"Secret Storm" memories.

[Paul Raven]

Judy Lewis and Donnie Melvin

[SoapDope]

I would love to see a complete color episode from the late 60's or early 70's. Especially with Marla Adams as Belle. 

[Paul Raven]

[amybrickwallace]

Donnie Melvin also played an orphan boy named Danny on The Doctors from 1967-68. Danny was eventually adopted by psychiatrist Dr. Bill Winters (James Noble, later of Benson fame) and his wife, Ruth (Ann Whiteside). Speaking of TD, Michael Kearney (who had also played Petey Dunbar on TSS) is the older brother of Eileen Kearney (the first regular actress to play Greta Powers) and Mark Kearney (who originated the role of Billy Allison Aldrich). Michael also played a couple of minor roles on TD himself.

Edited June 14, 2018 by amybrickwallace

[danfling]

Donnie Melvin also played Johnny Fletcher as a child on The Guiding Light.

[amybrickwallace]

 

Was that before or after he was on TSS?

[danfling]

It was before he was on either The Doctors or had appeared in Capote's A Christmas Memory.   After all of that, he joined the cast of The Secret Storm.   He was nice in appearance, but his acting was not all that great to me.  After leaving The Secret Storm, I never saw him or heard of him again.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks. I wonder whatever happened to him.

[danfling]

And when I mentioned his acting, I was referring to The Secret Storm.

 

Later, the show wrote in Ursula Blackwell's son.   I am not sure who played this role.

[cassadine1991]

What was the story of Joan Crawford appearing on TSS?

[slick jones]

Ursula Winthrop's son was Douglas played by Robert )Bruce)Sherwood.

[danfling]

The story of Ms. Crawford's appearance is that her daughter (who played the contract role of Joan Boreman Kane) was unable to play the role due to unplanned surgery.   The show hired Joan Crawford to play the role for two episodes.   This casting was front-page news (at least in my town), and the show was probably happy with the amount of publicity that the show received.

[amybrickwallace]

There was a character called Wendy Porter on TSS sometime in the 1960s who was played first by a pre-ATWT Rita McLaughlin, and she was replaced by Julie Mannix because the show wanted the character to be racier. Julie Mannix not only starred on a soap, but had a daughter who would one day star in a soap - Danielle von Zerneck (GH; also well known as Donna Ludwig in La Bamba).

 

Julie Mannix von Zerneck co-wrote a book called Secret Storms with the daughter she and her husband Frank had been forced to give up for adoption prior to their marriage. Here's info on the book and a couple of book trailers:

 

http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/julie-mannix-von-zerneck-and-kathy-hatfield.html

[NothinButAttitude]

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[NothinButAttitude]

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