"Secret Storm" memories.

[soapfan770]

Here's the write-up Matt P. Smith penned on The Secret Storm for his soap history guide:

[DRW50]

Of all the soaps that might have made syndication Secret Storm is the one I most would have been interested in, as the concept of the show was so strong and still could have been revived, and if they'd managed to keep Jada Rowand/Lori March/Marla Adams/Stephanie Braxton, that would have been a very strong building block.

[Paul Raven]

Terry O'Sullivan played Judge Sam Stevens.He had of course been Arthur on SFT for many years before quitting and leaving for LA.He played Susan's father on Days before SS. Apparently,he retired in 1970 and relocated to Minnesota. Irecall that he wrote abook about his acting career.

[DRW50]

Terry quit once, for money reasons, but I think he may have been fired the last time.

I've seen copies of his book for sale, but never read it.

He died a few years ago.

In the 50's he was married to Jan Miner, radio actress who later became Madge in the dish detergent commercials. They would repeatedly have Radio TV Mirror photo shoots in "theme" outfits.

I really like that early format of Afternoon TV.

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

Have you ever seen the cover of Marla with all the dolls? I like that.

Dan Hamilton looks about the same here as he did at the end of the decade. Did he become a director?

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

Gorgeous cover. I've never seen this before. Such lovely colors. Joel Crothers looks so young here.

[dc11786]

THe picture of Lori March and Terry O'Sullivan is great. Does anyone know if the show paired Valerie with Sam Stevens after Peter's death? I know she later married Ian Northcoate, but I wonder if Sam / Valerie was attempted before Valerie got with Ian.

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

That's the doll one! A few of the dolls are a bit scary.

[DRW50]

February 1956 TV Radio Mirror.

[DRW50]

has made him the head of a household which includes - at least count - an eight-year-old daughter, a white French poodle, a Siamese cat, a monkey, a parakeet, a pigeon, and one big bowl of goldfish.

As for how it all came about - that's an amazing story which could only have happened in the twentieth century, and it could only have happened to Biff McGuire. It begins, quietly enough, in a house on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. Biff's father, William J. McGuire, is a contractor. His mother, Mildred McGuire, runs the Corner House - a home for underprivileged children and the aged. As for Biff's brothers and sister, one is in government service, one teaches school, and one "was written up in all the newspapers." (The newsworthy event happened during the Korean War, when James McGuire found a two-days-old baby in a rice field. The Marine Corps gave him permission to keep the child, but suggested that he also find himself a bride. James obliged as soon as he returned to the states.)

As for Biff, the eldest - born October 25, 1926 - all he wanted was to be a farmer. "Every summer, during vacation," he recalls, "I would work on a farm. I'd help bring in the crops, trim pear trees, cut off dead limbs." And then he smiles nostalgically. "I used to like walking along behind a team of horses and talking to all the farmers."

In 1944, when he went to college, it was to Massachusetts State, where he could study agriculture. In his sophomore year, however, the twentieth century caught Biff up in its wake. He quit school to enlist in the Engineer Corps. At war's end, he was in Germany without enough points to be shipped home, so he took advantage of the Army's plan to attend an overseas school. It was at Shrivenham University in England that Biff discovered he enjoyed acting and started to study dramatics seriously.

That's how it happened that a young man from Connecticut, who only wanted to be a farmer, suddenly found himself acting on the London stage, touring Europe with a beautiful Broadway actress in Dusseldorf, Germany. The play in London was Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life." The European tour, under Special Services, was in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan." And the beautiful Broadway actress was GiGi Gilpin, who appeared in the same production as a CAT (Civilian Actress Technician.) By the time Biff had enough points to come home, he and GiGi had decided to make the trip together.

To most soldiers, the trip home meant a return to the life they had known before the war. To Biff, however, it meant returning to a life he had never even dreamed of - and setting up a home in New York, the biggest city in the world. The sensitive young man who liked nature and the simple life had a family to support, and he meant to do it by acting - the craziest, most competitive business in the world. IT was like throwing Daniel into the lion's den, and yet...

While GiGi retired from acting to have a child, Biff's career - as he says - "sort of snowballed along." Discovering that he could sing and dance as well as act, he appeared in the Broadway productions of "Dance Me a Song," "Make Mine Manhattan," and "South Pacific." He replaced Barry Nelson in "The Moon is Blue," receiving his first star billing on St. Patrick's Day, 1953. After a six months' run on Broadway, he appeared in the Chicago production, then went to London, where he co-starred with Diana Lynn. It was here, where he had first made his professional debut, that his performance earned him the coveted Plays and Players Award. Back in the United States, he appeared in the national company of "King of Hearts," in a New York City Center revival of "The Time of Your Life," and in more than one hundred and fifty TV dramatic shows.

Biff is not only a regular in The Secret Storm, but has been appearing nightly in "A View From the Bridge," the Arthur Miller hit which brought Van Heflin back to Broadway. On his Sunday nights off, he usually can be seen in a dramatic show for television. And his first movie, "The Phoenix City Story," is now on view.

It's a schedule which could throw an old pro, but Biff seems to be taking it in his good-natured stride. Yet...seeing him, talking to him, one can't help wondering: How does he do it? Onstage, he can be dynamic, poetic - anything the part calls for. But, offstage, he seems more the easygoing gentleman farmer than the temperamental dramatic actor. He'll sit you down, as thought he has all the time in the world, offer you an apple, and start munching one himself. You'll find yourself doing most of the talking, for Biff is a quiet man and, when he does speak, it's strictly to the point. His voice is so low, you can scarcely hear it. And what's this, you wonder - shyness as an actor? But then, because you find yourself expanding and warming to the conversation, you suddenly realize that it isn't shyness, at all. It's gentleness. Here is a man so simple, so natural, that he sees you as - not just another busy human being - but a part of nature , too. If he speaks softly, gently, and offers you an apple - how else is he to make one of God's creatures feel at home?

The notion may be startling, particularly in the twentieth century, but the reason for Biff's success is not just looks, not just talent - it's spiritual. He has the grace of quiet, a serenity "within" which can bring even the outside world into harmony. Above all, he has the strength of simplicity.

"Show business," they say, "is no business." It's crazy, it's nerve-wracking, it's tough. But Biff doesn't know what they are talking about. "I love acting," he says and, somehow, that takes care of the whole problem for him. In his dressing room at the Morosco Theater, while waiting to go on in the Arthur Miller play, he usually studies the script for the next day's episode of The Secret Storm or for next Sunday night's dramatic show on TV. He can take on any number of assignments because, as he explains: "I enjoy doing them. There are no blocks, so I'm a fast study."

Living in New York also represents no problems, because he loves the place. Unlike so many city folk who have fled to the suburbs in a mad quest for the simple life, Biff manages to live it right in the heart of Manhattan.

"I have woods in Central Park," he points out. Every day the weather's fine, he and his eight-year-old daughter, Gigi (Biff actually spells her name with two small "g's," to distinguish her from her mother), go walking there. "There's so much here - libraries and museums. It's a wonderful opportunity for the child. As for fresh air, you can get that anymore. In the country ,many children spend much of their time indoors, anyway."

When Biff walks down the busy streets of Manhattan, strangers stop him - as friendly as neighbors back home in Connecticut. Only now they don't ask about Biff's family, they ask about The Secret Storm. They want to know: "Why did you do that today?" Or: "What's going to happen next week?"

Biff even manages to have the animals that mean so much to him - thanks to a spacious six-room apartment. It's a regular Noah's Ark, but the population is constantly changing. That's because Gigi attends the Ethical Culture School, where children are permitted to borrow pets on a "lending-library" basis. She keeps bringing home owls, rabbits, snakes.

"I'm waiting for the doorbell to ring," Biff says, "and have my daughter walk in with an elephant one day."

At one time or another - and sometimes, all at once - the McGuires have lived with a turtles, polliwogs, white mice, a marmoset, a monkey, a parakeet, a pigeon which fell out of a nest, and goldfish. Two permanent members of the household, however, are Ballerina, a white French poodle who recently had three puppies, and Teek-ki, a SIamese cat.

Luckily, the two young ladies in Biff's household - GiGi and Gigi - share hies enthusiasm for pets and help take care of them. Little Gigi, in fact, is torn between wanting to be a veterinarian or a ballerina when she grows up. But then, if she grows up to be anything like mother GiGi, she'll probably manage both. Mrs. McGuire - in addition to being a wife, mother, and part-time caretaker of the zoo - is still part of the theater. She coaches actors, concentrating on those who are preparing for roles in television.

"She has a wonderful feeling for actors," Biff explains proudly. "She can help them get to the heart of a situation."

Then, as he tells how much GiGi has helped him, it becomes obvious that this is one of the happiest marriages in show business. When you ask him about it, he tells you - as simply as ever - "I'm in love. And she's in love with me."

Love, it seems, is not only the secret for a successful marriage, but for a successful life, as well. For Biff, it's the answer to everything. He loves acting, he loves the city he lives in, he loves his home. IT keeps him happy, and it keeps him free of the disease of ambition. AN excellent cartoonist, he doesn't sell his drawings - he just sends them to his friends as gifts. "To cheer them up," he says. And though he speaks of getting a bigger apartment one day, it's only so he can have more room for his pets.

"Some day, I'd like to get a little farm," he admits, but I won't give up acting."

One can't imagine him ever giving it up - not only because he loves it, but because he has no need to retire. Unlike so many who have to wait till their sixties to take it easy and live the simple life, Biff is doing it right now, while he's still young - and very much in love.

[dc11786]

I thought McGuire's wife Gigi looked like the actress who played Hazel on "Search."

[DRW50]

She does. She also looks like an older Lauren Bacall.

It's strange, IMDB doesn't even mention this marriage.

Was Bruce Edwards related to the Virginia Dwyer character?