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Mona Kane Croft

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Posts posted by Mona Kane Croft

  1. 20 minutes ago, j swift said:

    Did Alice face fertility issues?  Or did she just choose to adopt Sally because of the girl's tragic circumstances?

    I ask because of Rachel's line in their fight, when she tells Alice that she gave Steve the thing that Alice couldn't give him, a son (paraphrase).

    I also adore the twist of the knife when Alice says that Rachel tricked Steven, and Rachel replies that Jamie was conceived out of love.  That's some good stuff.  I don't think Rachel's characterization of Jamie's conception is 100% true, but I loved her delivery of the line, The way she kept her cool while Alice was in hysterics was so great.

    Alice lost a baby because of an injury, about 18-months before the scene you described.  After the injury, it was not expressed definitively, but was implied that Alice could not carry a baby to birth. So that was probably the motivation behind Rachel's cruel line of dialogue. And likely also contributed to Alice's willingness to adopt Sally.   

    And for God's sake, Jamie was not conceived out of love! Steve could barely stand the sight of Robin Strasser's Rachel.  He saw her as a working-class tramp, who he could screw once, and forget. Too bad Rachel was also Steve's sister-in-law, so she did not go away as easily as he had hoped.   LOL.   

  2. 6 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

    Where did you see it? I can't find an obit. 

    Jennifer Leak aka Jennifer Leek 

    b. 9-28-1947 in Cardiff, Wales, UK 

    AW Olive Randolph 1976-1979

    GL Blanche Bovier 1981

    RH Nurse Klupper 1975

    Y&R Gwen Sherman 1974

    A Flame in the Wind Patricia Austen 1964-1966

    OLTL Matron Spitz 1986

    Loving Dr. Hennessey 1992

    Bright Promise Elaine Bancroft (1971)  1969-1972

     

    I saw it on Facebook, it had been posted by her ex-husband, Tim Matheson.  I have no idea why it was posted on my FB feed, because I am not FB friends with Tim Matheson.   But there it was, this morning.    

  3. I just saw on another site that Jennifer Leak (AW's Olive Randolph) has passed away.  I am not sure of the date of her passing.  Olive was one of AW's great villainesses at a time when the show needed characters like her desperately.  AW had just made the transition to 90-minutes, Rachel had more or less completely reformed, and Iris would leave the show for Texas in about a year. Unfortunately, Harding Lemay wrote Olive into a corner -- making her so wicked and criminal she had to either go to jail, a mental institution, or die.  So Olive was written off.  Had Lemay made slightly different choices, Olive could have made trouble for the Cory's, Matthews, Loves, and Frames for years into the future.  Not to mention, Jennifer Leak was a wonderful actor.  

  4. 5 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

    True! It absolutely was nauseating. 

    To harken back to my post of a few days ago about early characters existing in the same universe as later characters -- The Rachel in that courtroom in 1974 absolutely did not exist in the same universe as a man in a gorilla suit interrupting a wedding in 1999.  Absolutely not. 

  5. 2 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

    I imagine that, at the time, a lot of fans were glad to see Gerald betray Rachel lol 

    I remember not being particularly happy about it.  Although Rachel was still a sneaky bitch, her scenes in the courtroom were very troubling -- as Rachel slowly realized Gerald was not telling the truth on the witness stand and had gone over to Steve's side. Betrayed by the father that she knew never really loved her in the first place.  This was really the first time the audience truly felt sorry for Rachel.  I'd say Rachel's slow reformation began with those courtroom scenes.  But it still took a couple of years to be complete (if it ever really was complete).  

  6. 1 hour ago, j swift said:

    Gerald is such an interesting contrast to Jim Matthews, just as Ada was unique from Mary.  I enjoy when the soaps use the parent's dynamic to explain the behavior of their children.  Not just a reaction to the relationship, but the effect of growing up with specific personality types as caregivers.

    Thank you for filling in the blanks, it is nice to know a dependable source. 

    Somewhere on YouTube there is a wonderful scene between Ada and Rachel from 1979.  Ada describes how Rachel felt as a little girl without a father, and how Ada couldn't protect Rachel from those feelings.  

  7. 6 hours ago, j swift said:

    On his Instagram Reels, Adam T Ghani played the iconic Rachel/Alice fight when Rachel kicked her out of the house.

    Did that occur while Steve was in jail or after his presumed death?  And how long was it between when Steve was released from prison and his death?

    Because Rachel seems so cruel.  But, in hindsight, if Steve went to jail for bribing her father to perjure himself to get custody of Jamie and then died without taking care of Jamie in his will, she had good reason to want that house.  I'm not a fan of Alice, but if Rachel waited for a time for her to be emotionally stable, Jamie would've been out of med school before she got that house. 🙄

     

    Rachel did not kick Alice out of the house.  Rachel tried, but Alice chased her out instead.  I believe this scene occurred while Steve was in prison.  And Rachel did not end up with Alice's house.  When Steve died, Alice lived in the house until she left town in 1979 -- long after Rachel had married Mac.  Also, when Steve died he did provide for Jamie in his will.  So Jamie was always well taken care of, financially at least.   And Steve did not pay Gerald Davis to purger himself in order to get custody of Jamie.  Steve paid Gerald in order to get the divorce from Rachel.  The divorce occurred in 1974 (I believe) -- back when many divorces were contested and could be denied by a judge.  So when Rachel contested the divorce, Gerald testified to help Steve win in court.  Gerald betrayed his own daughter for money.  But it was not about Jamie's custody, it was in order to get the divorce granted.   

     

  8. 1 hour ago, Contessa Donatella said:

    Found it! 

    The Wonderful World of TV Soap Operas by Robert LaGuardia. Ballantine Books: New York. ©1974 by Random House, Inc.

     

    "Another World's" Virginia Dwyer tells an incredible but true story: "I had been playing Mary Matthews for a couple of years. One afternoon I returned home from the studio and began poking around in my clothes closet. Suddenly I reeled from the shock. Every article of clothing in that closet was Mary's, not mine. Every dress and every coat was exactly her -- ultraconservative. I panicked! I scooped all the clothes up in my arms and threw them out! I had forgotten who I was. I had become Mary Matthews."

     

    OMG, LaGuardia's book is possibly the best soap opera analysis and history I have ever read. I still have my copy from 1974.   

    And regarding Another World, the timing of the books publication (1974) gives LaGuardia a unique and almost naive viewpoint on the show.  Harding Lemay was firmly in charge, three years into his time as head-writer.  But AW was still almost completely focused on the Matthews family, and was still a 30-minute soap.  Rachel was still a very very bad woman, but now with shades of gray.  Steve and Alice were still the young romantic leads (and the two most popular stars in daytime). And the firings of 1975 seem to be in the distant future.  If my memory is correct, LaGuardia's view of Lemay's writing is tinged with an uneasiness about Lemay's writing style.  As an everyday AW viewer during this time, I also felt a similar uneasiness -- despite the fact that I was absolutely hooked on Lemay's character-driven drama.  

    Some people (not the Contessa) have used LaGuardia's story about Virginia Dwyer's clothes closet as a way to slam the actress and justify Lemay's decision to kill-off the show's matriarch.  But reading the Contessa's post (which I assume is a direct quote from LaGuardia), it is easy to see that Dwyer did not see herself as particularly similar to Mary Matthews at all.  She threw away the clothes that reminded her of Mary, and she described Mary as ultra-conservative.  So we must assume Dwyer herself was not ultra-conservative. Dwyer did not live her life as Mary Matthews, nor was she obsessed with the character.  In fact she felt quite different from Mary.   It is great to read this account from LaGuardia again, after so many years.  But the quote in no way tarnishes the career or the reputation of Virginia Dwyer.  Quite the opposite.   

  9. 15 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

    This is a shot that I treasure & that I got by special means. This is in the studio, one of two Audio/Visual rooms. Here, Connie is helping someone else from the show by managing the videotaping of something unknown to us what they were rehearsing or who it is. Another thing that is special about it is that she has no idea she's being photographed, she's simply absorbed in her task. I share it with people who are special to me. 

    Thank you for sharing it here.    

  10. To anyone who was watching AW when Judith Barcroft played Lenore -- did Lenore have any storylines before her murder trial (for the murder of Wayne Addison)?  It seemed Lenore got plenty of screen-time in the early years, but I don't remember hearing of any storylines that heavily involved her, until Addison's murder.  What was she up to between 1967 and 1971?  

    21 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

    Broke the mold! 

    ConnieAVLrg - Copy.jpg

    Hey Contessa... Such a good photo of Ms Ford.  She looks so natural here.  Casually dressed, probably no make-up.  She really was a beautiful woman, although her beauty was played-down on AW, I think.   Any idea where this photo is from or what was the occasion?  

  11. 3 minutes ago, chrisml said:

    I had no idea that Ada was played by another actress for a time: Peg Murray. Was this a temporary recast or one that went for much longer?

    It was temporary.  But Peg Murray was the perfect replacement for Connie Ford.   Murray had earlier played a very similar working-class woman on Love of Live.  

  12. 1 hour ago, Efulton said:

    I recently watched a few of Sheri Anderson's episodes from 1988.  She wrote great scenes between Nicole and Liz where they bonded.  Liz was lonely but not pathetic and it was the beginning of Liz investing in Nicole's company.  

    That would be fun to see again.  But I disliked most of what was happening on AW at that time, so I've forgotten most of it. And then all the writer's strike stuff was frustrating -- since we already knew Lemay was back in charge, but had to wait months to see his credited episodes.  And then, within three-weeks, Lemay turned the entire show around, grounded it, and made it believable again.  And he changed Another World forever, again. . .  

  13. 3 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

    I understand your point about her employment status at Cory. And, glad to get clarification on other things about Irene Dailey's Aunt Liz tenure in your view. Good. 

    It seems one of my flaws as a soap opera critic is that I sometimes emphasize the things I don't like without also sharing what I do like about a particular character, writer, actor, storyline, etc.  I'll try to remember that in the future.  But sometimes I just get on my soap-box...  LOL.    

  14. 3 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

    Did Liz ever have any romantic relationship that wasn't one-sided and/or with a creep? I believe she was disappointed in Wayne Addison, Mac, and Milo the producer.

    There was one more -- I believe his name was Fred Douglas (might be wrong), and he was also involved with Liz's daughter, Susan.  So quite scandalous at the time.  But to answer your question more directly, I believe the only somewhat healthy romantic relationship Liz ever had was with Mac.  I mean, Mac was sincere at least.  But that relationship was rather short.    

  15. 1 hour ago, Contessa Donatella said:

    Well, point of view can make so much difference. I didn't find "Aunt Liz" to be sad. Obviously her subtext was one of loneliness & not necessarily having the stature in the family that she'd have liked to. But, largely, I found her to be likable, if a stereotype. And Irene Dailey had an Emmy which neither Victoria nor Beverlee did! 

    I also found Aunt Liz a likable character (actually lovable at times).  And Irene Dailey was an amazing AMAZING actress.  Dailey was perfectly cast as Liz.  But it was the writing that disappointed me at times.  Most of Lemay's writing for Liz was extremely good.  He helped the audience to understand the reasons for Liz's meddling behaviors -- loneliness, abandonment, lack of love. She had been in a loveless marriage, and both her children left town to get away from her (among other reasons).  And her favorite child, Bill, had been killed.  However, I did not like Lemay's choice to make Liz a switchboard operator -- I thought that was the stereotype.   But most of the post-Lemay writers didn't understand Liz at all, and wrote dreary semi-comedic stuff for her.  Donna Swajeski even had Liz telling the audience how loving her relationship to husband Will was (Valentine To Singles, 1989)!!!  And long-term viewers just rolled our eyes, because we all knew that was a rewrite of history.  I did love the character, and I loved Irene Dailey.   

    15 hours ago, SoapDope said:

    What happened to the house that Steve built for Alice after the 70's ?

    When Alice left Bay City in 1979, it is assumed she sold the house, because she didn't move back into it when she cam back to town in 1981.  I believe the house was mentioned only one time after 1979 -- when around 1982, David Canary's Steve Frame told someone (probably Quinn) he was trying to buy it back for Alice, but the new owners were not interested in selling.   He even held up a photo or illustration of the exterior of the house in this same scene.  

  16. 50 minutes ago, denzo30 said:

    Liz was the matriach of the family at this point so its not hard to believe that she would be living there.  The Matthews home and she was part of the legacy to continue it

    Well, except that Liz never really liked Jim and Mary.  And living in their middle-class house would have been beneath her, and probably the last place Liz would have ever wanted to live.  But other than that, yeah.   

  17. 4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

    It's too bad they didn't do more with Liz buying into Nicole's fashion business. 

    (I suppose the strike writers came up with that - unless it was Lemay).

    Yes, Liz did seem to have plenty of expendable money when she partnered with Nicole in the fashion business.  But Lemay probably wanted to get Liz firmly back into the Cory family's orbit as quickly as possible so he could write the Matthew/Liz conflict.  So Lemay may have minimized her interaction at the fashion business.  I don't remember if Liz ended her partnership with Nicole, or it just faded away.  

  18. 10 hours ago, Efulton said:

    Was it ever explained how Liz went from being a wealthy widow to Mac's secretary?  I loved Liz's scenes at the Cory complex but it never made sense from what I read about Audra Lindley's version of Liz for her to be working.

    I totally get your point.  To make it worse, Liz's first job at the Cory Complex was as the switchboard operator (not secretary). Which made Liz almost laughable as a complete stereotype -- the nosey meddling old lady working at the switchboard. During this period, Pat Randolph was Mac's secretary. A couple of years later when Pat was promoted to editor, Liz took Pat's old job as Mac's secretary. And weirdly enough, all of this was written by Harding Lemay, who typically prided himself on writing "true to character".  It seemed Lemay wanted to have it both ways with Liz, and wrote whatever he wanted for her. For the most part, Lemay preserved Liz's wealth by having her and Iris become very close friends; by reconnecting Liz with her old wealthy friend, Helen Moore; and by having Liz date Mac briefly.   But on the other hand, there was almost no explanation as to why Liz would accept a job as a switchboard operator.  There were a few vague references to her being bored with life, and that a job might help prevent her from meddling in the lives of her nieces and nephew.   And as the years went by, and later head writers diluted Liz's backstory more and more, Liz became rather middle-class, and was used mostly as comic relief.  Audra Lindley played Liz as the Phoebe Tyler of Bay City (minus the drinking problem), but Lemay wrote Liz differently.  And post-Lemay head writers continued that trend, sadly.  

  19. 1 hour ago, Xanthe said:

    I haven't found anything specific that answers your question but is the Matthews house that Liz and Sally and Julia and Alice were in in 1984 supposed to be Jim and Mary's house, or is it Liz's house and if so was it the same house from 1964 to 1984 or had she moved?

    Yes, the house Liz, Alice, etc. lived in in 1984 was Jim and Mary's house.  It was never really explained why Liz moved in there.  But at some point after Jim died and Alice (Linda Borgeson version) had left town, Liz was suddenly living there with Sally.  

    Starting with the AW premiere in 1964, Liz lived in a large fancy house, much nicer than Jim and Mary's.  Although no long-time viewers seem to remember much about Liz's original set, there are several existing photos showing small parts of the interior of that house.  Seen in the photos are a large staircase, a large fireplace, and a grand piano. Liz left town around 1971, and Liz's house was never seen again.  When Liz returned around 1974, played by Irene Daily, Liz lived in two or three different apartments over the years.  Then around 1983, she was suddenly living in Jim and Mary's house, where she lived until Liz was written off again in 1986. Jim and Mary's house was never seen again after that.  When Liz returned at Thanksgiving 1988, I don't remember where she lived, or if they even spoke of her home.  But she definitely didn't move back into Jim and Mary's old house.   

    1 hour ago, AbcNbc247 said:

    According to AWHP, it lasted until May 1986, which was the end of the Matthews family until Liz was brought back the following year. 

    Yes, they still used much of the set until 1986.  But I don't think they used the entire set by that point.  Mostly just the front door, foyer, stairs, and the part of the living room toward the front windows. The original set was about a third larger, with a hallway to the kitchen and a fireplace to the far left, opposite the front windows.

  20. 7 minutes ago, j swift said:

    MZ would have been a good Eliot, because he would have been a formidable player in Iris's triangle.  Daniel Davis was not a large enough presence, even as opposed to Bert Kramer.

    Daniel Davis is a good actor, but was horribly miscast as Eliot. His interpretation of Eliot was completely different from that of the former actor, James Douglas.  Zaslow, although not a great choice for Eliot, would certainly have been better than Davis and could have played the role more similarly to Douglas.   

  21. 1 hour ago, Xanthe said:

    Thank you. I wish there were more -- I would love to see all the parts of Donna encouraging Cecile to comfort Peter and the reveal of Kevin Thatcher. 

    Carl was chilling.  

    I do wish though that the David Thatcher murder had been more personal or more organized crime related. Emily's motive of general opposition to the baby ring was confusing and possibly misplaced. I wonder how early the story was decided. I see Alexandra Neil as Emily Benson didn't appear until June 5, weeks after David's murder.

    If I'm not mistaken, David Thatcher had a huge fight with someone in the Matthews living room (I think the fight was with Sally).  Anyway -- I believe these scenes were the final scenes that showed the entire Matthews living room set.  The scenes included the front door, foyer, and staircase, also the entire living room from the side window to the front windows, and back around to the hallway toward the kitchen (kitchen not shown) and the entire fireplace.   Does anyone remember seeing the entire set, including the fireplace later than the episode I am describing?   Even when Jacquie Courtney returned in 1984-85 and stayed for about a year, I don't think the camera ever went far enough left to show the fireplace.   I may be wrong, but can anyone verify it?   Thanks . . .

  22. 14 hours ago, denzo30 said:

    What former character returned?  Both Pat and Alice and Liz where in BC when Jim died.  I think i saw a picture honoring Jim and Linda Borgoson was playing Alice at this time? I think 

    There were no returning characters.  Yes, Linda Borgeson was playing Alice at the time.  I'm fairly certain Pat had already left town by the time Jim died, but I could be wrong.   

  23. 2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

    Was it perhaps a financial thing?

    I know a lot of these location stories had financial backing from the local tourism authorities -at least the overseas ones did. In return for the exposure gained through national television.

    Was there any disclaimer in the credits along the lines of 'assistance provided by Arizona Tourist Board' or some such?

    You are probably correct about this.  And the production likely was assisted by the Arizona Tourism Board, although I don't personally remember.  

  24. 3 hours ago, Xanthe said:

    If I recall correctly in 1985 they allegedly planned to go on location to Egypt and then changed their minds because of political unrest or something, so after establishing a lot of Egyptian details in the story they went on location to Arizona with weird Egyptian baggage. 

     

    I never understood why they just didn't say they were in Egypt while they were shooting in Arizona.  They spent nearly the entire time in the Arizona desert, didn't they?  So they could have done all the location desert shots in Arizona and just played it like it was Egypt, then the specific interior Egypt stuff could have been shot in the studio.  That would have made MUCH more sense to the audience.  And Hollywood used to do that kind of location substituting all the time.  Why not daytime?  Changing the location in the scripts was obviously last minute and made the entire plot even more laughable than it was to begin with.    

    On 3/10/2024 at 6:56 PM, robbwolff said:

    If I recall correctly, Jim was said to be in Helsinki, Finland at the time of his death. I also recollect that AW had planned to do a location shoot in Finland in 1982, but it was scrapped for some reason.

    It's interesting they sent Jim to the same place they were planning to do location shooting.  Makes me wonder if Jim's character was to be connected to the location shooting in some way.  Either alive, or perhaps his death was to have had some small part in the larger storyline.  If I'm not mistaken, I believe Hugh Marlowe was already deceased when the character left for Finland. I could be wrong about that.    

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