Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[TimWil]

Hi, everybody. Since joining SON a few months ago it's been fantastic going through posts dating back to 2008. I started with the EastEnders thread, then sifted through ATWT's and then this one. GL might actually be my favorite overall US soap. I started watching it when my friend, the lovely Geraldine Court, was brought on by her friend Doug Marland to play Jennifer Richards. I've had a few brushes with it (well, more specifically, with some of its actors) over the years. Here are a few bits I can remember off the top of my head-

In June/July 1972 the very first play I did as a child actor was Life With Father at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. In the cast, playing Maggie the maid, was a very young actress named Maureen Garrett. She was recruited from Temple University in that area and since she was in only one scene and we'd rehearsed for 3 weeks in NYC already she was something of an outsider but fit in with the company immediately. She was very sweet and shy and I remember liking her a lot. I've got a very hazy memory of sobbing uncontrollably backstage over something I might have said which had been misinterpreted and she was involved somehow! I do have a vivid memory of looking up at her in a scene at a breakfast table and thinking she was really cute. I might have had a teensy crush on her. I never saw her again after that and wasn't aware she'd been on GL until my friend Geri joined the cast. I think she left the show very shortly before Geri arrived, actually.

Geri didn't like talking too much about the show. We had done a play together in 1977 and when we'd meet up (we went to plays and to the movies a lot) she mostly wanted to talk about world issues and writing. She wrote a wonderful play called Every Precious Thing which unfortunately didn't move beyond the staged reading phase. Anyway, I remember her mentioning only a few things about her time on GL. She told me that Don Stewart wasn't a very pleasant person to be around and he resisted a Mike/Jennifer pairing due to his desire for Mike to get together with someone younger. It was pointed out to him that Mike would seem hypcocritical to do that because he had so steadfastly protested the age difference between Hope and Alan. He never got his way, did he? She was fond of a lot of the other people on it like Jerry ver Dorn, Kathleen Cullen and Maeve Kinkaid. She was worried about Kristen Vigard, who played Morgan. She'd say from time to time how "troubled" she was and that it didn't surprise her when she was fired. This happened just when Morgan and Kelly got married. Geri said that the cast got a fit of the giggles during the taping of the wedding ceremony when Marsha Clark cracked "The groom has bigger tits than the bride!" And when Jennifer ??? suddenly replaced Vigard in scenes with Morgan and Kelly enjoying a honeymoon in the tropics Marsha said "Well, they found a girl who can give her husband a run for his money, tits-wise." Geri was very good friends with Doug Marland going back to The Doctors. She told me he'd tried to get her on GH as Tracy Quartermaine but Gloria Monty wanted Jane Eliot. He had no trouble bringing her on GL. She said his style was frustrating sometimes because each day would involve so many characters talking about each other. She said her favorite director there was Jill Mitwell who she dubbed "Cecil B DeMitwell" because she was particularly good directing the big events like weddings and party scenes. She was friendly with Marsha Clark and John Wesley Shipp but was wary of them because it seemed to be common knowledge on the set that they were Marland's "spies." They would go up to Marland's estate up in Connecticut on weekends and report on what was going on at the studio. Geri never felt threatened by this but she said a few others in the cast were. She didn't tell me which ones in particular. She wasn't ever really happy with her soap acting work in general but she was proud of what she did when Jennifer broke down on the witness stand during her trial as well as when Jennifer found out about Amanda's affair with Mark. She even let a few friends try to drum up support for her for an Emmy campaign but she knew the show wouldn't because she'd been let go. Her work in those final two episodes really was special. Jennifer's deep pain over her daughter's "betrayal" was palpable. Geri was an extremely funny, thoughtful, intelligent soulful woman. We unfortunately lost touch and I wasn't aware she'd died until a few months afterwards. I still think of her a lot. She was very special.

I was in a relationship with an actor who worked a few episodes in 1983 as an "antiquities expert." He was in scenes with Michael Tylo, Lisa Brown and Benjamin Hendrickson. Quint, Nola, Silas and his character were furiously searching for something on a dig in Tanquir. I pointed out to him that Tanquir had been the fictional name for a Middle Eastern country on Texas, too. He said they referred to it in rehearsals as "Tanqueer." Heh heh. He said one time he and Chris Bernau were standing on set chatting and Grant Aleksander walked by. He put his hand on Bernau's shoulder and said "I just pulled an all-nighter in The Glory Hole. I am SO beat. I'll be in my dressing room having a nap, wake me up when they need me, will ya?" And he walked off. Hah. This was most certainly a joke on Aleksander's part, he and Bernau apparently had a very effectionate, jokey relationship and it was obvious Aleksander knew that Bernau (as well as my bf) was gay.

I did background acting work on the show only once, in November 1983. It was a location shoot at the Belvedere Castle in Central Park. It was a scene where Beth and Philip were on the run from Bradley and Beth was done up like a mime or clown, I can't remember which. I remember being really pissed off because there was a little girl there doing background work and she was freezing. I guess her mother thought doing this was a good thing. Judi Evans noticed this, too, and kept asking her if she was OK.

I did a play in 1984 with a great guy named Ivar Brogger who ended up on GL a few years later in flashbacks depicting Solita's acting days in Venezuela. He played a British director and got to say this great line "Oh, Solita, you may very well have been the best English-speaking actress in Venezuela. Before all the men and the cigarettes, that is." Is that on YT somewhere? God, I'd love to see that again.

In the ATWT thread I mentioned that I was a panelist for the Daytime Emmy Awards between 1992 and 2001. I remember one year I judged the game show category and Kim Zimmer was there, along with Robert Newman. We watched Jeopardy and The Price Is Right and shouted out answers. Zimmer was vivacious, to say the least. And a lot of fun to be around. One of the years I was on the Best Actress panel was also when Zimmer played Dolly the clone. Some of the other panelists, who obviously didn't watch the shows at home, were VERY confused by what they were seeing. That was funny. I had to whisper to them "She's a CLONE!" I took my responsibility on those Emmy judging panel days seriously. I wasn't happy one time, during the judging for Outstanding Younger Actor, when I noticed that one of the voters happened to be the real life wife of the actor who was currently playing one of the nominee's character's father. I pointed this out to the lady who ran the judging, but she didn't seem at all interested in looking into it. When Kevin Mambo ended up actually winning the award I had to wonder if that particular vote had tipped it over in his favor. I remember placing him fourth out of five nominees.

Well, I think that's it. I look forward to reading your further comments and adding my own from time to time!

Edited June 11, 2014 by TimWil

[Vee]

I had no idea Jill Mitwell (who lasted at OLTL well into last summer, IIRC) went back that far. Wow.

Your insight is consistently invaluable. I have heard that about Marsha Clark and John Wesley Shipp and Marland before. Probably from you.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Vee

[DRW50]

Marland was so fascinating. It's too bad he never got Marsha Clark on ATWT, since he seemed close to her.

Great stories. I think the GL episode you were an extra in is available on Youtube and was released on DVD.

I think Monty was right to choose Jane Elliot as Tracy, although I do think Geraldine Court would have been a good fit for some GH role in that era.

I have some Geraldine Court articles here and there. Do you want me to post any?

[TimWil]

I'd love that, DRW50.

Thanks, Vee. Yes, you probably did read my Clark/Shipp/Marland story via good ol' DL!

I forgot to include another brush I had with a GL performer: for a brief period of time I found myself doing background work with Elvera Roussel. This must have been around 2007 or so. I really liked her a lot, she had a great sense of humor and seemed really sensitive and smart. I think we may have worked on 5 or 6 projects together like Law & Order and the usual stuff shooting in NY at the time. I guess she was doing background work to get her health insurance via the union. I don't think I actually talked to her much about GL. I do remember talking to her about Geraldine Court-she was extremely fond of her. And, oh yeah, she did confirm to me that Marsha Clark and John Wesley Shipp were Marland's "spies"!

Edited June 12, 2014 by TimWil

[jam6242]

I'm enjoying your reminiscences TimWil. I always liked Geraldine Court very much, on both Guiding Light and The Doctors.

[jam6242]

This is from an October 1972 "TV Dawn to Dusk" regarding Ed Zimmerman's death. Nice tribute from Mart Hulswit. I found Zimmerman's book referenced in the article on openlibrary.org where it's available to borrow as an e-book.

Edited June 13, 2014 by jam6242

[jam6242]

[DRW50]

Thanks for sharing that. Zimmerman had quite a few interviews with soap magazines, so he must have been popular. 1972 wasn't a happy year for GL fans...as this was also the year Theo Goetz died.

I just saw Hulswit on an episode of Flipper. Gorgeous guy at that time. I think he was still handsome when he was fired, even if he'd clearly aged, but oh well.

Edited June 14, 2014 by DRW50

[DRW50]

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[TimWil]

Wow, Hulswit really was handsome. By the time I started watching in the spring of 1980 he was paunchy and unattractive.

[cassadine1991]

Can anyone tell me what years GL used this theme

http://youtu.be/LjhIOPXe3gk

And this one

http://youtu.be/J2LlUzOH4fE

http://youtu.be/45ZlCc0YOYU

I think this theme was from 1975-1981/1982

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[cassadine1991]

Chris Bernau died 25 years ago today

[TimWil]

Wow, really, Cassadine1991? Very sad loss.

[cassadine1991]

According to what I read. It definitely is.

[All My Shadows]

The general consensus is that the organ version of La Lumiere was 1970-1974 and the orchestral version was 1974-1975. It's possible that switch occurred in 1973, though, as ATWT and AW orchestrated their music that year.