It's good to read your thoughts.

 

I've read about the Jardins but remember so little of their story or history. Actually hearing them was startling...especially Barbara Baxley. 

I believe that Paul Avilla Mayer was already a writer of Where the Heart Is when Claire Labine began writing.   They soon became partners and were the new headwriters of the show.   Ms. Labine had begun writing for television on the Captain Kangaroo program.

 

She has passed away.  Her death was announced yesterday.

Actress Alice Drummond (Loretta Jardin) has passed away at the age of 88.

Actor Joseph Mascolo has passed away.  He replaced Mark Gordon as Ed Lucas on Where the Heart Is. 

 

 

Here is audio from various daytime programs from March 7, 1973, including the opening and closing theme of WTHI just prior to its final airing. Other soaps are included, but I figured WTHI is the one we have the very least information/artifacts from, so I posted here.

All of the soaps still using organ music in this clip really highlights how huge and different Y&R was when it debuted at the end of this month. All of the CBS soaps still sounded like they had 20 years earlier, and here comes Y&R with its pop/soft rock score. I also love how rich and full that OLTL theme is at the end - might this be a slight rearrangement from the earlier years of that theme?

 

Edited April 3, 20187 yr by All My Shadows

I read in an old soap book about a blooper James Mitchell made on this show. It was at a big dinner scene where his character was supposed to toast his sister (played by Diana van der Vlis), "Happy birthday, Kate!" Instead, he goofed and said, "Merry Christmas, Kate!" The show was done live to tape, and didn't reshoot the scene.

Is this Delphi Harrington about 20 minutes in?

 

 

On 15/04/2018 at 3:31 AM, DRW50 said:

Is this Delphi Harrington about 20 minutes in?

 

 

Yes it is.

Thanks!

A brief glimpse of the opening credits around 8 minutes in. This may be the closest we ever get to any actual footage...

 

 

 DIANA VAN DER VLIS, who plays Kate Hathaway in Where The Heart Is, agrees. Among her dilemmas are learning her lines and skirt lengths. At heart she's a designer, does her own sewing. At heart she's opposed to the midi and refuses to wear it, off screen, that is. On screen she'll have to wear what the wardrobe department supplies her since her show is taped only six days before it goes on the air and the director will decide what a New England unmarried lady who hopes to get married soon should be wearing. Diana works from 8:30 to 4 p.m. four days a week and must memorize about 19 minutes of dialogue for each show. She admits to falling back on the teleprompter at times. When she goes home at night with the next day's script, she learns it by having her husband read cues to her. Her husband is Roger Donald, an editor for . Little, Brown & Co., publishers.

 

DIANA'S TRUE-LIFE story would make a series, too. She was born in Canada and went to London to study acting. She met Roger on board the Queen Elizabeth en route. She didn't see him again for four years and then, after an extended courtship was married to him 10 years ago. She made her Broadway debut in The Happiest Millionaire. Lou Nova of Iowa, a top heavyweight at the time, got her in physical shape for the production by teaching her boxing and she still hates the memory of the mouthpiece she had to wear. ' Where the Heart Is is her first venture into daytime television and she hopes her "nice" character will be altered soon to give her more of a challenge. But she has no eye out for a Hollywood film. "I agree with Walter Kerr that people should put their clothes back on and have fun with sex again," Diana says.