Court Justice.
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