Radio Soap Opera Discussion

[Reverend Ruthledge]

I'm not sure if Ned was played by Ed Prentiss at that point. 

Jonathan got a job in Los Angeles. He would come back to Chicago periodically and on one of these visits, after Tim had died, he asked Clare to marry him and she went off to Los Angeles with him. They didn't stay in the story long. They were gone before a year of the new story. It was said that Jonathan and Clare moved away for another job. I think Irna was really trying to find her way with the story until she settled on the Bauers. The transition characters from the old show (Jonathan, Clare, Ned) were quickly forgotten to focus on Ray's family and then they were quickly forgotten when the focus became the Bauers. But then she settled on them and they became the focus for the next few decades. And every time Irna changed the focus of the show, there would be a new minister. Reverend Keeler replaced Charles Matthews when the focus was switched to the Bauers. 

You are right that by 1944, the old story was largely forgotten. The focus became mostly on Clare Marshall and those in her orbit. Some of the old characters stayed around to varying degrees (Mrs. Kransky, Mrs. O'Hearn, Pete Manno, perhaps a few others). However, they only came on occasionally. Perhaps Ned and Mary were on the show that late although I don't have any episodes with them. I have a lot of gaps from that time period. It seems the focus of the show was less on Five Points and more on Chicago (Five Points was a suburb of Chicago). I think the years of 1943-1946 were good but also what I consider a weak point of the series. It was the transition period from the original show to what it would become with "The New Guiding Light". It was kind of all over the place. Rose, Ellis, Torchy and a most of the original characters seem to have stopped around 1943 when that transition time began. I'm not sure how it was handled. It will take me a while to get to that time period. I have very little from around that time period so it will take me a while to get to those answers on how that particular transition was handled. I have more answers on how the transition to "The New Guiding Light" was handled. 

The last name was just coincidence. They weren't related. 

With two cancellations, probably a lot of struggle with the suits, and struggling with ratings, I think Irna was just trying out different things to find the right formula. Even though I'm a huge fan of the Bauer family saga, the first five years of the show are my personal favorite. Although I can see why it might have struggled in the ratings. It was more a philosophical show, like another favorite of mine Against the Storm, and it wasn't probably the crowd-pleaser that shows like Ma Perkins were. It was not the plot-heavy, Perils of Pauline type of radio soap opera that so many women seemed to like at that time. Even during the time that the show was focused mostly on one woman (Clare Marshall), it was still slow-moving, thought provoking and character-driven. 

[dc11786]

I've listened to a few more episodes of "Radio Playhouse."

Most noteable revelations:

In "Face of Love," there was a rather shocking revelation; Kate's late husband Tom Wakefield had been left impotent from his drug addiction. The reveal acts as a sorta ABC Afterschool Special as Kate drops this tidbit to her 19-year-old niece, Nancy. In addition, I think it sets up Kate as a virgin even though she was married, which might be a way of explaining Kate's relationship with Tony Cushing. Kate doesn't seem ready to commit to Tony and cannot seem to fully connect with David. 

In "To Have and To Hold," I had missed completely that Richard and Suzanne Holland had departed the series, most likely to commit to "General Hospital." The Hollands used script writers so I just assumed Dornheim was handling the scripts, but the Hollands haven't been credited for a bit. I jumped ahead and in February, Mary Dornheim is still the only writer listed and Michael Storm has replaced Bill Redfield as Marsh. I cannot imagine Bert and Dr. Larry Wolek as a couple, but I am excited to see it play out. 

In another surprise casting, something I had suspected (due to her distinct voice) was true: Morgan Fairchild is appearing as Ann, Caroline's daughter by her first daughter. This pre-dates her appearance as the lead on "Face of Love." I'll be curious to see if Ann sticks around with Fairchild in the part because Ann has been introduced as a possible spoiler to the Kurt / Lynn romance. It is also clarified that River Run, the family home, belongs to Caroline and Ann as Caroline's late husband was a succesfful businessman. This is an interesting development that has slowly unfolded over the course of the last few episodes, though I suspect it might be a rewrite by Dornheim. Either way, I don't hate it. 

It's a shame these didn't continue for a few years. I would love to have as many episodes as CBS Radio Mystery Theatre has from this same period of time. 

[DRW50]

@dc11786 Thanks. Always enjoy reading these updates. And yes, the idea of Michael Storm and Charita Bauer as partners is a jolt.

[Paul Raven]

@Reverend Ruthledge Belated thanks for TGL update. Interesting that Irna was prepared to make sweeping changes in the radio format but then kept the Bauers for years. I think her approach to TV soaps differed from radio. Maybe she felt TV viewers were more attached to the characters.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

You're welcome, Paul. As I always say, it's a pleasure to be able to share my knowledge with the other five people in the world who care about the subject of soaps' golden years. 

[vetsoapfan]

ROTF!

And it's a pleasure to be one of those five people!

Knowing I am not alone in my obsession is a relief!

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[Paul Raven]

The Guiding Light
Tuesday, January 10, 1950
Music: under
Announcer: This evening in the living room of a little house with a white
picket fence on Elm Street in Selby Flats, the fireplace is ablaze with
flame, but somehow it seems cold and cheerless to you, doesn't it Ray
Brandon? You sit with your tightly clenched hands pressed against your
forehead—your thoughts are of Charlotte in a hospital where she has
been confined because of her attempt to find forgetfulness, escape, in the
twilight world of barbiturates, sleeping pills . . . It's unbelievable, isn't it,
Ray, what's happened to Charlotte . . . and what's happened to you.
You're forced at this moment to recall the words of Dr. Mary Leland. . . .
Music: up and under
Mary: (overfilter) Now of all times, Ray, you must give Charlotte all the
understanding she needs and deserves. Ray, you've got to straighten out
your own thinking a little before you can even begin to help Charlotte find
her way back.
Music: up and under
Ray: Apparently Mary feels that my thinking needs not just a little but a
great deal of straightening out. She wouldn't even permit me to see
Charlotte today. Somehow I got the idea that Charlotte must have made it
very clear that she didn't want to see me.
Mary: (filter) She's going thru mental and physical torment, Ray.
Ray: And so am I, so am I. But I've got to stop thinking of myself now.
I've got to think as straight and as clearly as I ever have in my life.
Music: up and out
Announcer: But will you be capable, Ray, of seeing the past thru anything
but a haze of bitterness? Will you be capable even now? We'll learn more
about this shortly.
Music: out

Music: up and under
Char: (echo) Sure, I know we've lost our way—we're kind of feeling our
way thru the darkness. I'm trying so hard to see a light, just a faint glimmer
of—well, a guiding light. But there's something you haven't said for
a long time—the only thing that can put us on the right road again. You
know what I'm talking about, don't you, Ray?
Ray: (echo) No, Charlotte—I don't.
Char: (echo) Love. You haven't said "I—I still love you."
Music: up and under
Announcer: You didn't say it even then, Ray. No, you and Charlotte kept
living under the same roof, a man and wife—but strangers to each other.
No wonder Dr. Mary Leland spoke to you as she did.
Mary: (overfilter) What have you done to that girl—crucified her. You've
done a very cruel thing, Ray. And now you wonder why she's shut you
out of her life.
Music: sting it
Char: (filter) You can't take love, a woman's feelings, Ray, tear them apart
like you would a piece of cloth and try to put the pieces together again.
The pieces never fit quite the same.
Music: up and under
Announcer: Yes, it's no wonder, Ray Brandon, that your wife rejected your
half-hearted protestations of love when they finally did come. Actions
speak louder than words, Ray, and the tenderness was missing, wasn't it?
And then, when Charlotte's nervous system had given way, when you
remained blind to the fact that she was finding escape in self-medication,
how else did you think she'd react to your magnanimous suggestions that
you return to this house?
Music: sting it
Char: (filter) (violently) I said forget it, Ray. I don't care what you do with
the house in Selby Flats. I don't want any part of it, not any part of it!
Music: up and under

Announcer: And now she's lying in a hospital after you forced her to
return to this house, this wife who stood by you thru that difficult period
in your life when you fought to clear yourself of a crime you didn't commit,
a prison sentence you didn't deserve, a battle to build a legal career
for yourself, a wife who believed in you, gave you encouragement, loved
you with every fibre of her being, a wife who was ready to forgive you
anything, everything, as long as you loved her. Do you wonder, Ray, why
the words of Dr. Mary Leland and the words of Sid Harper, a man who
really understands Charlotte, keep pounding in your brain?
Music: building under—rapid tempo
Sid: (filter) When there was no longer a child in your home Charlotte
needed you more than during your whole married life together. And what
did you do—you turned your back on her.
Mary: (filter) You've crucified that girl, Ray.
Sid: (filter) You're a stupid fool, Brandon.
Mary: (filter) You've rejected her as a woman.
Sid: (filter) Stupid fool.
Mary: (filter) She's lost complete confidence.
Sid: (filter) Fool. . . .
Mary: (filter) You've been cruel . . .
Sid: (filter) You fool, you stupid fool.
Music: up in payoff
Ray: (on mike) (brokenly) I have been to blame—it has been my fault. A
chance—yes . . .I've got to have another chance to make everything right
again.
Music: up into bridge
Announcer: (tease) Meta Bauer learns of Charlotte's hospitalization in the
next dramatic episode of The GuidingLight brought to you by the New Duz

[Paul Raven]

Some tidbits about One Man's Family circa 1935

WONDER what a typical American family thinks about? . . . Is there any such thing as a typical American family?" Carlton Morse, radio writer, was wondering in 1932. His method of answering the questions was unusual. He picked out a group of people who, in his opinion, might be members of a typical family. A father, a mother, three sons, and two daughters. All of them real people. All of them interesting people. They weren't actually members of the same family. But they were certainly the right types and they were about the right age. Mentally, he put them all under the same roof, and waited to see what happened. What happened proved fascinating to radio listeners on the Pacific Coast. So much so that 'strictly on a public demand basis, more and more radio stations were added to the chain broadcasting the program, until now, under the sponsorship of Tender Leaf Tea, it is reaching the whole country.

 Morse seldom writes more than one episode in advance, the reason being that he wants to see how the members of the family behave in the situations as they develop. If the actors feel that they are behaving naturally, he is satisfied. If he puts them in situations where they feel strange—where they have to "act"—he changes the direction of the plot. So—what does the typical American family think about? What does it do as a result of its thinking? Is there any such thing as a typical American family? Are the Barbours it?

FANNY BARBOUR (played by Minetta Ellen) finds herself in the role of buffer and interpreter between her husband and her children. Her background is conventional, " oldfashioned," but her sympathies are with the eager, searching spirit of the children. She has but two ambitions—to be a good wife and an understanding mother. But simple as these seem, before bedtime she's often dead tired--even if she doesn't admit defeat.

CLAUDIA BARBOUR (played by Kathleen Wilson) eloped with Johnny Roberts while in college. Eight months later they quarreled and Johnny disappeared. The next she heard of him, he had been wounded fighting with the rebels in China. Claudia and Johnny's parents went to China and nursed him back to health. Then, when they were ready to sail, Johnny came down with pneumonia and died overnight . . . Out of this Ill-fated marriage Claudia received two rewards—a comfortable fortune, and, more important, her little daughter, Joan.

When Johnny died, leaving Claudia $250,000, she found her father opposed to her having so much in her own right. As a result of this disagreement, Claudia took Joan and went to England. That's how she came to meet Captain Nicholas Lacey (played by Walter Patersrn), 12th Baronet and a former officer in the British Army. He has a magnificent old estate in England, but prefers America; at least, it seems, while Claudia is in America.

PAUL BARBOUR, the eldest son (played by Michael Raffetto), met and married an American war nurse while flying at the front. Two weeks later, she died. The same week, Paul was shot down, and must walk with a cane for the rest of his life. He came out of the war bitter against the older generation for bringing on the war. He has learned to laugh at himself and the world, but all these years he has been "difficult," unable to adjust himself to routine.

For five years Paul and Beth Holly (played by Barbara Jo Allen) have been "seeing each other a lot." But now that apparently has been broken off. Beth is a young widow, and long the family's choice as a wife for Paul. Obviously there was no estrangement when the picture was snapped. Obviously, too, the break-up might be expected to have a disturbing effect on even a cool-headed young man. And Paul is far from being that.

PAUL'S STORMY SOUL finds a quiet anchorage in his little adopted daughter, Teddy (played by Winifred Wolfe). She has been in the family about a year, but has established herself firmly. She is really a cousin of Betty Carter, the girl friend of Jack ( played by Page Gilman). But everybody has forgotten that, so much a Barbour has she become.

HENRY BARBOUR (played by I. Anthony Smythe) is a conscientious business man of moderate fortune. An idealist, a sentimentalist, firm in the conviction that a good father will have a good family. His greatest problem is trying to apply his oldfashioned conventional standards to his modern children. It is the ancient conflict between the old and the new, and as usual that younger generation seems somehow to get its way.

Clifford Barbour left the University to enter his father's securities firm. Although a happygo-lucky sort, he has taken naturally to business. Girls—yes, he takes to them naturally, too. But, at the first hint of a permanent relationship he's off to another. That is, until he met Marion Galloway. Nobody in the family knows her but his father. And at last, from his looks, he is ready to take a girl seriously—with Claudia like a good twin consoling him.

THE fact that millions share their private lives I when they're the Barbours on the air doesn't' mean, naturally, that they lack private private lives which are shared only by a few . . .

J. ANTHONY SMYTHE ( Henry Barbour) was born in San Francisco. He played with Florence Reed in " Magda" and " The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" — in fact, played 1200 leading- man roles before he returned from roving to his native California. And here's the pay-off — he's a bachelor.

MINETTA ELLEN ( Mrs. Barbour) was born in Cleveland. Her travels have been so far and wide, and her sympathies and scoldings for lonely folk so generously bestowed around the world, that her personal mail is almost as great as her vast "fan" mail.

MICHAEL RAFFETTO ( Paul Barbour) was born in Placerville, Calif. Educated to be a lawyer. Diction coach to Hollywood luminaries when fate tossed them from silence into the talkies. Then creative ability plus a grand speaking voice brought him into radio — first as a writer, then as an actor.

BERNICE BERWIN ( Hazel Barbour) is the wife of A. Brooks Berlin, San Francisco attorney, and the mother of a sturdy baby son. Since 1928, she has starred in radio productions, and has written a number of them herself.

KATHLEEN WILSON ( Claudia Barbour) one-time woman fencing champion of the University of California, one-time companion of her father in his campaigns with Ramsay MacDonald for the British Labor Party, one-time dancer with Ruth St. Denis, is even now only 23 years old.

BARTON YARBOROUGH ( Clifford Barbour) wab born in Goldthwaite, Texas. He was 17 when he ran away from home. From vaudeville to playing in " Outward Bound" with Sir Gerald du Maurier. Then to parts with Eva Le Gallienne, May Robson, Robert Edeson.

PAGE GILMAN ( Jack Barbour) has only turned seventeen. But he's a Microphone Veteran of eight years' standing. One of the original airmen, you might say. He's been Billy Smithers, he's been Penrod, he's been many another.

WINIFRED WOLFE ( Teddy) really is 12 years old. Presidio Junior High School, San Francisco, Class 7B. She writes poems to her mother, because she hopes to be a writer some day, and because she loves her mother.

Edited March 31 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

Thanks @Paul Raven appreciate hearing about the earliest days of this show in such detail.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

 

Thank you very much for posting this. One Man's Family and The Guiding Light are my two favorite radio shows. 

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

Thanks @Paul Raven

[dc11786]

This is the Winifred Wolfe who later wrote for soaps like "As the World Turns" and "Somerset," correct?

I listened to a couple more episodes of "Radio Playhouse" this week. Morgan Fairchild appears to assume the role of Kate Wakefield on "Faces of Love" as of Monday, November 3. In the same episode, Ann (Fairchild's role on "To Have and To Hold") also appears. It is hard for me to tell if Fairchild is still in the part. It sounds like she may be softening her voice to distinguish the two characters, but it may, in fact, be a different actress. The credits for the week only included the main four (with Billy Redfield still listed as Marshall) and Carin Greene. I'll be curious to see how she plays out. 

A month or two back, I also found some episodes of "Sounds of the City" from the same period. I am almost positive we have some articles in here about it. It was an African American radio soap that ran for what seems to be about 180 or so episodes from late April/early May 1974 until late in 1974 or early in 1975. The initial story is heavy on a police corruption plot and some domestic issues often resulting from the corruption plot. What is most interesting to me is the inclusion of commercials that feature the characters shilling out the sponsor's products. In one, the mother and the son are having breakfast and discussing the son's cereal choice.   

I wish daily audio drama had made it a little bit longer or if there were longer stretches of a lot of the late runs of soaps from the late 1950s. I'll probably just have to live with CBS Radio Mystery Theatre episodes instead. 

[Paul Raven]

Lonely Women was Irna Phillips  first new serial  since Right to Happiness

Lonely Women:                         NBC:  June 29, 1942 to Dec. 10, 1943.  (76 Weeks)
General Mills                               Totals:  76 Consecutive Weeks -  380 Episodes Broadcast

Irna retooled and renamed the show Today's Children but I don't believe it had any association with the 1930's version.

Today's Children                       NBC: Dec 13, 1943 to June 2, 1950. (338 Weeks) 

IRNA PHILLIPS is one of radio's  most famous writers. Since 1930 her serials have thrilled radio listeners. Just turning 40, she is probably the highest paid woman in the radio industry.

For years she has been turning out more than two million words of serial copy each year-enough to make twenty good sized novels.

At present Miss Phillips is supervising the writing  of four famous dramatic programs. They are "Road of Life " "Guiding Light." "Woman in White " and "Right to Happiness, " To these is now  added the new serial, "Lonely Women. This is the author's introduction.

WITHIN the cycle of the hours there comés to each one of us, consciously or subconsciously, a split second in which we experience a sense utter  aloneness—indefinable, indescribable, yet so poignantly real—that split second of aloneness which can never be shared with anyone.

But because of the complexities of life, this split second of aloneness for hundreds of thousands of men and women has extended itself into hours, days, years. We've all heard at one time or another the expression "I never feel so alone as when I'm in a crowd. " We've laughed at the facetious remark "When I'm with you I'm alune. " "You can't know how I  feel—how can you, you've never been in my shoes?"—" I wish you could have been with me"—"1 wish you could have seen"—"If only you'd been there"—"It's no f u n doing things alone " . . . common, everyday expressions that each one of us uses, hardly knowing that we do, not recognizing at the moment the universal theme that underlies these common, every-day expressions — the theme of loneliness.

Thousands upon thousands of men and women have remained within the bonds of matrimony because they were afraid—are afraid of starting over again, alone. Th e mere physical presence of the other is enough to satisfy at least a small part of the need for some sort of human communion that Is so necessary to make us comfortable . Whether we should blame civilization with Its repetition of wars for the ratio that exists between men and women today is a little difficult to decide. However, we do know that there are more women than men in the world.

Out of curiosity I called upon Webster to define the word "alone, " and this is Webster's definition: "Unaccompanied; solitary; single: unmarried" : and he adds, "Usually of women, with humorous or pathetic implication; as a poor lone woman. " Perhaps because there is no one as concerned with woman's destiny as a woman, it occurred to me that an audience primarily made up of women would be interested today, of all times, when men—husbands, brothers, sweethearts sons—are leaving their home s to defend those homes .. . it occurred to me that these women would be interested in a story of lonely women.

Perhaps, too, I felt the woman who from time to time feels that hers is a humdrum existence of rearing a family, of preparing three meals a day, of waiting for the children, for the husband—t he woman who believes she sees glamour in the lives of thousands of women who are making their way, alone— w h o have careers, who are in constant touch with the outside world . . . perhaps I felt there was a message that could b e given to these wives, these mothers, these home makers. In the story of "LONELY WOMEN. "

AT FIRST glance it might seem that being  alone—feeling a sense of aloneness—implies depression, futility, unhappiness. This is not necessarily true. In fact, the sense, the feeling of aloneness can and often is an inexhaustible source from which come some of the most worth-while contributions to mankind . The scientist, the artist, the musician, the literary men and women throughout the ages have not been, as we so often think, alone. They have found an outlet for their aloneness in putting to work their God-given talents in something that could be shared by others. Neither you nor I nor hundreds of thousands like us have been given a divine talent; but in our daily existence we, too, can use our aloneness as an impetus to contribute something worth while to others. We may not be a Michelangelo, a Tschakowsky. an Einstein, a George Sand, an Eleonora Duse, an Elizabeth Browning; but we can create—we can express—we can give of ourselves . . . we can share with others those things that make up our daily existence. We women are in the majority . Th e effect that we can have on others can be as great if not greater at times than the contributions that have been made by men and women in the arts and sciences. In other words, we need not be alone—except in that split second that comes to each of us—that split second of aloneness which can never be shared with anyone.