DRW50

Do you think they should have recast Andi's brother or stayed with the first actor?

I was going to ask if you remember Leslie Bauer? I've only seen her in some clips from the mid-60s, and I like her, she has a lot of energy and strength which offsets the typical ingenue role. The Dobsons seemed to kill her off and Mike never really looked back. I wonder if she'd lost a lot of her appeal as a character. I know the actress said she wasn't happy with the writing for the character and was considering leaving, but was still surprised and sad when she was let go.

I didn't know Kyle was such a heavy part - offcamera - in the Alan/Reva story. I wonder if they should have brought him back, with a recast, when Chris Bernau had to leave. She never really said specific reasons but I always thought she was annoyed at Alex being reduced to obsessing over Nick and being a shrew. Is that Sally scene online? She gets on my nerves in every clip I see of her but that's an awful way to die.

her professional career as a dancer and, when Holiday Hotel left the air, she got a chance to dance with a group of American girls in Cannes, on the French Riviera. Johnny's work took him out to the Pacific Coast. They both got back to New York at about the same time. From out of nowhere, he suddenly phoned. "I have to catch Bea Lillie's show tonight. Would you like to go with me" he asked. She was surprised into saying, "But why are you asking me?" And he was surprised into answering, "Frankly, because I just got back from California and couldn't think of anyone else who might like to go." His honesty made her say yes. They began to go out together, became good friends, with no thought of anything more serious developing. At least, not on her part. He was sent to England to cover the Coronation of Elizabeth, for NBC. When he got back, he proposed to her. But why me? she thought. He never seemed to be that interested. Because I had to go that many miles away to realize I was in love with you," he answered the question almost before she could ask it. Even then, she didn't say yest to him for a while. Marriage was important, and she had to be sure. The wedding was on February 10, 1955. Jay was born on August 12, 1957. Blond like his mother, with mischievous eyes and with dimples like his daddy's. "The day Jay was born," says Audrey, "happened to be the same day that John quit a good agency job to go into business for himself. That took real courage. But I was with him completely. Our work jibes well. He works with actors and show-business people, is sympathetic to the demands an actress has to meet. I understand many of the problems connected with his business." Her own family background was as one of five children brought up in the quiet town of Maplewood, New Jersey. Her father is a dentist. ";I am the only black sheep who went into show business. My older sister is married and lives in Lima, Peru. I'm the next oldest. My brother is married. And I have younger twin sisters." Along with her older sister, Audrey was sent to dancing school at four, as so many little girls are sent to learn the social graces, with no thought of anything more far-reaching in mind. Sister didn't like dancing class. Audrey took to it right away. But when they put her in ballet class, and her unaccustomed little feet rebelled at toe practice, she clung to the bar, crying her heart out. "Get down if it's hurting you," her mother urged. "You don't have to get on your toes - you don't have to dance at all," she pointed out. "It does hurt, but I love it," the child kept insisting, the tears still flowing, persisting until she grew used to it. During high school, when the other kids wore congregating at the local soda fountain, Audrey was over at the dancing school, working with any class that happened to be in session, helping to teach in some of them. Dancing was more fun than anything else, she had decided. So much so that, when her classmates began to talk about clothes and what they would major in, she suddenly realized she didn't ant to go. Her parents were taken aback. All sensible girls went to college, got married, had children, and lived in the small towns where they had grown up. Their daughter wanted to go to New York and become a professional dancer. "My father is really a sweet person," Audrey says. "He told me I could have a year of study, provided I would live at home and commute. None of this living by myself in a hotel in the big city, or even sharing an apartment with other girls. He wanted me home when I wasn't working. There was one other stipulation: If, after a year, I had no job, I was to make plans for college, like the rest of the girls my age." At the time, all she wanted was classical ballet. She dreamed of becoming a ballerina - until she reminded herself that a ballet troupe spends most of the time on tour. Her parents would never agree to that. By late summer, the year was almost up, so she started to think about a job. The gates just opened for her, as they have seemed to ever since. She was lucky at her first audition, a musical stage revue. "A flop show on Broadway, but I Thought it was the most beautiful, the most wonderful, the most fascinating production I had ever seen. Every time I walked through the stage door, I would think And they pay me for this! Before the show was brought into New York, there was the usual road tour. Her parents came to the train to see her off. "I was supposed to be a pro, trying so hard to act grown up - and my father was asking the stage manager to look after me! I was teased plenty, after that. But everyone was really nice and said they did look out for me." There always seemed to be a job when she wanted it. When her friends came home from Christmas holidays, she might be glad to have time off - but, when they went back, she could always return to work. When her family went to the shore for summer for summer vacations, she could go along - but there was always a job for her in the fall. "I got spoiled by it, didn't realize how hard it could be for me if I weren't so lucky." She has danced in six Broadway shows, including "High Button Shoes" and "Barefoot Boy With Cheek." She had offers for screen tests and turned them down because she thought of herself as a dancer, not an actress. Until one day she tore some cartilage in her knee, and it suddenly dawned on her that she wasn't equipped to do anything but dance. Doctors had said she needed an operation and might have a permanent limp. She worked with the knee and overcame any tendency to limp, but firmly resolved to study acting and combine it with dancing. She began to take instruction from drama coach Alice B. Young, decided this, too, was fun. After that, she studied with Sanford Meisner for four years and alternated between dance and drama. She was one of the Toastettes while Ed Sullivan was still featuring them to open and close his show. Just before the group broke up, she left to be standby for Gena Rowlands, who played the part of the young girl in the Broadway play, "The Middle of the Night." Gena never missed a performance - until two weeks after Audrey had left the show, because she was pregnant with Jay. To date, her most frightening experience was on filmed television, in her first TV part of any importance. She was supposed to be a nurse in a hospital, busy, capable, sure of herself. "At rehearsal, I worked with a doll wrapped in a blanket to look like a real infant. Nobody told me that, on camera, a live baby would be substituted. We got read to film - and in walks a real nurse, terribly efficient and sure of herself, and hands me a two-weeks-old baby. I wasn't used to young babies then, had never held one so tiny. I was afraid to breathe. The laws to protect babies and small children in show business are necessarily strict, so a stop watch would click every few seconds and the bright, hot lights would go out. I stood there, afraid to take a step for fear of tripping over a cable or some other object in the dimness. Audrey now admits, "I felt a little the same way when I first held my own small son." When Jay was born, Audrey dropped out of everything for a while, except to fill some previous commitments to do filmed commercials. She had already played parts on many nighttime dramas and, after a while, she began to do some again. Her credits include The Verdict Is Yours, The U.S. Steel Hour, Studio One, The Jackie Gleason Show, Schlitz Playhouse. One morning, she was down on the front walk with Jay, planning to take him to the park later. "I kept saying to myself that I was in a slump and I missed working at least part of the time. When I went upstairs, I called my agent to inquire if there was any job activity. He said there was nothing much, but later he called and told me about a change in the cast of Love of Life. I phoned personally, said I was Audrey Peters and I would like to meet them. The woman on the phone must have confused me at first with an agent by the same name, whose mail and messages often get mixed with mine. She thought I wanted to send girls over to read. But they evidently looked me up and found I was an actress blonde like Vanessa, and invited me to come over that afternoon. "I read that day, I went back, the next day, to read again. The director of the show, Larry Auerbach, was on vacation. When he returned, I met him and he asked me to be at a camera audition. I expected to find at least five or six other girls. Instead, there was just one other actress. To be so close! I thought. But I didn't dare hope too much. By this time, I wanted it very much." They thanked her for coming, they thanked the other girl. The audition was over. She went home, wondering. At five-thirty the next morning, she woke up, still wondering. Why am I so nervous? she thought. I didn't get the part, so forget it. It happens every day in this business. Johnny left for the office after breakfast. The telephone rang at nine-thirty. She ran to answer. It was her mother-in-law, usually a welcome call - but, this morning, Audrey cut the conversation short to keep the line open. Finally, she got under the shower - and the phone rang again. She raced out, dripping, to answer it. "You have the part," a voice rang in her ear. "You're Vanessa. Could you come over later and discuss a few things?" "Do you mind if I bring my baby?" she had to ask. "I planned to take care of him myself today." So Jay went along, captivating everyone with a quick smile, thrilled to be taken "visiting" - but not as thrilled as his mother was! The little boy provided unexpected excitement on the morning of Audrey's first broadcast of Love of Life. She had to leave the apartment early, for rehearsal. She had laid out the clothes she would wear, putting them in the living room so Johnny's early-morning rest wouldn't be disturbed by drawers being opened and shut, and the closet door wouldn't squeak even a tiny bit. She wasn't going to let her professional life interfere one iota with her home life and the comfort of her menfolk. Suddenly there was a loud scream from the baby's room. For the first time in his little life, he had fallen out of bed. "My poor husband was wakened suddenly. We looked over and found he was unhurt. But I left him still pacifying a frightened little boy. I was too worried about Jay to be nervous about the show. When I got off the air, the director said, 'Now you can run home to your baby.' I didn't relax a minute until we had guards put on Jay's crib" Since then, the two roles Audrey plays - actress and home-keeping mother - have run into no conflicts. Jay is happy with the woman who cares for him during the day. The studio is less than ten minutes by cab from the comfortable apartment where they live. "Johnny wants me to do the thing I love to do" says Audrey. "Being in a daytime show is wonderful. Especially this one, which seems to me to be so truthful, so interesting. With a fine professional cast and crew, and excellent production and direction. "The way I feel about it now, I would like to be Vanessa until she's a grandmother!"

September 1959 TV Radio Mirror

May 1974 TV Radio Mirror. Posting this mostly because it's such a striking photo of Liz Hubbard.

That's fascinating.

They look like they're in Hell. Which sums up The View.

The blonde was Debbie Simon, who got on my nerves, although that might have been because of the whole "take off her glasses and she's hot!" cliche. Janice was Holden's girlfriend, who became nuts when she realized he still wanted Lily, and she poisoned Lily, tried to muscle Kim out of Patterns, etc. I always loved her last scenes, where she sucker punched Andy, maced Kim, etc. Kim had to end up tackling her to the ground.

See what happens when we mention Edwina? She shows up in a new clip! In a pantsuit that looks like what Fran's mother on the Nanny might wear for a classy evening out. Look at all those extras at the Yacht Club. Holden talking about custody of Aaron enrages me even almost 20 years later. Who was Janice calling? I don't remember. The hasty writeout of Scott is mentioned here. ATWT had such a tough year in 1993, behind the scenes. I can't imagine.

Some of an ATWT episode from, I guess, June or July 1993? This brings right back just what a chore it was for me at the time to sit through episodes with sour-faced Rosanna and the tedious Lily/Holden sniffing. And Judson Mills is hilariously awful in these scenes, especially the big closeup of his "duh" face when he has a flashback. But this also has Janice, and I just adored Janice. Also some nice moments with Lucinda/Kirk, and with Bob and Kim too.

Leslie Denniston was very attractive but I never really understood why men like Fletcher or Kyle, who seemed to prefer livelier women, would want her. Maeve seemed very wan. So Kyle just left town alone? It never made sense to me that he didn't return when Ben was back, especially since the show never killed Kyle off, and Malloy was on ATWT around that time, hamming it up as a mad scientist. I wonder if there was more of a believability with Simon and Dolan than Parker and Simon. I liked Maureen and Ed together but mostly I just loved Maureen. I wonder if that hurt the character in the eyes of the JFPs of the world, or random focus groups - if people who casually watched just said, "Why does he have that dumpy wife." I wish JFP had tried more to move Maureen in her own right as a character instead of just discarding her.

Yeah - it's so OTT, although it does work here. I believe this was the Reva/Kyla "theme", and also may have played when Reva tried to kill herself, which wasn't really suitable. I've probably already asked you this before, but did you think that Maureen lost a lot of personality when Ellen Dolan left? I read a Digest from early 1987 that criticized GL for having Maureen decide being a hospital administrator was too much for her/bad for her marriage, and that she instead wanted to be a full time homemaker.

This is one of the most beautiful location shoots I can remember. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te-9cnXCDak&feature=related

I don't think that second scene was a suicide attempt. She was disoriented and wandering around without thinking. I'd like to see what Long's vision of the Cain story would have been, although honestly I think it was just such huge burnout for the Reva character, too much in too few years.

Some good quality ATWT up from late July 1985. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=902yKkWBgyA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL Who was that guy looking at Lily? Was that the stable guy who harassed her? Shannon looks a lot better here than she did with some later hair and makeup styles. This is more of the aftermath of Dusty's accident than I've seen on Youtube before. Kevin is such an odd character...I think Weber was miscast in the role.

August 1975 Afternoon TV.

They did something strange with her neck and head in that photo. I love the sweater though.

That's nice. Those old Afternoon TVs are probably the best soap magazines. Do you know anything about the dying ballerina story I posted a few pages ago?

It seems like they laid the groundwork for his return in 1976 when she wanted to bring him back from California but he wasn't interested. I guess they never did it.

I'd like to know that too. She seemed to go around the big upheaval years (72-73). They did recast, once or twice, so perhaps it was her choice.

From a March 1970 Afternoon TV

Someone else will know better than I do but I think Stephanie Braxton was popular as Tara - they only brought Karen Gorney back when Stephanie chose to leave the show. I'm not sure about Mary Lynn Blanks or Nancy Frangione. I think by the late 70s Tara was becoming very played out.