Don't know if this was addressed, but an early poster speculated that Judy Lewis was Loretta Young's natural daughter. She was! And her father was the legendary Clark Gable. Judy was a fascinating book about how she found out about her true parenatge. One early Secret Storm memory of mine was Susan (played by Judy Lewis) looking on in horror when her son Petey was run over by a car.

I, much to my surprise, enjoyed the Laurie Stevens and Father Reddin storyline. Although, for some reason, after it was going great guns, the storyline, sort of, petered out. I don't recall the particulars. Maybe the storyline was ended due to viewer outrage.

Virginia Dwyer played Jane, Bruce's wife. Jane was the housekeeper who fell in love with Peter Ames.

June 1957 TV Radio Mirror

I assume these are Haila's children. Wasn't Whit's daughter Erin on 'A World Apart'? I wonder if she is mentioned in the other part of the article.

We spark each other," Whit explains it.

"There is nothing," says Haila, "we do not share completely, and somehow that makes everything work out."

Where to live had to be worked out, first of all. Should it be in the city, which would be most sensible from the viewpoint of their work? Should it be in the country, which would mean more for Haila's three children and for a richer family life?

The question seemed settled when Haila and Whit came upon a lovely old house for rent about an hour out of the city. It was close to the children's boarding schools so they could get home easily every weekend. It was in beautiful country, and was furnished with fine old antiques. They took it.

And right away there were complications. Haila accepted a new assignment which was quite an honor but which meant staying in town late every night. She became the standby for Rosalind Russell in Broadway's "Auntie Mame." While Haila didn't actually have to stay at the theater, she was committed to be available on ten minutes' notice anytime during the performance. Meanwhile, Whit himself has to be at rehearsals for The Guiding Light early in the morning.

"Thanks to my agent and good friend, Georgia Gilley," Haila says, "we can have our cake and eat it." During the week, they share Miss Gilley's Manhattan apartment. Then, come the weekend, they head for the country. Whit gets there Saturday morning and Haila on Saturday night, after her standby duties are over. In the meanwhile, eighteen-year-old Robin, fourteen-year-old Christopher and eight-year-old T.J. have put in their appearances during the day.

Sometimes, during the week, when Whit doesn't have a rehearsal next day, they trek up to the country at midnight just in order to spend an hour or so there the next morning. "There's something about the mere fact of getting away from the city into the country that gives you a new kick-off into the next day," Whit says. "Just that lazy hour over coffee, before returning to town, sends us back relaxed and re-charged."

They're able to spend a lot of time together because of their daytime-serial assignments. Like everything else, it just works out.

"We're really very lucky," Haila says. "We even work in the same building. We have lunch together almost every day."

Far from presenting problems, the fact that both are in the acting profession has been a great positive bond. There has never been the slightest question between them of the competitiveness which is often the bugaboo of actor couples.

"There never can be," Haila explains simply. "To begin with, we both know that we're good, and we both have tremendous respect for each other's work."

"More than that," Whit adds, "we're an excellent team. We complement each other on the stage just as in real life."

It's something people have remarked on whenever Haila and Whit have performed together. And they felt it themselves from the very beginning - a magnetic pulling together that brought out the best in each other. It was, in fact, as a performing team that they first met in the summer of 1953. This was at Elitch's Gardens, the famous summer-stock company in Denver, where so many great American actors have played.

Haila was there for the first time, that summer, as the company's leading lady, while it was Whit's fifth season as leading man. Almost as soon as rehearsals started, they had formed a professional mutual admiration society.

As Haila says, "It was an immediate recognition born out of mutual respect and admiration." And Whit adds, "I was crazy about the way she worked her great honesty and range of talent, her tremendous versatility and believability."

"You might say," Haila remarks, "that we fell in love with each other's work long before there was any thought of a personal attachment."

That didn't develop till a couple of years later. In the meanwhile, after the ten-week season at Elitch's Gardens was over, Haila returned to New York and Whit went back home to California. He had been living there for about six years, and even today he goes back on frequent trips. The reason for that is a lovely little girl named Erin, who is Whit's much-beloved daughter by a previous marriage. Despite the distance between them and close father-daughter relationship between Whit and Erin, who is now almost ten years old. "Thank heavens for air travel," Whit says. "It only takes me eight hours to get there."

Though California was his home base in 1953, Whit was always ready to head East for a part in a good player. In financial terms, he was doing fine in Hollywood. He had all the work he could handle, as a featured player in movies and television films, but he found the work frustrating.

"Making movies," he says, "can be just about the most tiring and boring work an actor can do. For every ten hours at the studio, you're in front of the camera anywhere from ten minutes to an hour."

Whit felt the parts he was given didn't permit him to do the kind of acting he feels drawn to, which is character acting. "It's always hard to get a chance to do character parts, if you look like a leading-man type," he explains, "but in Hollywood it was impossible. And for me, personally, I have felt for a long time that my talent lies in the direction of character work."

Whit is, very simply, the kind of serious, dedicated performer to whom financial success isn't enough. He was born in Ireland, came to the United States at the age of six, and was brought up in Detroit. It was in high school there that he first took part in a play and found it "more exciting than anything I had imagined."

He went on to Wayne University, where he worked his way by doing a variety of jobs, majored in dramatics and acted for Detroit radio stations. Among the shows he did then were The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger, and by that time, "it was hard to consider doing anything besides acting." He followed up his bachelor's degree with a Master of Arts from the University of Michigan. In 1941, he packed himself up to pursue fame and fortune in Chicago. There he worked in radio for a year, and then went into the Coast Guard. Going in as a seaman, he ended up as an officer commanding ships in both the Atlantic and Pacific. In 1946, he was separated from the service and headed for New York.

It was now that Whit began to establish his reputation as a top-flight young actor. First, there was a role in Maurice Evans' "Hamlet," then in "The Duchess of Malfi," with Elisabeth Bergner. After that, because it seemed to him that Hollywood offered more opportunities, he went out there to settle down, and made his screen debut in "Tap Roots," with Susan Hayward.

But the following year, in 1948, he was happily back on Broadway again. This time, he scored an outstanding success in two different hits, "Kathleen" and the Michael Redgrave production of "Macbeth." At the end of the season, he received an award as "one of the most promising young actors of the year."

After that, Whit returned to Hollywood once again. Up to the time he came back East for good, about three years ago, he had made something like one hundred television films and ten full-length movies, the last one being "The Saracen Blade." It was in 1955 that he made his final decision to live in New York, and then it was that he and Haila began to see a great deal of each other.

But a year and a half were still to pass before they got married. Both had experienced unhappy marriages and were determined not to make another mistake. "We knew that we clicked beautifully in a professional relationship, but we wanted to be very sure that we would make out as well in a personal relationship."

During that time, they grew to know each other very well. "It was terribly exciting," Haila says, "because we kept discovering new things in which we were both interested. Finally, we realized there just doesn't seem to be anything in which we don't share a mutual interest."

There is - to pick at random - Irish literature and music, cooking and interior decorating, sports and country living, religion and extra-sensory perception, and, of course, the theater and television.

Actually, for Haila, television has supplanted the live theater in her enthusiasm and interest. What she hopes for now is to get more involved in television production than in acting. Production has always been her great interest in the theater. "Always," she says. "Back in my teens and then when I was in college, production was what drew me into theatrical activities. But, somehow, I always ended up on the stage, instead of behind it."

Despite her reservations, however, Haila's career on the stage has been a brilliant one. It started with a sixty-five week tour in "Tobacco Road," after her graduation from the University of Southern California, and went on to include starring and co-starring roles in some of the most celebrated Broadway hits, including "Blithe Spirit," "The Voice of the Turtle," "Affairs of State" and "Dream Girl."

She was one of the first successful stage actresses to appear on television, and has been fascinated by it from the beginning. She has been playing the part of Pauline Harris in The Secret Storm since the drama began, and has always enjoyed it.

One of the most interesting developments during their courtship period was the relationship that grew up between Whit and Haila's three children. "They made it very clear that they liked him," says Haila, "and there was just never any question as to how they would feel about our getting married. They were definitely trying to promote it."

Whit's role with the children now falls into a unique category something different from friend or father, yet somehow a combination of both. "I don't know what to call it," Haila says, "but it's just what they needed. Not a father - because, after all, they have their own - but more perhaps a warm and trusted friend who represents the man's point of view in our home."

For eighteen-year-old Robin, who is involved in choosing a college and a field of work to study, this has meant advice and encouragement in what she wants to do. While Robin's final sights are set on marriage-and-children for her career, she thinks that a girl ought to have the experience of working before she settles down. She would like to work as a buyer of high fashion women's apparel.

"She has a real flair and feeling for fashion, which I would say she inherits from her mother," Whit observes, "and I think she'd be an excellent buyer."

"Of course, I've told her the same thing," Haila laughs, "but it didn't seem to make quite the same impression. All the children have this great respect for Whit's opinion."

With fourteen-year-old Christopher and eight-year-old T.J., Whit's opinions rank particularly high in the field of sports. Whit has a great interest in practically every kind of sport, and especially football, which he played at school.

Chris plays on his school's first team in a number of sports, one of them football. "In fact," Whit points out proudly, "he has played several positions on the football team, which is very good."

Whit goes to the school games whenever he can, and sometimes offers constructive criticism, which is always welcome. Besides football, they're both very interested in ice-hockey and ice-skating. There's a little pond near the country house, where they did a good deal of skating last winter. According to Chris, Whit is "the best skater I've ever seen."

Both of them are great sports fans, of course, and spend a lot of time watching games on televisoin. They have an agreement that each one has to choose a team to root for, before the game starts, and the same thing goes for boxing matches. The two of them have another understanding, too - an unspoken one - about doing things together. "We have a sort of mutual thing," Whit explains. "Either one is kind of always welcome to join in the other in any activity."

Family life in the Connor-Stoddard household is more or less compressed into the weekend, when the children arrive from school and Haila and Whit come out from the city and their work. As Haila puts it, "It's kind of like a boullion cube, with everything concentrated in one small time period."

Actually, Whit goes out with T.J. early on Saturday and is there to join Robin and Chris, who come in from their near-by boarding schools a little later. Haila arrives in the evening. Since she has to stay in town till late Saturday night, her time with her family is now really limited to Sundays.

"Sundays," she says, "aren't a day of rest. They're a day of change, a very welcome change." Most of her Sunday is spent in the kitchen cooking, which is "one of my great passions in life." She is an expert on exotic dishes from all over the world and, according to her husband, can compete with the best of the best." A typical Sunday culinary session might find her preparing a delicious ragout of oxtail, a Luxembourg stew with veal, beer and ginger snaps, a filet of sole in white wine, or coq au vin. Her fame as a cook has, in fact, spread far beyond her own family, so that Robin's school friends are eager for invitations to visit and taste some of this mom's rare food.

Around four o'clock, the whole family gets together for Sunday lunch, which is the big meal of the day and the time for general family conversation, stories and discussions. Then, in the early evening, the children start on their way back to school. and Whit and Haila settle down for a quiet evening at home - "We just put up our feet and watch television and talk."

In the little more than a year that has passed since their marriage, both Haila and Whit have found a new assurance and creative strength. Haila is impulsive and volatile, while Whit is more conservative and analytical. For them, this combination is a great affirmative source of security.

Whit says, "It means for me a steadier outlook on life, a much greater trust in the wisdom of what I do, an aliveness and freshness. And it's pretty exciting to realize what I do to help her and what she does to help me."

Haila, who has always wasted time and energy in too many interests and too-quick enthusiasms, has found Whit's insight and judgment helping her to focus on what is important - so that she does less, but finds that more projects work out successfully. They have an agreement that , whenever she gets a new idea, she'll talk it out with him right away.

"I'm always crazy about something - it might be a play to produce or a television idea - when I first hear about it," Haila admits. "I'll rave on about how wonderful it is. Then, a few days later, the second thought and doubts come along. By then, in the old days, I would be committed and it would be too late. Now I talk everything over with Whit supplying the structure and story line and Haila contributing the character material and background, or pulling together in running their family life, Whit and Haila are a good team.

And, judging by the results for them, that's the secret of a good marriage.

Edited August 19, 201114 yr by CarlD2

In a March 1985 Digest, John Kelly Genovese remembers The Secret Storm.

Two years after Roy Winsor's first television creations, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW and LOVE OF LIFE, had been successfully launched, Winsor really broke the mold. He fashioned what was to become the first truly "psychological" soap opera, a story which surpassed the superficial trappings of the form and dared to tackle the hidden yearnings and often twisted motivations which make for real human beings.

Satisfied with the performance of Winsor's other shows, CBS scheduled the serial. He chose as his director and right hand a super-talented young woman with a reputation as a perfectionist and a taskmistress: Gloria Monty, whose much later stint as executive producer of GENERAL HOSPITAL would earn her as much celebrity status as the stars she helped bring to the public.

With this flawless combination, THE SECRET STORM premiered February 1, 1954 as a fifteen-minute, later afternoon offering, centering on the Ames family of fictional Woodbridge, New York. Its protagonist was Peter Ames (played first and longest by Peter Hobbs), a middle-aged, farm-born man who had previously been engaged to wealthy debutante Pauline Tyrell (Haila Stoddard), only to elope with her younger sister, Ellen. The premiere episode marked the sudden death of Ellen Ames in a car crash, and the near ruination of Peter Ames.

In ensuing episodes, this seemingly content man of ironclad values began drinking heavily and playing his late wife's old phonograph records in the attic. Pauline, his vengeful sister-in-law and ex-fiancee, allied herself with Susan (Mary Foskett, Judy Lewis, among others), Peter's eldest, who had incestuous leanings toward her father. This duo tried everything in their power to keep Peter from remarrying, but it didn't work. Peter eventually married Myra Lake (June Graham), a sexually pent-up latent spinster dominated by her father, Ezra (Don McHenry). The marriage lasted but a few years, as Myra waltzed off with handsome Nick Cromwell (Byron Sanders). This time, however, Peter was stronger and better able to fight Pauline and Susan's dominance. He married widow Valerie Hill (Lori March), a consummate lady, who made him happy until his death in 1968 or a heart attack.

Pauline's widowed mother, Grace Tyrell (Marjorie Gateson), was the family's stabilizing force and owner of Tyrell's department store, where Peter first worked. Pauline married Bryan Fuller (Carl King), a villainous Tyrell's employee, then divorced him in favor of pompous Arthur Rysdale (John Baragrey), publisher of The Clarion, the more lurid of Woodbridge's two newspapers. Peter eventually took over the more respected local publication, The Herald, much to Grace's relief.

Peter's son, Jerry Ames (Wayne Tippit), had moments of hot-tempered immaturity but was nonetheless dedicated to his family. After a bout with juvenile delinquency and a disastrous first marriage, he married artist Hope Crandall (Pamela Raymond). Hope was at one time sexually harassed by a slippery gallery owner, Matthew Devereaux (John Colicos).

Susan, partly to get back at her father for marrying Myra, wed irresponsible Alan Dunbar (James Vickery), who was involved with local syndicate members. However, Alan straightened out and became Peter's closest confidante, falling for compassionate Ann Wicker (Diana Muldaur) when Susan had become a caterwauling shrew. Later, Susan also straightened out and married journalist Frank Carver (Laurence Luckinbill).

For most of STORM's run, the pivotal character was Amy (Jada Rowland), youngest of the Ames children. Amy married Kip Rysdale (David O'Brien), Arthur's immature son, only to be impregnated by married professor Paul Britton (Nicolas Coster). Amy later married Paul, until he was lured away by bitchy blonde bombshell Belle Clemens (Marla Adams).

For 15 1/2 years, THE SECRET STORM was a compelling portrait of a complex family who made GUIDING LIGHT's Bauers look like the Ozzie Nelsons by comparison. The expansion to a half-hour in 1962 had only added to the show's immense popularity. Then in 1969, CBS took the show over from Roy Winsor, and within a few years the Ames family had all but disappeared from the Woodbridge they had built. As for the few who remained, Amy married idealistic lawyer Kevin Kincaid (David Ackroyd), whose crooked politico father, Dan Kincaid (Bernie Barrow), Belle - perpetuating the Amy vs. Belle conflict. Dan later reformed, dumped Belle, and was reunited with his illegitimate son, race car driver Robert Lands (Dan Hamilton). Robert's girlfriend was Joanna Morrison (Audrey Landers, Ellen Barber), who had at one time been addicted to the drugs Dan's former underlings sold. And Valerie, Peter Ames's widow, married psychiatrist Dr. Ian Northcote (Gordon Rigsby, Alexander Scourby) after some bizarre local crimes were traced to his insane twin brother.

So many stories helped to dig the show's grave, but among them: Alan Dunbar's return from the supposed dead as a deranged Svengali; the sudden alcoholic binge of ex-priest Mark Reddin (David Gale), who felt guilty over marrying Amy's friend Laurie (Stephanie Braxton), and Laurie's encounters with a "haunted mansion."

THE SECRET STORM had not only lost the Ames family - it lost its grip on humanness, period. After twenty years, the show ended on February 8, 1974.

Edited August 29, 201114 yr by CarlD2

"As for the few who remained, Amy married Belle - perpetuating the Amy vs. Belle conflict."

Yeah, I could see how that would keep the conflict going. (Oh, SOD, how your typos do amuse me.)

Oh crap...I think I must have missed a sentence. Sorry. I'll correct it in a little bit.

I'm sorry, Carl, I thought it was SOD's mistake, not yours.

Well if it makes you feel any better, one of the first SOD OLTL recaps to mention Asa called him "Asser."

That...? Seems appropriate, oddly enough.

Joan Crawford playing her daughter Christina's role of Joan Kane.With her is another 40's movie star Jeffrey Lynn,who was playing Charlie Clemens.

Cast list from 1970 Daytime TV yearbook

CAST:

Marla Adams as Belle Clemens

Keith Charles as Nick Kane

Linden Chiles as Paul Britton

Joel Crothers as Ken Stevens

Stephanie Braxton as Laurie Hollister

Troy Donahue as R.B. Keefer

Jennifer Darling as Irene Sims

Clarice Blackburn as Mary Lou Northcote

Judy Lewis as Sarah Carver

Lori March as Valerie Ames

Rosemary Murphy as Nola Hollister

Lovelady Powell as Birdie Clayborne

Eleanor Phillips as Grace Tyrell

Gordon Rigsby as Dr. Ian Northcote/Owen Northcote

Peter MacLean as Hugh Clayborne

Barbara Rodell as Jill Stevens

Jada Rowland as Amy Britton

Haila Stoddard as Pauline Rysdale

Edited September 11, 201114 yr by Paul Raven

I keep hoping they will find the Joan Crawford episodes in some closet somewhere. That is one of the most WTF casting choices ever.

I actually remember the announcer appearing on camera, announcing Joan Crawford's special stint on the show.