The Road Of Life

[Paul Raven]

Road of Life played at 1.15 pm which had not been programmed by the network up until then.

In January Brighter Day debuted at 1pm, previously for local programming and then in April Portia Faces Life was scheduled at 1.15 giving CBS a soap block from

12-1.30 - Valiant Lady/Love of Life/Search for Tomorrow/Guiding Light/Brighter Day/Portia

Then in July 54 Portia moved to 1pm and The Seeking Heart debuted at 1.15,

Brighter moved to 4pm replacing the cancelled Woman with a Past.

In December Seeking Heart was out and Road of Life took over.

In July 55 Portia and Seeking Heart were cancelled and replaced with Jack Paar 30 min talk/variety.

So CBS could never establish a soap block at 1pm.

[dc11786]

Just to clarify, despite Irna Phillips claims, she was not the creator of "The Brighter Day" or "Young Doctor Malone." "Brighter Day" was created by Orin Torov and "Young Doctor Malone" is from John Pickard and Frank Provo. Irna usurped control of "Brighter Day" from Orin Torov, who had set the show in the same universe as his hit series "Ma Perkins." There was once a rather bleak letter from Orin Torov to one of the actresses (maybe Liz Dennis) informing her of his termination. I don't know if the "Joyce Jordan" story is true either about the characters starting out on one and moving to the other. Though, I know when "Women in White" ended the characters were shuffled around. I believe Karl Webber ended up on "The Road of Life" as his WiW character Dr. Kirk Harding. 

I don't know how long Provo and Pickard wrote for "Young Doctor Malone," but one of the men served during World War II and I believe that impacted their writing stint. 

Charles Gussman was the final writer for nearly a decade for "The Road of Life." He was the one who introduced the wealthy, dysfunctional Overton clan until he replaced them with the even more psychological complex and wealthy Malloy family. Tying the two together as a sort of right of passage, Sybil Overton ended up marrying Ed Malloy, the patriarch of the family, in April/May 1958 as the show was in its final year. Malloy's three children included Nicole (a neurotic who believed she would suffer the same fate as her late mother), Quentin, and Gabrielle (who ended up in a starcrossed lovers story with Frank Dana's college aged adopted son Tommy). I believe the mystery looming over the show at the end was whether or not Ed Malloy had killed his first wife, the mother of his children. 

[Paul Raven]

Thanks for that extra detail.

Storylines for the remaining radio soaps in the mid and late 50's are scarce. I've never read of the Malloys before.

[dc11786]

I clipped a bunch of stuff on “Road of Life” years ago that I’m starting to review. I had forgotten that after Teri Keane played Jocelyn that Elizabeth Lawrence briefly played her. 
 

Gussman would have done well in televised daytime. I’ll see what I can put together this weekend of the final years of RoL. I know that Jim Brent lingered in the Mexican desert for several weeks at some point after a car accident tied to a government project, Aunt Reggie was bilked out her fortune by Randy Ogden before dying of neglect in a shady nursing home, Francis’s old flame Cabe came to town and tempted Francis while also seducing(and I believe marrying) Nicole Malloy. “The Road of Life” and the final run of “Right to Happiness” sound incredibly strong. I wish more material was available.

[Paul Raven]

Any details of ROL or other radio shows would be greatly appreciated!

[dc11786]

@Paul Raven

Sorry. I ended up going in a hole of "Road of Life" searching without actually sharing anything. 

The final years seem to be dominated by a lot of turnover in the actors playing the roles. As TV became the dominant medium, I imagine a lot of actors who made the move to television no longer had the time or ability to perform on the daytime radio soaps. As a result you have a lot of turnover in key roles. Paul McGrath is more than likely the final Dr. Jim Brent. He first appeared in September 1958 and the show wrapped up in the first week of January 1959. There's about a year (July 1957-August 1958) where I cannot find anyone listed in the role as Jim. I am pretty sure he appears, but I'm not sure if Don McLaughlin was in the role until 1958 or if there were another actor in between McLaughlin and McGrath. Though, I am beginning to wonder if Brent may not have been offscreen for a bit in January - March 1957 (or 1958 I have to check) in Mexico because of McLaughlin's part on "As the World Turns."

Similarly, several actresses played Jocelyn post-Virginia Dwyer. Teri Keane assumed the role by September 1955. She was there for about a year or so. She was replaced in 1957 with Lenka Peterson. In 1958, Pat Wheel returned to the role of Jocelyn. I cannot find any newspaper listings confirming Pat Wheel, but I am almost positive I read about Wheel resuming the role in one of the old TV Mirrors online.

I think Bobby Readick was the final Dr. John Brent. I believe there was another actor in the Frank Dana role towards the end as well. I mistakenly wrote that Elizabeth Lawrence was Jocelyn, when she was Francie. I'm not sure if she was there until the end. John and Franice Brent took the lead for a bit in 1957-1958 with Francie's ex-boyfriend, Cable, arriving on the scene from her days in Chicago around the time she also started working for Ed Malloy, a multimillionaire, who arrived in Merrimac in August 1957. John Brent became obsessed with social status and used his inheritance from Aunt Reggie to improve their lifestyle. To keep up with the payments, John became involved in gambling and with loan sharks. This placed strain on his marriage to Francie, which I would assume pushed her towards Cable, but I don't think Francie and John broke up. Cable, who had been a physical trainer for a baseball team, became involved in the newspaper business and ended up married to Nicole Malloy, who had some neuroses related to her mother's mental decline. I imagine Francie's professional involvement with wealthy Ed Malloy also made Brent a bit more driven to elevate his status. 

I now suspect that the Overton clan was deemphasised in mid to late 1956. Charles Dingle, the actor who was playing Conrad Overton, passed away in January 1956. Another actor, who's name I have not been able to locate, assumed the role until at least June 1956 when Sybil was involved in yet another trial. I suspect Dingle's passing is what spurred the exit of the Overtons. I imagine Abbey Lewis and Doug Parkihurst may have departed around the same time if they hadn't already. I'm also unsure at what point the show wrote off Malcolm and his wife, Augusta, who I imagine may have departed before the tv series began, but I am unsure if she reappeared. 

With Conrad Overton gone, Ed Malloy became the heavy in the story. He was at war with Frank Dana presumably over the way Ed tried to control the newspaper with his money and power. The animosity between the two escalated when Frank's (adopted) son Tom Dana returned from college in the summer of 1957 when Gabrielle Malloy, Ed's daughter by his late first wife, also returned. Tom and Gabrielle fell in love in a "Romeo and Juliet" style story that kept them apart. Gabrielle was dragged into some legal matters involving Ed and Frank which would have caused her to testify against her father. Frank eventually recruited Cable to work as an editor at the paper which meant that now Malloy's son-in-law was working in the enemy camp. Cable, and I believe Nicole, both began to suspect that Ed may have in fact been behind his first wife's untimely death. This would have placed Malloy's new wife, Sybil Overton, at risk after she and Malloy forged Jim Brent's name on papers in April 1958 in order to marry without waiting for a blood test. Cable threatened to use the newspaper in August 1958 to do an expose on the mysterious passing and Ed ended up fleeing from justice in late 1958. In January 1959, Sybil was informed that Malloy had perished in a plane crash, most likely one of the three cliffhangers spoken of in Charles Gussman's obituary. I suspect Tom Dana may have shot Frank Dana as well thinking Frank might have been Ed Malloy, but that's pure conjecture. 

I'm realizing more and more that Dr. Jim Brent and Jocelyn really are regulated to the sidelines in the final years, more likely than not because of the constant turnover in actors and actresses. I wouldn't be surprised if McLaughlin stayed until late in the show's run (summer 1958) but that they had to keep Jim on the sidelines becasue of McLaughlin's workload on "As the World Turns." The last big Jim Brent story seems to be Brent's involvement with Hopehaven Sanitarium, a crooked old age home where his Aunt Reggie Ellis was interred. Aunt Reggie defended the charltan doctors at this hospital before falling victim to neglect and dying in June or July 1956/1957. Sybil became involved with Randy Ogden, a financier involved with the hospital who was also involved in mismanaging Aunt Reggie's money. Jim spent the better part of the year trying to bring the responsibile parties to justice, which he did. Also, briefly, as a part of the story, Sybil was looking to make amends with people as her involvement with the criminal element had led her to loose custody of her daughter. 

Jocelyn, post-TV, seems to have a few stories. I think she would have given birth to her and Jim's child on radio while wrapping up the love triangle between herself and Armand Monet and Jim with her going back to Jim. When Jim went missing in Mexico, it is Jocelyn who was leading the search to find her husband.  

Charles Gussman would have written this entire period. I easily think this could have played out on television more successfully than what actually played out on TV. Most of "The Road of Life's" run is fairly compelling to me, barring the two or three year period where Howard Teichmann pushes out the medical angle and inserts a spy ring involved in trying to steal the research Jim Brent is doing for a government lab. As a part of the spy ring plot, Carol Brent, Jim's decade long love interest, is killed off and replaced with a doppleganger, Beth Lambert, who infilitrates the Brents lives in order to get access to the research. The plot is resolved in mid-1950 before Gussman shifts the story from spies to the complicated relationship between the Brents and the Overtons, who I believe he created. 

If there is any interest, recently about two and half months of episodes from 1944-1945 were released from a radio fan's collection. What's most interesting about the period is its from the time the show switched filming locations from Chicago to New York so there should be an entirely new set of voices playing role after four or five episodes. I haven't listened yet, but it seems like it might be of some interest to those here. 

https://archive.org/details/RoadOfLifeJHMC

Edited September 5, 2022 by dc11786

[Paul Raven]

Was Road of Life pre-recorded at that stage? If so Don may have continued in the role although I doubt it as the workload on ATWT would have been quite heavy and would he have the time/inclination to continue with radio?

If ROL was live it would have been impossible for him to do both.

Thank you so much for taking the time to detail those storylines as this information in unavailable ANYWHERE as far as I know, so you are performing a sterling service in committing this era of soap/radio history to print.

Coverage of the radio soaps seemed to die out by the early 50's.

Any other information you have about radio soaps  please share with us. It is much appreciated!

[AMCOLTLLover]

Wow thank u so much for all your effort and input. I love reading about the radio soaps and love listening to them. Wow such a great ride.

such a shame that so many other soaps have like hundreds of episodes saved from the radio besides Guiding Light:( 

[DRW50]

About 6 years ago I found an episode of this show on Youtube and posted the link here. I wasn't sure if it was still up or not. It doesn't seem to be. I stumbled upon a copy of mine tonight and decided to reupload. If anyone knows more info on the date or year of this episode, or much info at all, I'd appreciate it.

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