Ellen Holly 1971 interview, photos

[DRW50]

A September 9, 1980 SOD interview. SOD Publishing Inc I'm posting this in the same thread just to keep the articles together.

[DRW50]

[SFK]

Thank you so much for sharing this Carl! I always enjoy reading articles about her. I'm sorry that her film has to this day gone unproduced. I really need to read her book again to jog the memories of what else she may have said about its production journey. I want a family, the whole bit, but something about the way she lives is very appealing to me and I've enjoyed the times in my life where I have in fact lived like her. It can get lonely though.

Here's another Miss Holly interview, this one from Ebony:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Yn2aYTGaVQsC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148&dq=%#v=onepage&q&f=false

[DRW50]

Thanks for reading and responding! I know that might have already been out there but I posted just in case. Thanks for finding the Ebony interview. Her story is so fascinating, especially in the SOD article where she answers a lot of her critics, which is rare for that type of fluffy magazine.

[Money]

I've read Holly's biography and it's a fantastic read, especially when she reveals the truth about her tenure on OLTL. Sadly, the racism she endured back then is still some of the same racism that is prevalent behind the scenes of many soaps today. I remember someone asked Erika Slezak about Holly's comments about her in ES' newsletter and she pretty much shrugged it off as lies. She said she tried to save Holly's job and she became belligerent. Her book is really an eye opener.

[SFK]

It's also kind of funny how she's like, "Instead of answering that for the umpteenth time, let me just give you my well-written definitive response to that as seen in my NYT article." It's like, "I couldn't possibly say it better than I already have, so why bother repeating myself?" It's cute because in Agnes Nixon's Intimate Portrait, her line about new soap operas being like struggling colts and OLTL going against the norm and taking off like a rocket is straight from her book.

Money, I think Miss Holly misinterpreted what Miss Slezak was trying to say in that 1992 SOD interview. I wish that EH would return to the show not just for an anniversary but to usher in a DECENT s/l involving a relative, perhaps a grandchild, and she and ES could sit and talk and work things out.[/Pollyanna]

[DRW50]

I think they should have a brief story where Dorian decides, for political gain and also just to do it, to make some type of apology for racism in Llanview. Perhaps she and Bo uncover bigotry on the police force. And Carla returns as part of that, along with Ed. They could use this blanket apology to say sorry to Ellen Holly for what was done to her, and as you mention, a nice scene with Viki, and they could use this to introduce some Hall kids or grandkids or greatgrandkids.

[SFK]

I would love that. Maybe even have Larry and Anna come back for the dedication of a wing of the hospital to the late Head of Housekeeping, Sadie Gray. That would be beautiful, actually.

(Remember when we had a gossip thread and someone mentioned that RS and AFJ used to knock boots?)

[Vee]

Yeah, Holly's book is wonderful but she totally misinterpreted Slezak's comment about the whitewashing of OLTL in the '80s - Erika was being critical of that aspect of the Rauch era. ES shut the controversy down a year or two ago in her newsletter when she was questioned on it by a viewer and replied, quote, "Yes, that's bulls__t."

I think the best way to handle the Halls is to introduce Joshua and some children, and seed them throughout the show, then allow Ed to come back and play with the cop shop (even if he is retired) and finally Carla swans in with a big secret. Whatever it is could tie the family back into the show for a good long time.

That being said, I do like aspects of the Evans and Price families, however token they often are - I liked the parallel of Greg being the "high-class" member of a blue-collar family where Mr. Evans was a Statesville guard, whereas Theo Price is the "blue collar" cop in an upper-middle class black family. That's a kind of specificity we generally don't get with black people on soaps; that kind of social delineation is usually only saved for the white characters. Unfortunately, OLTL still uses those characters as tokens, which is unacceptable for talents like Tonye Patano and Frankie Faison. Bottom line is OLTL is way below those two's pay grade - they've been doing incredible work in real [!@#$%^&*] for years. Faison goes back to Silence of the Lambs, which his character's job is a direct reference to. However incidental their characters are, I believe space can be made to do stuff with them. I think Max Tapper and JJ Singleton also have a lot more potential, and I think Shenell Edmonds - well, I'm still on the fence about how much she can do, but that character can go further. OTOH, I think a properly cast Jamie Vega could do just as well.

[SFK]

Exactly, I got a real kick out of that.

[DRW50]

I hadn't seen the gossip thread. I love the memorial idea for Sadie.

I guess the biggest step forward would be for OLTL to come out and say they know they have often practiced tokenism and they are never going to do that again. From now on if they bring in black characters they are proper characters, with as much development as any white character. The limbo of the Evans family is incredibly degrading. So is the way Rachel has been treated. And every time you will hear some type of response like well they can't act anyway/who cares/they're not connected to core characters/who cares. There will always be an excuse. But there is no excuse which is enough to stop a huge swathe of viewers from permanently tuning the show out, or for ignoring the many fantastic stories a racially integrated canvas brings.

[Vee]

I'd advocate something similar for the Woleks, incidentally - use the next generation and highlight Larry for a day or two as part of it, the unsung hero of Llanview, who still wipes kids' noses, works all day and goes to bed in the break room at the hospital next to Meredith's picture. I know exactly how I would do that. Get Judith Light to do a bit, let Karen stir up some trouble in town and maybe kick off a story for Viki as well as some of the younger heroines. Why not.

I thought Eli Clarke would've made a good Wolek cousin, before he turned into Jeffrey Dahmer. Oh well.

[DRW50]

With less and less jobs for NY-based actors they might even manage to get Doris Belack back for a few days (is she still acting?).

[Vee]

I think she's still doing all the Dick Wolf shows. I think she'll still be playing judges on L&O spinoffs long after we'll all dead. And yes, I wanted her to appear along with Judith Light to usher in some new kid for Larry to handle - his grandson. One could presume Larry and Dan are still estranged over Brenda McGillis, and you could keep Dan Wolek in your back pocket for a while and wait to play that out with the kid. Larry's just always kind of been the unlucky unsung hero, he's got so much soul. Karen left him for a Betamax video pirate.

[DRW50]

They could even bring back Mimi King, tie her in through the Buchanans and with Larry.

It would be great to see Dan again. I don't even know what happened to him or the last time he was mentioned.