Ellen Holly 1971 interview, photos

[DeeeDee]

Pat & Angie were pretty good as were Jessica & Bonnie.

[DRW50]

I caught up on some Jessica/Bonnie recently and it was pretty good -- at the time the story bothered me and I wasn't paying enough attention to the scenes.

Pat and Angie were great from what I've seen; and I liked that Pat also had a life and career.

Taylor and Vivian on AMC were good too, especially Vivian.

[EricMontreal22]

Don't apologize--your articles have been incredible. I have a handful of NYTimes articles online that I can't seem to post as scans or photos here--several (from the 60s, 70s and 80s) about race that I think would be especially of interest.

[DRW50]

Thanks for reading them.

I always enjoyed the NYT stuff you posted, if you ever want to even summarize that would be great too. I learn so much about soaps here.

[SFK]

Now THAT would have been something... Clara and Clay...

[SFK]

Carl, check out Google Books. I believe that's where I found Miss Holly's NYT article. You can find a lot of great old stuff there, and since they've made efforts to archive all of Ebony and Jet's past issues, you can find a lot of stuff on black soap stars, like EH's Ebony cover article on Carla's wedding.

[DRW50]

I'd have loved seeing her with Lorraine too, Lorraine was such a fascinating character.

Thanks for telling me about Google Books I'll have to check that out.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Thanks, this is incredible. I wish I'd been alive to see Ellen Holly on OLTL.

[DRW50]

Thanks for reading it!

There are a few of her later episodes on Youtube. I think under HamiltonBernique.

[SFK]

I saw some of her late '70s/early '80s work in a couple of episodes at the Paley Center a few years back and hers was a kind of acting that you don't see on the soaps anymore, as a matter of fact, that you didn't even see from her in those HamiltonBernique eps. She was very raw and natural and Method, I mean, real blushing and eyes getting all glassy, biting her thumb and flirty, it was really like nothing I'd ever seen that wasn't on stage or film. It wasn't cranked out/acting by numbers soap acting, she was acting like she had no where to be but there, if that makes any sense.

[DRW50]

That does make sense. I wish I could see some of that. Everything about her seems so unique. I'm surprised she was ever even cast on a soap.

[quartermainefan]

She was a real actress, as compared to the pretty mannequins that wind up on soaps today. She worked with James Earl Jones in King Lear, and that's a lot more than I can say about just about everyone working in soaps today.

This is not a great scene or a great showcase for anyone except James Earl Jones. Shakespeare wasn't known for a multitude of great female roles though. You might not even find it a great scene for JEJ with all the screaming and carrying on. But anyway, she did it and that's something Susan Lucci can't say.

The only other soap actor I have come across doing Shakespeare on YT is Dallas and Y&R third stringer Marc Singer of Beastmaster fame.

[R Sinclair]

Lord, have mercy. I have to see for myself. Whenever I hear or read raves of this magnitude, I immediately become cynical. Blame it on my father, who tends to remember things in such verbose, grand stories that are cloaked in rich, frothy hyperbole... only for me to see the actual thing and be left with a feeling of "that's it?"

[SFK]

I know what you mean and that's probably exactly what will happen. I felt that way when I finally saw Kim Stanley in The Goddess. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that she was giving a master class, what I noticed was subtle and not at all bowl you over, just a delicate and real quality, Geraldine Page had some of it going on in the Loving pilot movie, a generation of actors with a certain style that we don't see much of anymore. A matter of taste at that, Sandy Dennis isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea.

[Vee]

I've always meant to go to the Museum of Television & Radio or whatever here in NY, where I understand they have several episodes with Carla from the old, old days. My viewing of footage of the character or her storylines from before the '80s is few and far between.

What's noticeable, though, even in those '80s eps with some silly third-tier stories, is that Carla, with her mother, agonizing re: Ed and Roger Hill's character (Alec Lowndes), bears a striking resemblance in mannerisms, emotional outpouring, etc. to Erika Slezak's own performances at the same age. I find the parallels and similarities in performance to be uncanny. Which I think is appropriate since in many ways you can see Carla as OLTL's black heroine just as Viki was the white heroine.

I've always wanted them to bring Carla and the Hall clan back before Ms. Holly passes in order to have Carla mix it up with the vets from her day. They can easily draw on Holly's own fiery persona and transmute it into the onscreen character having become more of a social activist - "Carla is...difficult." If you cast strong younger actors of color to shore up the future, and weave characters like Destiny, Matthew, etc. into the mix as well while bringing Viki and Dorian's kids into the picture too, I think it would do well. And I think that family of characters is owed something so as to expunge some of that scar of shame from OLTL's historical record, from when they abandoned their commitment to those people.

I think that if Carla and Sadie had ended up on Loving - and both women were, I believe, asked by Agnes Nixon - that there would still be some Halls on ABC Daytime today, even in minor form. Look what happened when Debbi and Darnell were randomly brought over to LOV in the '90s. I suspect Agnes played a role in that. And what that did do, despite Loving and The City's ultimate cancellations, was leave Debbi and Darnell and the Hubbards viable and alive in the minds of the contemporary audience for years to come - which led to Debbi's stint on PC, and Darnell's repeat appearances on AMC as Ghost Jesse, until finally someone decided that they were familiar and beloved enough by the audience to bring back as Angie and Jesse.