That was a great episode. I never knew about Irna Phillips having a friend Rose writing down all the dialogue for her as she acted out the scenes. What ever happened to Rose?

That was a great episode. I never knew about Irna Phillips having a friend Rose writing down all the dialogue for her as she acted out the scenes. What ever happened to Rose?

She gave her a dirty look one day and Irna ate her.

LoL! I really don't know.

I don't think she was probably around very long... I also think GL hammed it up a bit, saying they were friends. She was probably just someone who sat there and wrote down every word Irna told her to.

Here are some good sources for information on Irna Phillips:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irna_Phillips

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/...phillipsirn.htm

http://www.chicagotribute.org/Markers/Philips.htm

http://www.factbites.com/topics/Irna-Phillips

Here's a snippet of what Wikipedia has for Irna Phillips regarding her personality and such....

Phillips gained a reputation for being very challenging to work with, and would often make seemingly arbitrary decisions about story and cast.

Within six months of the debut of As the World Turns, Phillips fired lead actress Helen Wagner because Phillips said she did not like the way she poured coffee. Procter & Gamble and CBS both backed Wagner, and Phillips was forced to re-hire her.

In his memoir "Eight Years In Another World", writer Harding Lemay recalled an anecdote about Phillips calling the production offices at As the World Turns, after an episode had aired that she did not particularly like. The receptionist answered the phone: "As the World Turns." Phillips angrily replied, "Not today it didn't!" and hung up the receiver.

Phillips demanded her stars never go by their real names in public.

Her interference became so bad that by the mid-1960s Guiding Light executive producer Lucy Ferri Rittenberg refused to accept Phillips' collect phone calls, made from her home in Chicago to the show's New York studio.

During one production day, As the World Turns actress Eileen Fulton accidentally dropped her script on the floor; actor Don McLaughlin (Chris Hughes) hurriedly picked it up and told Fulton that "a Phillips script, like the American flag, could never touch the ground".

Phillips could be very challenging to actors; she fired actor John Beal from Another World after only one episode and actress Fran Sharon (Susan Matthews) after two weeks. [3]Phillips frequently clashed with actors, particularly with "As The World Turns" lead Rosemary Prinz. In a 1976 interview, actress Kay Campbell recalled "I'll never forget once on As the World Turns, Rosemary Prinz did a scene and when we were only off the air five minutes Irna was on the phone and tore her to pieces. I don't think Irna liked actors". [4]. This experience made such an impression with Campbell to the point that when she was offered a role on Guiding Light she declined, until she learned that Agnes Nixon would be in charge. This experience cemented her already long friendship with Nixon, and in her later years Campbell accepted the role of Kate Martin on All My Children.

In the mid-1950s CBS informed Irna that they wanted to experiment with a new color technique and would film and broadcast a live episode of The Guiding Light in color. Although many at TGL were pleased with the idea, Irna was miffed at any element which was out of her control. She made sure the entire episode took place in an operating room, ensuring that most of the colors were bright white, drowning out any of the positive effects of the new system. CBS got the hint and stayed away (by contrast, Search for Tomorrow happily complied with the process and was given a number of color episodes in the 50's and early 60's).

In 1958, she had a popular Guiding Light character, Kathy Roberts, killed off via kids accidentally pushing her wheelchair into oncoming traffic. Rumor had it she did it to make As the World Turns, which was faltering in the ratings, more successful. The ratings moved up that year and took the top spot for the first time that fall, but there has been no solid proof of a direct correlation. When grief-stricken fans barraged CBS with protest letters, Phillips responded with a form letter: "You have only to look around you, read your daily papers, to realize that we cannot, any of us, live with life alone..."

She left Love Is a Many Splendored Thing abruptly when CBS censors refused to fully tell a love story involving an Amerasian woman and a white man (born out of the love affair in the original film).

EDIT NOTE: Sorry...just saw what you posted James.

Edited January 26, 200718 yr by Actor87

Something I noticed was that as the hour ended, I found myself wanting MORE! I wanted to see Irna creating ATWT and helping it get up off the ground. I wanted to see Agnes coming in as GL's headwriter. I just wanted MORE!!

Screw a feature-length movie. I'd love a daytime telenovela based on Irna's life. It could span a year and basically tell how she created each of her shows. SOAPnet, I'm talking to you!

The wikipedia page is a GOLDMINE for hilarious/psychotic/brilliant Irna anecdotes!

Also, I found on Wikipedia that she didn't want anyone to know that she had died. She ordered her family not write an obituary. Instead, a family friend (obviously tricking the system...lol) wrote it. Agnes Dixon found out when she called to wish her Happy Holidays. (BTW, I wonder how she died.)

Very, very strange woman. But she was brilliant!!

If anyone else is interested, I at least found out the full name of Irna Phillips's secretary Rose from the wikipedia entry for Bill Bell.

It is Rose Cooperman. That is the only information I found out about her -- her name.

Instead, a family friend (obviously tricking the system...lol) wrote it. Agnes Dixon found out when she called to wish her Happy Holidays. (BTW, I wonder how she died.)

Actually, Harding Lemay (then-Headwriter of "Another World) wrote the obituary and paid for it to be published.

Something I noticed was that as the hour ended, I found myself wanting MORE! I wanted to see Irna creating ATWT and helping it get up off the ground. I wanted to see Agnes coming in as GL's headwriter. I just wanted MORE!!

Screw a feature-length movie. I'd love a daytime telenovela based on Irna's life. It could span a year and basically tell how she created each of her shows. SOAPnet, I'm talking to you!

The wikipedia page is a GOLDMINE for hilarious/psychotic/brilliant Irna anecdotes!

Yeah, I agree, Irna Phillips's life sounds fascinating. Actually, they could do this telenovela for several of the founder soap writers, and keep the story going as Irna fades into the background and Agnes Nixon and Bill Bell become more prominent as you say. It wouldn't just need to be based on Irna's life.

By the way, I feel like P&G should have been more self-congratulatory today about how important they were to soaps, and how all the soaps on air today owe them. I was surprised I never once heard the words Procter and Gamble today.

Edited January 26, 200718 yr by jfung79

Here's my favorite Irna Phillips story as described by Maureen Russel's Days of Our Lives: A Complete History of the Long-running Soap Opera

"On one of her first visits to California, Irna attended a story meeting with Ted Corday, Bill Bell, Joe Behar, and a few others. Both Bell and Behar remember the room as small, with nearly bare concrete walls. Halfway thought the meeting, a painting the only object on the walls, suddenly fell from its hook and hit Irna squarely in the head! Nurses were summoned, and Irna was quickly taken to nearby St. Joseph's Hospital as her stunned companions could only sit and wonder at the seeming impossibility of the accident. Irna was fine, but as Bell attested 'Boy, was she in a bad mood.'"

Is this on youtube yet?? Rapid Share angers me.

Josh, I checked and there's nothing on Youtube except for a quick 30-second "Last-Minute News" feature that Entertainment Tonight did like a month ago when they were filming it.

Also, I found on Wikipedia that she didn't want anyone to know that she had died. She ordered her family not write an obituary. Instead, a family friend (obviously tricking the system...lol) wrote it. Agnes Dixon found out when she called to wish her Happy Holidays. (BTW, I wonder how she died.)

Very, very strange woman. But she was brilliant!!

It's Agnes Nixon, not Dixon.

Man, Irna Phillips was one brilliant, but odd woman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irna_Phillips