DRW50

The sad part is Jessie said a few days ago that the old Kat would be back, and I felt happy, and then I thought to myself, "Wait for it." And sure enough, we get this crap. I read some comments about how it's Sharon's fault that they killed off Kathy, and so on. I guess Sharon will be the new fan hate figure. I hope that it all goes well because I think Sharon is such a vital part of Eastenders. She may be their last chance.

She still looks great. I was annoyed that they said she was voted out first on Strictly Come Dancing. She was there until the final four. I wish Phil wasn't involved. What do you think of Kat's story? It just seems to be the same bilge again and again.

From These Roots ended on 12/21/61. Our Five Daughters ended on 9/28/62.

That's pretty disgusting. I didn't realize such bigotry even went on behind the camera. How ironic considering that gay men later helped keep some of their main soaps from being roadkill.

bound to be some kind of competition, some clash in ego." Giving up dates started when Sarah Hardy was in high school, and already a member of the Columbia Junior Theater. She missed a big school dance because there were rehearsals at the theater. Her mother warned, "You will have to make a great many sacrifices to your theatrical ambitions. Are you sure it's going to be worth it?" She still thinks it is. In her early twenties now, Sarah feels she can afford to wait a while, if necessary, for marriage, and the four children she would like - "two boys and two girls, so each will always have a pal." Sarah comes from just such a family. She has a twin brother, Archie, now completing work for his master's degree at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Archie is in youth work. "It's far removed from acting, in a way - and in a way, not. He must must meet people well. He sings, plays the guitar for the kids - the guitar was our present for one of our birthdays, but he learned to play it. He leads young people in recreational activities, entertains them, gives talks, went to Europe last summer for the World-Wise Christian Youth Conference." Edmund, the younger brother, will be going into their mother's insurance business. "But he's got some ham in him - we all have." Elizabeth Cecil, at fifteen, plays bass sax with the high-school band and has also acted in school plays. The Hardys had a home life in which something was always happening - "marvelous, exciting, chaotic, closely knit in the tradition of the South, where family is so important," as Sarah describes it. "But we all have strong personalities of our own. My mother used to say that the only unfortunate thing about us was that we had all leaders and no followers." At the Junior Theater, Sarah's first performance was in the fairytale, "The Princess and the Swineherd." She played the villain of the piece. Her best friend played the princess. Afterward, the kids swarmed backstage to tell the princess how wonderful she was, how beautiful, how much they loved her in the show. Sarah waited for her turn to be congratulated. "It was awful. They came over to me, yanked at my costume, and said they hated me. I was upset. It took me quite a while to understand that it was a tribute to the reality of the performance. But it didn't exactly help my popularity, either." After high school and the five years with the children's theater, she felt ready for New York. Her parents, conditioned to the fact that they had an actress on their hands, agreed she could go. She had seen the city briefly, when she was thirteen, and was more scared of it than she admitted. "My parents stuck me in a residence club for girls, so I would be sure of eating three times a day and have a little supervision. It took a year and a half to persuade them to let me get a small apartment of my own," she says with a rueful smile. She studied nine hours a day at the American Theater Wing - acting, dancing, play analysis, theater history. Her first professional job was with the Valley Players, at Holyoke, Massachusetts, doing the young-girl comedy role in "A Roomful of Roses." Later, she played the important ingenue part in the same play with the Port Players, in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and repeated that part in a 1957 production at Rome, Italy. Sarah's first New York acting job was in Moss Hart's "The Climate of Eden," for the Equity Library Theater. Extra parts on television followed - for Kraft, Studio One, other nighttime dramatic shows. Her first big TV chance came in a sequence of The Verdict Is Yours. A one-shot she did on The Edge of Night impressed Don Wallace, who was then directing that television serial. Later, when Wallace was casting for From These Roots, on NBC-TV, Sarah was just the actress he had in mind for the part of Lydia Benson. That was more than two years ago, and she has been Lyddy ever since. "Lyddy isn't the usual ingenue," Sarah emphasizes. "I've grown up, and grown mature, with Lyddy. That's one reason I love to play her. At first, I thought of a part in a daytime serial as something that would give me a chance to be choosey about other parts that were offered me. A kind of security. Now I like it completely for its own sake. From These Roots is one of the best, as far as quality is concerned - the production, under Paul Lammers, the writing, the acting. One of the nicest things is working with the same people, day after day, but doing different episodes." When there's time for dates, Sarah tries to avoid places and parties with an all-theater atmosphere. "I find it refreshing to talk to people in other professions and other businesses, with entirely different interests. One of my best friends teaches in a grammar school. His creative ability comes out in his teaching. We have wonderful talks together." With another girl - the producer with whom she worked in Rome - she shares a four-room duplex apartment near Central Park, on a street of old New York town houses. With one wonderful room upstairs, which is Sarah's. It has windows on three sides and the sun circles around them from dawn to darkness. Sarah has turned the room into a kind of den, where she keeps her hi-fi and her drawing board. She has a talent for line drawings, done with pen or brush and ink, mostly character studies of people. She also has the beginnings of a nice collection - some original Mary Cassatt lithographs and two drypoints. She likes to cook - but is still "too nervous about cooking, too afraid it won't turn out right, to enjoy it thoroughly." She "invents" dishes, once made a perfect orange spice cake that she can't, for the life of her, repeat - because she can't remember how she did it. She thinks nothing is more wonderful than a good, hearty stew - or a good, thick vegetable soup, served with home-made corn bread. "At home, we used to make a meal of that." And she likes to eat to music - liturgical recordings, or folk music, with a dash of other kind. On the show, she calls her mother "Mama." And it comes naturally. That's an old Southern custom - and apparently prevails elsewhere, judging from her mail. She gets letters from women and from men, who tell her they love to hear her say it. "I called my father 'Daddy' and, when I occasionally said 'Father,' he would immediately ask, 'How much?' He knew it preceded a request for funds!" One of Sarah's great disappointments is that her father died just before she began to play in From These Roots. But her mother now watches the show - from her office. If people happen in when the broadcast is beginning or is on, she hands them cups of coffee and they watch with her. "A lot of businessmen in our town know the show. They have to, if they arrive when it's broadcast time!" Last summer, one day's show was made up entirely of two dream sequences - one with Ann Flood as Liz Fraser, one with Sarah as Lydia Benson. These were done surreastically, with "limbo" sets - just frames of doorways, mere suggestions of backgrounds and furnishings - in and out of which the girls had to run with split-second timing. "By the time we are ordinarily getting ready to go into 'dress' rehearsal," Sarah recalls, "we were only half through the camera blocking - and still had the run-through to do. We were all off-schedule. An air of resignation fell over the studio. This had turned into a spectacular. How could we possibly go on the air that day? "Then the time came to go on, and the show went beautifully. I had worn flats with leather soles, held on by thongs - and, when I ran around the studio, they kept slipping. I was terribly scared that I would ruin the timing on the air. So the dream sequence almost turned into a nightmare for me - but no one else guessed that." Not all the days are as strenuous as that one, of course. But acting in a daytime serial is demanding of time and energy. There never can be time enough for rehearsals. Performances have to be spontaneous. And they can be given only once, with no chance for improvement. An actress learns to respect the demands, and to demand the same respect from others. "I had one little experience," she reminisces, "with a boy I had been going with, off and on, since my early teens. He was working at writing, and had little use for the actor's contribution to a play. We went to see John Gielgud's 'Ages Of Man' - which was absolutely magnificent in every way. As we came out, this friend said, 'Well, it just goes to prove that the actor never can be as great as the man who writes for him.' He meant it, every word, and I was angry. And, all the time, he had been asking me - an actress - to marry him!" Sarah won what she terms "a small victory" while she was playing in Rome - and this, too, concerned a boy she had dated in high school when he was a university student. He had the temerity to predict that she would never continue a career but would throw all her training away, marry, and have three children before she was twenty-five. He subsequently went into the Navy, was stationed in Italy, and Sarah never really expected to see him again. But, one day, standing in front of the theater in Rome, she noticed a sailor studying the poster announcing that "A Roomful of Roses" was playing there. He looked at her, looked back at the poster - and finally walked over. "He was a little awed," Sarah smiles, "and a lot surprised! It made me feel good." But victories, in themselves, can be hollow. What makes up for everything - at least, for the present - are the wonderful relationships on a show like From These Roots. The friendships. The working together. "You work with younger and older people, and age makes absolutely no difference. There are no caste systems. Everyone's work is respected. Each does his part in putting the whole together." In short, it's rather like the teamwork of a closely knit family. The kind of family Sarah Hardy herself comes from. The kind she likes, and hopes to have herself some day - when there's more time in her life for romance.

January 1961 TV Radio Mirror

January 1961 TV Radio Mirror

Never thought I'd get to see this. Flo's first episode! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAtjznlh58A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3quNTKdBMx0&feature=channel&list=UL

Hillary would have as much of a chance of winning as Obama. The same money spent making people hate him would make people hate her. Hillary is popular now because she is not running for President. Bill Clinton is responsible for many of the problems we have in America today, thanks to 8 years of enabling rollbacks on the checks and balances which kept our economy from falling off a cliff. He likes to hear himself talk and nothing else matters. That's why he ruined Hillary's chances. Besides hating minorities and women, the only tactic seems to be constantly reinforcing how you should hate and envy public workers and want their benefits to be cut down to nothing. It's all about making sure everyone but their rich friends gets kicked in the teeth.

I think the flop of Susan Batten's Connor sealed his fate.

Most of what I read was that Rothman would win and if he hurt himself it was by his own mistakes, not any of his opponent's strengths. As for Clinton, he has a long history of saying the wrong thing. Even his aides were baffled. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77147.html

I don't see how it's an upset if you win in the district you've represented for years.

Alexander Walters was the first time I remember a soap hiring a hunk and I found him totally unattractive. I never knew why, but I did.

Eileen Fulton stars in...The Oakcorcist.

RIP Nolan Miller

Trish studied literature and philosophy and worked as a model for French cosmetic companies. "it would be like the things you would get in a dime store," she explains, her flawless complexion continuing to make any product look good. "A couple of the hair salons there also had makeup sessions, and I went to model makeup for them. Just so they could show a prospective client how the new makeup trend was going. And it was nice. It wasn't that lucrative, but I learned a lot. It was fun." Being young and not wealthy means roughing it a little bit anywhere. In Paris, it meant living in an apartment with no hot water or telephone or refrigerator. Still, Trish loved the city enough to remain there for three years, until her job as a stewardess with Pan American Airlines brought her back to the States. After she left Paris to be a stewardess, Trish retained her kind of good will. That's how she ended up as a contestant on a quiz program in California, where she met Michael Ogiens, a young TV executive connected wit hthe show. Trish doesn't credit Michael with her decision to act, because she was discovered on her own to do a commercial for the airline. "I give Michael the credit for perhaps, my continuing," she explains. "Because he said, 'You can do it. Try it! If it doesn't work out, nothing's lost.' Whereas, I think, not having that background I might have been prone to say, 'I don't think I'm cut out for it." "I didn't really think I could handle it, because I didn't feel that I had to the training. And I think that training is important. You can have a naturalness, which is something essential to acting. But it's the other things: being able to maintain something, and to do it a different way...technical things, knowing where the camera is..." Trish finishes with a quiet smile, "You bring your own personality to whatever part you do." Michael's encouragement of Trish as an actress hasn't stopped, even though his wife admits that being on a soap and being married at the same time can be a bit demanding. "You have to take it home with you..." is how she explains working on a daytime drama. "I'm very lucky I have a husband who understands. After being married for four years, he's learned how to cook and takes an interest in it." IF Trish had a particularly grueling day at the studio, Michael suggests that he cook dinner for her. "So I'm very lucky as far as that's concerned," she says happily. "Michael is still with CBS-TV in Hollywood, where Trish now toils in her The Young and the Restless role. "He handles daytime shows out here on the West Coast," she explains, "and looks at new projects and makes sure that things are going smoothly. I would say that the only thing that really has been bad, as far as my marriage is concerned, has been the fact that Michael works for the same network that I do. So we don't talk about The Young and the Restless. What are the difficulties inherent in working at the same studio as your mate? "You exhaust certain avenues," Trish says, referring to the "pitfalls of bringing your work home with you and talking about it." It's really not like that with her own marriage, she says because "we do talk about other things, which I do enjoy." Still, being married to a man who is also a co-worker does present some small problems. "Every once in a while I feel like, 'Oh, boy, I'd like to go home and complain about something!" "And, conversely, if it's something that's going wrong with the show from the production end and he knows about it, he doesn't tell me. So when either one of us is in a frumpy mood because of the program, we can't find out what it is until after the fact." Trish is obviously not overly concerned with organizing her home life and career and has no doubt it will all work itself out beautifully. after almost five years of marriage, she and Michael get along well enough to deal with everyday problems like that. "Each individual marriage has to set up its own guidelines," she says. "And from then on, compromise. "I'm very fortunate. Michael understands that your energy level falls when you're putting on a show from seven to four, coming home to fix him dinner and study the script for the next day. He periodically refuses to accept my being really tired, and he says, 'I married Wonder Woman.' That's what I expect, but it's good because, for instance, it spurs me on, and then I do accomplish more. So I guess he knows me well enough to know that I can do it. Oh, not always. He knows my limitations, too." Starring in a daytime series, being married to a handsome television executive, traveling to all the exciting places in California - it might be more excitement than most of us dream about. But to Trish Stewart, it's settling down into a very quiet life! - EMILY DAHLBERG

Will you miss Axel? I wonder if they should have just recast Diana.

ued. "I think it's a very healthy institution, if you're willing to work at it. And I love children. I've always, shall I say, intellectually wanted children." It may have come as a surprise to TV serial viewers when Stephanie Braxton, the lovely actress who achieved great personal popularity as Laurie Reddin (the girl who married the priest) on The Secret Storm, took over the role of Tara Tyler on All My Children. However, it came as no surprise to Stephanie. She was approached to step into the part more than a year ago when Karen Gorney, the original Tara, first expressed a desire to leave the show. Karen later changed her mind and stayed on. But if she had quit when she threatened to, Stephanie could not have replaced her. She was not free to make a new daytime commitment because she was bound by a long term contract with Storm. They say that in show business, timing is everything. In Stephanie's case that proved to be true. After more than 20 years on television, The Secret Storm was cancelled this past February - just about the same time Karen Gorney left All My Children. Stephanie and the part of Tara became available simultaneously (incidentally, both for the first time in four years), and Stephanie is now adjusting to her new role and new life. The day I visited the ABC-TV studio to interview Stephanie, castmate Ruth Warrick (Phoebe Tyler) with whom the new Tara shares a dressing room, told me: "When Karen handed in her notice, the producers didn't know that Stephanie would be free to take over the part so they auditioned just about every actress in New York for it - and on the West Coast too. But they couldn't find anyone who suited them. If Stephanie hadn't become available when she did, they probably would have written Tara off the show." It would seem appropriate to say: All's well that ends well. But it's just beginning for the beautiful Miss Braxton. And she's delighted about the whole thing! "I won't say I prefer playing Tara to Laurie but I will say I'm carrying more responsibility now. There are fewer characters on All My Children than there were on Storm and the part of Tara is more central to the main theme. As Laurie, I was one of the offshoots of the regular story line." Tara is a new challenge to Stephanie, a young woman who thrives on challenges. Just recently the actress faced another when she returned to her alma mater, Smith College, to lecture the students there (majoring as she did in Theater Arts) on the practical aspects of breaking into show business. "I get a lot of mail from aspiring actresses in the TV audience, asking me how to get started in the theatrical field," Stephanie explained. "I don't really have the time to go into detail in my letters but I wish everyone could benefit from my experience. "The first thing I'd advise anyone who wants to be an actress is: Be sure it's something you are serious about because trying to break into show business is not fun and games. Some kids think acting is a very glamorous profession - and I'd be lying if I said it didn't have its glamorous moments. But basically it's a lot of hard work - and there is a great deal of heartbreak attached to it. You have to be prepared for periods of depression and loneliness - and periods of financial stress. I've eaten a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my time. "If despite all the warnings, a girl is still determined to pursue a theatrical career, I'd suggest she come to New York where most of the casting is done. If she lives in California, she could start in Los Angeles. She may have some success if she's eye-catching and talented. But the casting people on the Coast are very impressed with New York actors who have had stage training and theater credits." Stephanie, born in Boston and raised in Cuba (where her French-born father held down an important executive position until Castro assumed control of the island), came to New York to establish herself as an actress shortly after she graduated from college. "I wasn't sure I was serious about becoming an actress until then." But once she knew she was serious, she let nothing stand in the way of achieving her goal. She took a job as saleslady at the Drama Bookshop and worked there for three years while hunting theatrical jobs in her off hours. "They were very understanding at the shop and I could generally get out for important auditions. I once took a leave of absence for three months to tour with a show. Be flexible "I can't exaggerate the importance of taking a regular job - not a challenging one necessarily but a flexible one - when a newcomer is in the process of breaking into show business. Unless she's particularly lucky - and affluent - she will need something to tide her over until she can work regularly as an actress. And if she doesn't have something that keeps her busy, something that gets her out among people (preferably not other unemployed actors) and pays the rent, she can get very discouraged. The psychological aspect is so important. It's very unhealthy to sit around and brood over the roles you've lost. You have to constantly fight that feeling of rejection. "I've been talking about auditions. But when you're fresh from out-of-town, it's hard to figure out how to line up auditions. The ideal solution is to find an agent. But an agent usually has to see an actress in action before he/she agrees to handle her. Stephanie didn't have an agent for her first six years in New York. Yet she managed to appear in countless stage productions and even achieve stardom in daytime TV drama. "I didn't have an agent when I was hired for The Secret Storm," she revealed. How then did she manage to land so much theatrical work? "I attended open casting calls. I bought all the theatrical publications: The Ross Report (a monthly manual that lists the names of producers, advertising, agencies, casting heads, etc.), Back Stage, Show Business, Variety, trade papers that tell you what shows are in production and what parts are available. I started doing workshop productions, children's theater, dinner theaters, stock, anything I could get. Then I went to Bermuda to play leads in The Tender Trap and Luv. Later I went to Texas to play the title role in The Star Spangled Girl. Eventually I started to get jobs from directors for whom I'd worked before." Stephanie broke into serial drama as an extra on Love is a Many Splendored Thing. She was called back to do an "under-five" part ("That means under five lines and much less money than an over-five part"). The writer of the show saw her and told the producer to sign her. For a short time she played a blind girl. Then the producer, who was also at the helm of The Secret Storm, offered her the major role of Laurie. The rest is soap opera history. But although Stephanie admits she has been lucky, she believes she has worked constructively to get ahead. "Knowing the ropes can save so much time. That's why I feel I should pass on what I've learned. After a girl gets settled in New York and makes some show business contacts, she'll need professional pictures (8'' by 10'' glossies) and resumes. It's not always easy to find the right photographer but she can do pretty well if she asks around. It's even harder to write up a suitable resume if she's young and inexperienced. My advice is: tell the truth. Don't make up mythical jobs. "When a girl is very young, a producer doesn't expect an illustrious background. They like fresh faces. If she's in doubt about what form to use, she should look at other actresses' resumes. As you get more experienced, surprisingly enough the credit list gets shorter. You fight the temptation to list the Romeo and Juliet you starred in in high school." As well as she's doing in her chosen profession, Stephanie doesn't believe in resting on her laurels - or her talents. "When an actress finally does get a break, she should continue to train. And when she's out of work, she should always keep something going: speech, voice or dancing lessons. She may not have money for all but anything is helpful. You've got to practice enough to keep the machinery going." Stephanie is studying singing and when her busy TV schedule permits, she intends to join a jazz dance class. "Life is pretty hectic right now," she said, beaming broadly. "When I'm not on the show or at rehearsals or learning lines, I'm usually at home scrubbing the floor, doing laundry or cooking. Keeping body and soul together can occupy quite a good bit of time." Stephanie sounds very domestic for a girl who's not married at the moment and who isn't expecting to be in the near future. Divorced from her husband of four years (Al Podell) since December, Stephanie spends all her time with Dan. The attractive couple started seeing each other socially last year when they were co-starred in a workshop production of Othello. At the time, daytime television reporters were concocting a romance between Stephanie and David Gale, who was playing her husband, the priest, on Storm. But there never was more than friendship between the TV mates - friendship that exists to this day although the serial is no more. As a matter of fact, David recently directed Dan Hamilton in a workshop production of Joe Egg and Stephanie was at the theater every night to lend moral support to both director and star. Reluctant to dwell on her personal life, Stephanie switched back to the subject of budding young thespians. "I tell them not to be afraid of working any place as long as they can maintain their integrity. Some actresses don't approve of working in dinner-theaters. But they are good experience. If you have no moral aversion to a job, don't pass it by because it's not prestigious enough. Work where you can, providing you're not required to do something to which you have an aversion - like appearing in the nude! And don't go into this business lightly because it never stops being difficult. You have to prove yourself over and over again. "Most of the girls with whom I studied Theater Arts in college have dropped out of acting. Only two of us have survived. And we've had to make compromises. When I started out in non-commercial theater, I had shiny ideals. Then I got into the commercial end and I discovered the entertainment field wasn't Art with a capital A, but Business with a capital B. I used to be ashamed to take $50 a week for something I loved doing so much. That was when I was doing Ibsen and other classics. But there isn't much of that around now. If not Ibsen, take commercials!" (Stephanie has done about 15 commercials herself - since she got an agent.) "I love doing TV serial drama," she confessed, "and I get angry when people knock it. There is so much professionalism on soaps. The finest actors are doing them. You're lucky if you do one play a year in New York but a serial allows you to work at your craft all the time. It's like a repertory company. There are different scenes every day, a new mood to capture. You can give just as much on a soap as you can doing Shakespeare." Though Stephanie recognizes the negative aspects of her chosen career, her approach to it remains positive. And she's trying to imbue other actresses with that same practical yet upbeat spirit. It has paid off for her. La belle Braxton is a very successful young woman - and what's even more important, a very contented one, now that she has her career and Dan Hamilton! - MARILYN T. ROSS

February 1975 TV Radio Mirror

February 1975 TV Radio Mirror

February 1975 TV Radio Mirror

Is Axel the one who had a crush on Roman a few years ago? I don't remember the character. Did he want to leave? So I guess Roman came back to meet Annette on the other side? They seem to be cleaning house. I wonder if it's a ratings issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3n4Yb3VWMQ

Oh that's right. Thanks. I just remembered his having a fire in the lighthouse (although I think that was the mob). The later scene with Buzz and the women, when he's not yelling at them, is good. Too bad he so often yelled, and yelled.

This is so unique. I really enjoyed it. I'm glad Mitch is still alive. I wish this had been in one of the chapters but I can see where they were so action-packed this may not have fit. I'm glad we got to hear more about her last days with Carl. Was she saying he'd just disappeared, or committed suicide? I'm glad you included Tyrone, who is more of a supporting character in the story (so far). The dialogue didn't quite sound like him to me, but it was still great.