Edited June 24, 20187 yr by Paul Raven

What a great picture! Thanks. 

 

The picture is from 1968-1969. Terry O'Sullivan arrived in Woodbridge about September 17, 1968 as Judge Samuel Stevens. I believe Nicolas Coster ended up leaving in 1969. I wonder who it is with their back to the camera.

Jada Rowland (Amy) with the Jed Allan version of Paul Britton

In the group picture, who is that on the right?

 

Could the woman with her back to the camera have been either Jill #1 (Audre Johnston) or Jill #2 (Barbara Rodell)?

The woman on the right is Judy Lewis as Susan Dunbar.

 

I suspect you are right about it being Jill Stevens. 

This was posted on a "Secret Storm" group several years ago. I don't think it ever made its way over here. It's a story outline from 1964 detailing the Ann / Alan story as well as the birth of Amy's baby. I don't think all of this played out exactly as stated, but it's an interesting look into Roy Winsor and the writing process of "Secret Storm" at the time. 

 

1964 story outline

 

Also posted was a memo from Winsor after some discussion was had about the projection:

 

 

ROY WINSOR PRODUCTIONS, INC.
INTER-OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Date: 7/31/64

TO: Tony Converse

FROM: Roy Winsor

CC: The Averys
E. Bradley
J. Hardy
G.Monty

After our talk this morning I think we already have made an improvement on The Secret Storm long story outline (7/29/64).

Let's drop the character of Laura Bell, the exchange student who would live with the Rysdale's, and substitute for her Valerie Hill's married but disenchanted daughter. Incidentally, we must change her name from Janice to something else because I personally feel uncomfortable with the name after the grotesque murder of Mr. Wylie's daughter. This is a personal and an emotional decision, but I suspect that subconsciously a great many persons would feel as uncomfortable with the name as they might feel with the name Oswald. I do not insist on this but I think there is a reason to avoid the name.

All right, let's say that the girl's name is Janet. She is married to a Swedish instructor or associate professor. The marriage is not a happy one. He is a stick and she is a romantic. I leave all these details up to the Averys and to you. She writes to her mother to regret that she cannot be in New York for her mother's wedding but that she is coming to the States very shortly to visit her mother and her brother and his family. Shortly after Julian is captured, Valerie's daughter does arrive in Woodbridge. She stays at the local hotel. Peter and Valerie are delighted to see her and Peter finds her to be a very attractive young woman. He notices, however, that there is something sad about her which he cannot quite understand. Valerie has a talk with Janet and
learns that she has definitely made up her mind to divorce her husband. She is unhappy about this but she finds him uninteresting and she has a very real case of homesickness for the United States. Valerie is saddened by this news but accepts it. Janet says that she will stay in Woodbridge for a while, then she will visit her brother and his family out West, return to Woodbridge, and then return to Sweden, the divorce, and finally a return to the United Staes and probably a job of some kind in New York City.

Janet is thoroughly respectable. She is also unhappy. Jerry likes her very much and feels that it is perfectly proper to take her out. He makes no attempt to seduce her, although he gets the impression that she might like to be seduced. The two of them wallow genteelly in their respective miseries.

Now, when as outlined the Amy-Kip marriage seems about to be destroyed, Kip finds Janet a very sympathetic listener to his tale of woe. Janet, because of her problems, finds relief in first mothering Jerry and then Kip. I even think that Kip might make a pass at her which she would reluctantly reject. Later Kip would apologize for his behavior. The basic element to be played which involves Janet and Jerry at first and then Janet and Kip is frustration. Janet's obligations and Kip's obligations prevent them from acting rashly. Amy would realize this. Although she is certain that Kip has not seduced Janet, she realizes that this is possible. This realization, along with everything else contained in the long story projection about Amy, makes her realize that in Kip she truly has a prize. When Kip and Amy are reunited, Janet should leave for Sweden and then return to New York to live, perhaps, in Valerie's New York place or in a place of her own.

Once we have established Janet - and I think that we should see Janet visit her brother and his family in the West - and we should not drop her or her brother and his family, but instead we should regard them as part of the future of the program as it is sketched at the end of the long story projections. If we do this, Peter will have acquired a new family and his own family can more easily be kept in the background. Well, this is supplement #1 and I hope that there will be others to add to it until we have a clear, strong, and tight projection which will serve us for at least two years.

MEMO FROM ROY WINSOR (cont):

The family and the town are shocked that stalwart old Alan has divorced Susan but not much is made of it. Susan moves in with Grace, and in time she will marry again.

There is one more piece of unfinished business to clear up. Laura is pleased that Kip returned to Amy. She had no interest in him anyway. She does feel obligated to speak to Rysdale and to register a complaint that it was in questionable taste for him to cast her to Kip. She urges Rysdale to accept a situation in which Kip and Amy have every chance to find the happiness which has been denied to them for so long. I doubt that Rysdale would do this. This, then, should be the end of Rysdale. His usefulness to the program is ended. The same must be said for Pauline.

To sum up:

1. Amy-Kip supply our major story at least from October, 1964, through April, 1965. Peter and Valerie are especially deeply involved because the story is a very direct but wholesome challenge to their marriage. Valerie states the opinion and Peter acts on them. Susan is furious about Valerie's bossiness and that gives Susan real rapport with Amy. It also is the straw which breaks the back of the Susan-Alan marriage.

2. The Alan-Ann story runs concurrent with the Amy-Kip story and it should begin to show its ugly little face well before the Amy-Kip story comes to an end. I would say that it begins in November and reaches the stages of an affair in February so that it could play its climax from June 1965, through July or August, 1965.

Now both of these stories seem to me at least to arise from character as character has already been established. Amy is a selfish bitch who can be shaken into perspective only by being made to realize the enormity of her selfishness. She is made to realize this by Valerie who calls attention to her faults as previously outlined, and by Peter who realizes that what Valerie is saying about Amy is right. He has realized this himself for a very long time but he has always been too good to state the facts as bluntly as Valerie is able to. Peter always hoped that Amy would wake up herself and not have to be awakened.

Laura is not important, but her introduction will give Rysdale a chance, however abortive, to try once more to brainwash Kip. Laura will also give Pauline a great deal of pleasure during a very lonely time.

And the story has an ending in Amy's awakening to the fact that Kip is a wonderful young man. The marriage is saved.

The Alan-Ann story is trite - as most stories are - but if Ann Wicker can be developed into an electric character and if we study Alan fighting against her Siren song and if we know that he is happily headed for disaster, I think that we could have some compelling material for the viewer. Alan's defection is motivated by Susan, of course, and especially by Susan's vitriolic attitude toward Valerie because of Valerie's truthful and wise evaluation of Amy, Susan will have become so preoccupied with other personal business that she will, in the process, lose a husband.

Along with all this and deliberately set for the summer of 1965 is the emergence of Peter and Valerie as our active leads. And this is how I think that this should be brought about.

First let me say that we have, for at least a year, thought about freeing ourselves not only from burdensome contract commitments to a number of actors but freeing ourselves from characters whom we cannot take again through the plots to which they and the viewers have already been exposed.

Whenever this has been talked, though, nothing was suggested to replace the dead. The time to do all this is a year from now.
During the year ahead, Valerie excites Peter about a home of their own on the river (see the map). This is opposed by Susan, of course, but she opposes everything. The point of the move is to have a setting which is fresh in every way. Not only will there be a new house but this is our chance to introduce new characters, dozens of them.

Other programs have many more characters and families than we do. We have restricted ourselves to Peter's family to such an extent that if one member of the family has a problem, the others make it their own and exist as members of a chorus whose music groweth tedious.

Everything I have written for long-range is intended to take certain situations to conclusions without any consideration for the future of the characters involved. By the end of August, 1965, we will truly be left with Peter and Valerie. Susan in Grace's house may or may not be used. The same is true of Grace. Alan will be gone and Jerry will be in limbo - except for such family horror times as Christmas and Arbor Day. Then what do we do?

Well, to the north of Peter's new house lives family A. To the south lives family B. At the entrance to the road (River Road, I suppose), lives family C. I have some ideas on what the make-up of these families might be, but I do not want to try to create them because if we are going to bring a new look and a new character to the program, all of us - and especially the writers - should sit down and dream our dreams about characters who have story possibilities inherent in them.

We do not have a busy doctor in our midst. I don't mean a Hadley but a man who is on the staff of the hospital which would give us the chance, whenever we might want it, to go into that hospital for a story. He has a wife and maybe a few children. The former might become a close friend of Valerie's and the children would give Peter a chance to screw up some strangers for a change instead of his own group.

And what if one of the houses had as its owner the owner of the local television station or maybe he's a broadcaster? Again we have created an area to invade whenever a story strikes us about the TV business.

Perhaps one of the costly houses along the river is the home of the new mayor and let us say that he is a young, vigorous, and dedicated man whose life comes into contact almost daily with greed, graft, and destruction. Then we could, through the mayor as a friend of Peter's, involve the latter in the whole world of cops and robs.

And there is no reason that in still another house we might not have a young professor at the college.

It seems to me that the creation of a number of families whose characters are thought out and whose individuals are given clear, prototypal characteristics could give us a scope for the future which would insure a very long future for the program and for all of us.

To go back to the beginning, I very much want your cooperation not only in the superb spinning of the story material sketched here but in a projection for the future which, I believe, should take place after our year or year and a half of story.

As I always have, so I will again add a disclaimer. What I have outlined for story, specific story, needs discussion, amendment, and amendment. Writers cannot write to the best of their creative abilities if they are not allowed to create more than dialogue. The ideas must possess them before life can be brought to the material.

The material has the enthusiastic support of the network. This is important because by contract the network has a say-so about material. This does not mean, and it never has meant, that I have ever done a program to please anyone but myself. On the other hand, I am ready to accept good suggestions from whatever source. In my opinion, the suggestions made to us by the network during the recent months and now are sound and are worthy of use.

The steps we must take now are to get your reactions to the material. Then I want to have your suggestions for strengthening material which begins by being strong. Then we should have a final version - much briefer than this tome - of the story as our approved and agreed upon story projection for a year or a year and a half. It will then be up to the producer to delegate the creation of breakdowns and scripts to the committee and the writers. And that I intend to do.

 

 

 

That's interesting. Were all those characters written out, as planned (with the others brought in)?

 

I didn't know that Janice Wylie's murder was so known to cause this level of concern with a name. I'm trying to remember if there were any women on soaps in these years with that name. ATWT had a Janice, but that was from the late '50s on.

For some reason, I can't access the story outline when I click on it.

I'll paste it later tonight when I get home unless someone else accesses it first.

 ROY WINSOR PRODUCTIONS, INC.

INTER-OFFICE MEMORANDUM

TO: The Committee

CC: The Averys   

Gloria Monty 

FROM: Roy Winsor

DATE:  7/29/64     

SUBJECT:  The Secret Storm Long Story Outline

 

I would appreciate your cooperation in reading carefully and with imagination what I am about to write about story.

 

When we had a story with a clear-cut beginning, middle, and end, namely the Amy-Paul-Kip story, the daily breakdowns and the scripts were excellent and the audience thought so, too.

 

Although the Julian story does have a beginning and an end (although it's middle is weak), it is the kind of melodramatic story that needs very careful plotting in order to build suspense so powerful that it does not give a viewer the chance to analyze it as vastly larger than life.  In my opinion, the absence of careful advance step by step plotting of the story resulted in many weeks of tedium.  The ratings reflected this.

 

Long before the Amy-Paul-Kip story came to an end, I requested you, and I in turn was requested by CBS, to plunge quickly into the Julian story to prevent a slackening of tension when Paul bussed off.  This was not done.

Now we are faced again with the same situation.  I reluctantly approved the Janice story assuming all the time that you would understand that until this situation idea (not story) was developed fully into a story, I could not and I would not absolutely approve it.  I still cannot approve it.  Apart from the fact that I find it distasteful, I do not, as this is being written, have the story worked out.  I was told only on Monday that the ending would be coming in "soon."

 

Last Friday I was asked by CBS to discuss future story.  I could not.  Instead I sketched several story ideas which were approved.  I will write up this material which you should amend and improve.  Once all of us are agreed on the broad general outline for the next two years, it must be written up, preferably by the writers, and presented by me to CBS.  Then I will more than gladly turn over to you the subjects of breakdowns and scripts.

 

In the introduction to The Idiot, Magarshack writes "Unlike Turgenev, who always took character for his point of departure and who never sat down to write any of his novels before he had worked out a detailed plan of its development, Dostoevski first began with the main idea of his novel and never had a carefully-worked-out plan of it or its characters."  The Idiot, when published, was the writer's 8th version of his story.

 

I do not want to get into an argument about the relative merits of Turgenev or of Dostoevski.  The point is that Turgenev's method is right for the serial; Doestoevski's would have been disastrous.  I didn't learn this from the Russians but from twenty-five years of serial experience.  Story from character must come before a writer sits down to write.  The current method on Storm seems to be that of Dostoevski, not Turgenev.  As a result, six persons seem constantly to be struggling very hard to keep the program close to the fine position it achieved when the method of Turgenev was followed.  I personally do not want to work the Dostoevski way.  It is exhausting.  It is also nonsense to expend a maximum of effort to get a minimum result.  And the program reflects this trial and error approach.

 

Long story does not have to be a long document.  The synopses in the Oxford Companion indicate that the story the writer has told can be summarized briefly.

 

I think that all of this makes sense, of course.  If this method is not only foreign to you but repugnant, we have reached an impasse.  That is for you to determine.  The fact of the matter, though, is that the absence of story as of last Friday has forced me to present longrange story which the network approves and which, essentially, we are now committed to put on the air.

 

So much for the preamble. RW:as

 

THE SECRET STORM LONG-RANGE STORY

In the absence of a timetable, I would like to suggest the following chronology: 

 

1.   We know that Peter will be married on August 19. 

 

2.   Before he and Valerie return to Woodbridge, Amy agrees to  marry Kip and she does elope with him on Labor Day weekend. 

 

3. During the last week of August, the daughter of an English    business associate of Rysdale's arrives in Woodbridge to    live with the Rysdale's while she studies history as an    exchange student. 

 

4. The relationship between Alan and Susan grows angry. Her    carping and her tedious prophecies of doom have at last    reached Alan who can no longer tolerate being married to so   unpleasant a woman. 

 

5. Amy's baby will be born in October.

 

The first story that we should play is Amy-Kip although until the baby is born, there is not a great deal to play.  What we should study carefully is the problem of a young marriage.  Kip has no means of support.  Neither does Amy.  They have plunged headlong into marriage without knowing how they will support themselves.  Let them find out.

 

When Peter returns from his honeymoon, he instinctively would want to support the young couple.  To his surprise - but to Valerie's pleasure - Kip refuses support.  He is persuaded by Amy and Peter that least Peter should be allowed to pay for their rent.  Kip grudgingly agrees.  He is an idealist, however, and he is determined to show his father, who has renounced him, that he can support the girl he loves and married.  Pauline is unable to help Kip because of Rysdale's almost insane anger at the marriage.

 

Trying to find a job is not easy.  Kip perhaps gets a job in a combination garage and filling station.  He knows motors and anyone can pump gas.  I have no idea how much he would make, but we can find that out.  Even if it is only $75 a week, it will be enough to provide food.  Kip will also enroll in extension classes because he is also determined to get his degree.

 

Jerry will be Kip's confidante throughout this early period of adjustment and it might be Jerry with his newspaper connections who gets the job for Kip.  Jerry will also keep his eyes open for a better job, perhaps one on the paper.  Maybe Kip eventually ends up as a cub reporter and, one fine day, as a good newspaper man.

 

During this period, what of Amy?  Well, she is amused by Kip's idolatry.  He is wonderful to her but make no mistake about it, the viewer knows, with Kip, that she does not really love him.  Susan is Amy's confidante on the subject.  They are sisters and Amy has done what Susan urged all along, marry Kip.  Susan is troubled, though, because Amy seems to her to be hard.  We get the impression that once the baby is born, Amy will begin to be bored with her simple life and long for her old life with Peter. 

 

Valerie senses this, too, but it's a subject that she and Peter do not often discuss in detail.  For his part, Peter doesn't know just how he feels.  He is ecstatic with Valerie and they have begun to make plans to sell the old homestead and build on a huge lot near the river.  Valerie loves water and boats and Peter begins to be excited about the prospect. 

 

Concurrent with the above, Laura Bell arrives from England to be the house-guest of the Rysdale's from September through at least the end of the first term at Woodbridge.  She is stunning, well-mannered, an absolute paragon of a girl and she will stay that way.  We will discover in time that here is the kind of girl Rysdale's always dreamed bout for Kip.  Laura is unapproachable but she will be popular.  She is discreet and observant.  Pauline finds her to be a delight and her presence eases her unhappiness about Kip.

 

Now as Susan continues to bitch about everything and everyone in sight, Alan grows more and more disenchanted with her.  And this time he is really ready to stray from the oppressing conditions of his marriage.  One day he is waiting for Joe Brownell when Joe comes out of his office with a young woman who is about twenty-five, or so.  Let's say her name is Ann Wicker.  She thanks Brownell for the session.  He introduces her to Alan.  The latter is struck instantly.  He knows it, Ann knows it, and Brownell knows it.  Ann leaves.  Alan asks about her.  Brownell sits him down and asks him what the trouble is.  Alan, who hadn't until this moment really realized that there was any trouble, suddenly has to face the fact that his life is an empty joke.  Brownell smilingly suggests that he go out and play nine holes of golf and take Susan out for dinner.  But we should know that Alan has been hooked.

 

Alan meets the girl again, this time outside Brownell's office, and introduces himself.  She is flattered but cautious.  He takes her for a cocktail and tells her all about himself and how unhappy he is. She listens and likes what she hears.  He learns that she is the daughter of John Wicker, a lawyer, and that she lives at home with her parents and a younger sister, about 12.  Her brother is away at college. She is not married.  She was, but she got divorced.  No details.  Alan says that he wants to see her.  She says that she doesn't see how this is possible.  Alan says that he will find a way.  And Alan does find a way.

 

Susan, of course, begins to sense that something is wrong because Alan seems to be indifferent to her and to Petey and he seems to daydream a lot.  And absent himself from time to time because of his job.  Being Susan, she grows more waspish as the weeks drag on. 

 

By this time Ann is in love with Alan who is hopelessly in love with her.  Now the interesting thing to study here is Alan and his selfexamination.  Brownell is his confidante and Jerry may become one in time.  We should also show Alan with that minister, Todd, because Alan knows that he is headed on a crash course and he will try his best to avoid it.  Despite all the advice given to him to come to his senses and to remember his wife and child, he is helpless.  He wonders what Peter will think.  And Valerie.  He bemoans his fate.  Why should this have happened to him?

 

By the time we have reached the paragraph above, Amy's baby will have been born and it will be perfect.  Kip is very excited about the baby.  Amy is not.  Every time she looks at the child, she is reminded of her "sin" and of her feelings for Paul which she still cannot suppress.  Don't forget that throughout September Kip has idolized Amy and she has responded only in a patronizing manner.  Now when Kip senses Amy's indifference to the child as well as to him, he begins to change.  He can be treated like a rug just so long.  They have several sharp quarrels.  Amy, much to Valerie's annoyance, turns to Peter for comfort.  Kip sits endless gloomy hours with Jerry.

 

Amy reaches the height of her selfishness when, in tears, she persuades Peter, over Valerie's objections, to let her come home.  Just for a while.  Amy leaves the baby with Kip.

 

Kip turns to Alan (who has problems of his own) who comes to his rescue.  Susan loves the baby and she and Alan take the baby in their home.  Kip stays in his little flat and visits the baby every night.  He does not visit Amy.

 

Valerie thinks that Amy's action is monstrous.  Amy defends herself by saying tearfully that she married Kip because the family wanted her to give the child a name and also because she didn't want to interfere any more in Peter's life and that marriage was a good way to leave.  There is enough truth in this to make Valerie furious.  She speaks to Peter.  He, poor man, doesn't quite know what to do.  He loves his wife but he cannot turn his daughter into the street.  He goes to see Kip - to find him quite drunk.  Peter is shocked. Kip is a sad sight to see and to listen to.  He knows he's married to a girl who doesn't love him.  He wishes he were dead.

 

Peter reports Kip's condition to Amy and to Valerie.  The latter is tight-lipped.  Amy is silent.  Valerie retires and Peter now speaks very bluntly to Amy.  He sends her home to Kip, pointing out that she is married and that Kip is responsible for her.  If their marriage has to end in disaster, work it out.  She is no longer going to be allowed to come home and stay. His marriage to Valerie and their plans are in jeopardy as long as Amy continues to behave like a willful child.  In tears Amy leaves.

 

Kip returns one night late from his second job - he lost his first because of booze - and he is slightly drunk.  Amy is there.  He barely greets her.  There is nothing said about the baby which is still with Susan.

 

Now while all this is going on, we should not have forgotten the Rysdale's and their guest from England, Laura Bell.  Rysdale finds her to be a delight.  So does Pauline.  And Laura justifies their affection.  The subject of Kip never comes up.  Rysdale refuses to talk about his son.  News drifts back to Pauline, however, and she knows that Amy has gone home to Peter and that Kip, according to Jerry, is headed toward alcoholism.  And he is.  Pauline mentions the separation to Rysdale and finds him strangely interested.  

 

One afternoon Rysdale makes it a point to stop by where Kip is working, speaks to Kip, and in bites him to have a talk.  Rysdale mentions Laura.  Kip has heard something about her visit.  Rysdale says that Laura is ideal, just the kind of girl he always hoped that Kip would marry.  Kip replays wryly that he is married and that he loves Amy.  Rysdale wonders how this is possible and Kip cannot give him a good answer.  Will Kip stop by at the house one of these days?  He agrees to do this.

 

Kip's visit to his father's and the fact that Laura is there anger Amy.  Her anger and the suggestion of jealousy amuse Kip but they do not make him happy.  He continues to drink too much and he is very close to being an alcoholic.  He goes to work and he visits the baby but he has no life with Amy who continues to feel sorry for herself.

 

One evening when Kip is out and Amy visits Peter, Amy damns her fate and her life.  To Peter's amazement Valerie sails into Amy with all guns blazing.  She reviews Amy for Amy, pointing out how she and every other member of the family have abused Peter's kindness by expecting him always and all the time to solve every one of their problems.  Valerie thanks that this is disgraceful and she proceeds to make Amy appear to be one inch tall when she mentions Johnny, then Britton, Nassau, her refusal to marry Britton, then marrying Kip knowing full well that she did not love him, neglecting the baby, and now, having abused Kip who worships her, she has the audacity to complain that he is now seeing his father and the foreign student who lives with the Rysdale's!  Valerie accuses Amy of being a gutless wonder, turns on her heels, and goes to bed.  Amy and Peter say a quiet goodnight.

 

The next day a letter arrives at Peter's from, of all persons, Paul Britton.  Amy calls for the letter and learns that Paul is coming back to Woodbridge to see his baby.  Amy is in a state of consternation.  She has to tell Kip so she does tell him.  He glowers.  He asks if this isn't what she's been waiting for all along.  She doesn't answer.

 

Paul visits Amy.  She is terribly excited.  He is cool. He asks about her, her marriage, and about the baby.  Amy tells him that she is unhappy, that marriage is a cruel joke on Kip, and that the baby is with her sister.  Paul is amazed.  He explains that the purpose of the visit was to see the child.  He has lost one son, he has been harried for almost a year by the Haggerty's, he's changed his name, and the only thing he has left in life to which he has a claim is their small child.  If Amy cannot stand the child, he wants it.  Amy is dumbfounded.  She says that if he will call again tomorrow, she will show him the baby.  He frowns, says all right and leaves.  

 

Kip comes home plastered.  For the first time, Amy sees vividly what she has done to him.  Here is the man who married her when she not only said that she did not love him, but when she was carrying another man's child.  She remembers in a flash all of Kip's kindnesses during the months before the baby was born and Kip's deep love for the child.  She tells Kip about Paul's' visit.  He sneers.  She pleads with him to understand.  This is not the Paul she knew and she never wants to see him again.  She also says that she does not want him to have the baby.  What can she - what can they - do?  Kip sobers up pretty fast and declares that Britton will not get the child.  This child is his son and Amy's natural child.  If Amy will take care of the baby, he will get the baby from Susan.  Amy says of course she will.

 

The next night Paul comes by again.  To his surprise and distress, he meets his former pupil, Kip, and he is shocked when Kip tells him that if Paul would like to see his, Kip's, son, he is welcome to the pleasure.  If, however, Paul, who apparently has nothing left in life but the child by Amy, thinks for a minute that he can possess the child, he has another think coming.  Kip will fight him through court if need be to establish his, Kip's, legal right to be known as the child's father.  After all, the child does bear the Rysdale name.  Paul threatens action and Kip smiles and says goodnight.  Amy is amazed by this display.  For the first time really, she sees Kip for what he is, a fine, decent, and loving man, the man she married.  She tries to tell him this.  He, however, isn't quite ready to let down his guard.  He does confirm the fact, though, that he loves her deeply and he loves the baby.

 

Amy explains what Valerie said to her.  Kip says that Valerie makes sense.  Kip says that he is going out for a while.  Amy does not try to stop him.  She turns, for the first time with love, to the child.

 

Kip visits Peter and Valerie to explain what has happened.  He gives Valerie a big kiss for being so wise.  Peter almost weeps because he foresees that the Kip-Amy marriage will work out.  As far as Paul being a threat, he isn't one.  And maybe his visit was the best thing that could have happened:  Amy was disillusioned forever by Paul's selfishness; she saw her own selfishness in him; and she has finally realized that Kip is great.  Kip is very happy as he goes home.

 

Essentially that is the end of the Kip-Amy story.  I don't think we have a case by Paul for custody, so we can let him disappear.

 

Now before that above comes to climax, we must bring the Alan-Susan situation to a head.  There is no question about it:  Alan is deeply in love with Ann.  She is very feminine and a good listener.  Unlike Susan, she is not everlastingly trying to prove that she is right.  She doesn't really care.  She gives Alan the feeling that everyone is
entitled to his own opinions.  She has hers, others have theirs, but she does not believe in trying to impose her beliefs on others.  Alan finds this wonderfully refreshing.

 

As the romance progresses, it becomes obvious that we should meet Ann's parents, John and Helen.  They are middle-class, pleasant persons, both interested in their home and family.  They are very proud of their son and the father dotes on the twelve-year-old. Ann, however, has always puzzled them.  She has beauty, she is intelligent, but she has always stood aloof from others.  She no sooner finished college than she went to work in Boston in an advertising firm and almost as suddenly married a very rich young man out of college only two years.  His name was Tom Kingston.  Life for Ann turned into a year-round party.  Tom was the only heir to a fortune left to him by his father, a textile manufacturer.  The father was dead and there was only Tom's mother and himself.  The business was in good hands and Tom was in the position to be very high society, indeed.  On the surface the life was a good one.  Europe for the season, Florida or the islands in the winter, summer on Long Island, etc. Tom and Ann followed the sun.  The life was distinctly for him but it was not for her.  She began to feel jaded.  She longed for the earthiness and ordinariness of Woodbridge.  She also gave Tom reason to agree to a divorce so she left the life haute monde and went home.  There she has very quietly gone about her business which is that of copywriter in a small advertising agency, Felton Associates, seen very few people, and behaved with decorum.  She began to visit Brownell in order to find "perspective."  She once had every material thing in the world and it didn't satisfy her.  Now she has the real world of Woodbridge and that is not entirely satisfactory.  What she has been looking for, it seems, is Alan Dunbar because he is attractive, good, worldly, adores her, and probably would kill for her.  She realizes that in encouraging Alan, she will be destroying a marriage but Alan has convinced her that it is a marriage to be destroyed.

 

The essential trouble with Ann, or rather her essential characteristic, is that she is constantly seeking a new experience because she tires in time of routine in which she finds no value.  Most persons accept the tedium that goes with pleasure but Ann is an intellectual and physical adventurer.  

 

To Alan's surprise, it is John Wicker who points out that Ann may be marvelous but not for long.  John urges on Alan all the advice he has already had from Todd, Brownell, etc.  This girl is not at peace with herself and life with her for a few years might be wonderful but then she would be looking for a change.  

 

Alan confronts Ann with his observation and is easily persuaded by her that the problem is his, not hers.  This makes him feel so manly that there is no denying his decision.  He will marry her.  And he does.  In time, perhaps, he will realize the error of his act, but that depends on whether or not we want the character to return to the program. 

 

 

Is it just me, or does anyone else think Roy Winsor is about ready to drag the Averys for filth?

 

Meanwhile, it's good to know that what he did in those two memos -- meaning, laying out story -- is exactly what many of us do all the time on boards such as this one.

 

Thanks, dc!

Edited July 13, 20187 yr by Khan

Who knew Amy wasn't such a goody goody.. almost makes what Belle does to her later on seem like karma

 

I guess this is before Susan mellowed out and became more likable.

 

Very detailed story projections.

This memo was directed to Tony Converse.   He would be the father of future-actor Frank Converse (One Life to Live).

This is amazing stuff. Thank you so much for posting.

I'm going to have to read over it a few times to take it all in. Imagine if more stuff like this was around eg The Ralph Ellis/SFT archives.

 

Janice Wylie was the murdered daughter of Max Wylie, who wrote Secret Storm in the 50's so was probably well known to many associated with the show. Guess that's why Roy Winsor didn't want that name used.

The final piece that the poster posted:

 

 

 

8/4/64
TO: Roy Winsor & Committee.
FROM: The Averys.
PLEASE READ BEFORE PROCEEDING TO THE ATTACHED COMMENTS ON THE LONG STORY LINE.
JANET HILL

For reasons defined in the subsequent notes, and because of the need for new characters to be challenging and compelling and fascinating, we would like you to understand how we see Janet. Please do not construe the following to be material for use in the scripts. Not one of us wants to do THE CARPETBAGGERS or PEYTON PLACE, nor do we wish to go into clinical detail about Janet's problem, nor do we characterize her neatly as a nymphomaniac. But we feel it is of the utmost importance for us to understand among ourselves the valid psychology
that makes Janet interesting.

 

Janet is not consciously a temptress or a siren or even a lustful person. She is, however, a very beautiful and very unhappy girl. From birth, she was the darling of the Hill family, pampered by her father and brothers particularly. When she grew into beauty, she entered into a completely unconscious rivalry with her dazzling mother. Basically she is a simple person, hungering for
(NOTE: SEVERAL SENTENCES ILLEGIBLE).

 

Janet always ran to her Daddy for help, rather than to her Mother, and since then to her brother Bob. Thus, Valerie has never
fully understood her, because she has never had a chance to. And Valerie, not having understood, and vaguely guilty about her failure to do so, will try to make up for unrealized past mistakes by siding with her daughter against Amy. This will lead to the necessary tension between Valerie and Peter.

Janet is 23. It isn't Kip she wants, or Jerry or Alan or any specific man or succession of men. What she wants is someone who will help her prove to herself who she is. Janet is worth saving and will be saved, as Alan Dunbar was. Change and character growth are the soul of drama, and Janet Hill will in time become a welcome member of our family.

 

ANN WICKER
Ann is an opposite of Janet Hill. She is 32, poised, cool, crisply attractive, an intelligent young career woman who is, as evidenced by her visits to Dr. Brownell, taking active steps toward finding the flaws in herself. He father and mother were second generation Boston Polish, and Ann has striven diligently to achieve the material things that remained out of the reach of
her parents and immigrant grandparents.

 

She worked hard for an education and majored in journalism. She was engaged three times and ultimately disappointed as she discovered that her suitors depended on her rather than she on them. All three wanted to be dominated and were attracted by her efficient, determined manner, whereas Ann dreamed of a husband who would be strong and make decisions. She finally met someone who seemed to be such a man, a rich young charmer who swept her off her feet as no other man ever had.

 

She married him quickly, and he definitely made all the decisions -- but they were frivolous ones: whether to summer in Majorca or Aruba, whether to buy a sailboat or a cruiser, whether to back a play or a musical as a tax loss. This purposeless existence, plus her discovery that there was no real joy in the material things she had dreamed of, led to divorce. She went back to Boston, bought her parents a comfortable cottage in the suburbs, and set out all over again to find herself.

In her quest, she turned back to the skill she had trained for, and with the help of letters from some of her former professors, who advised her to avoid the big cities, she landed a job as an assistant to the Society Editor of the Woodbridge Clarion. She now has a column of her own, on Shopping and Dining, with a comfortable expense account.

She loves her parents in a distant way, but they represent what she had tried to get away from, and she rarely sees them any longer, although she faithfully corresponds. If they were to want to come to Woodbridge, she would discourage them, feeling that they would be uncomfortable among her new friends, but subconsciously not caring to be reminded of her background.

 

Ann has a deeply ingrained sense of propriety; she is distinctly a decent woman. She has no desire to seduce Alan, but she is intensely attracted to him. She might not have been before she met Tom Wicker, but now she knows a great deal more about both character and values, and she recognizes Alan's strength and honesty. They are both professional people; they speak a common language, and they are refreshing to each other. And as they find themselves being drawn inevitably closer, each genuinely tries to resist the pull. In Ann's case, it is partly because she detests the role of the Other Woman, so much so that she even tries to protect herself by encouraging the attentions of one of her many friends, a lawyer who is a bachelor and a man of some means. Her attempted self-diversion does not work.

 

Thus a bittersweet, restrained romance between two self-respecting adults is played in counterpoint to the desperate loves of Janet. Ann and Alan are emotional equals, Alan the more secure until badgered beyond endurance buy Susan.