As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[lilyredd]

Finally took the time to watch the Locher room celebration of Elizabeth Hubbard. It was lovely. While I would have liked to hear from other actors she shared screen time with like Bryggmann, Hensley, or Wiggin, I think Bryce and Byrne did a great job and allowed for more of an intimate portrait of Hubbard. 
 

My favorite anecdote was from Bryce when he said Hubbard would come back from vacation and they would find a 6’4 man with a foreign accent drinking coffee and she met him Africa. Make me wish they had incorporated something like that for Lucinda. 
 

Hubbard will always remain a favorite of mine. She was interesting, she acted in an interesting manner, she lived an interesting life. I think the phrase, “they don’t make them like they use to,” works here. She stood out like Robin Strasser, or Beverly McKinsey or Eileen Fulton. There is just something about these actors that made their shows interesting. 

[danfling]

Here's a TV Guide article from 1969 on Millette Alexander

This lady has a 17 room house, four children, six dogs, seven cats and a soap opera career, too -  by Judith Jobin

“Soap opera at its worst can  be black-and-white—but most of the time the characters are as a real and the conflicts are ones the average person really deals with. I’m proud of it and I'm livid because the industry ignores it. There are no Emmys for soaps!'

So says actress Millette Alexander—looking authentically angry—as she defends her membership in television’s much maligned soap-opera club. And it might smack of a case of sour suds if it came from a lesser talent. But by all accounts, Miss Alexander plays  soaps with a degree of involvement and intensity usually reserved, in an image-conscious profession, for more prestigious theatrical endeavors. The case in point is her latest role, a young, attractive lady doctor. For the past six months Millette has been feeling her way around the psyche of Sara McIntyre, M.D., one of the central characters on CBS’s The Guiding Light. Says producer Peter Andrews: ‘‘She’s quite an intelligent girl and she works very hard in preparation—much more than most. She always has a point of view—she has the whole edifice of her role constructed by the time she gets in.”

On the surface, the action is uncomplicated: Millette puts in upwards of 40 hours a week alternately clucking over patients and getting into clinches with a handsome colleague. But under the clucking and clinching is “much more than the words say,’ insists Edge of Night actress Teri Keane, who remembers Millette’s nimble portrayal of a dual role on that series. “She's complex. There's nothing surfacey about her acting.”” And a Guiding Light actor agrees, pointing admiringly to her ‘‘emotional quicksilver quality.”

But at this point, an inevitable question leaps out: after 15 years of landing television, Broadway and summer-theater roles with ease and regularity, why isn’t Millette Alexander more famous, a little closer to stardom?

“She could definitely have it if she tried,’ declares producer Andrews, confirming that her talent is widely acknowledged in the trade. Teri Keane agrees: ‘‘Absolutely. She's tops. But she doesn’t want it.” And Millette herself, recalling an early offer from 20th Century-Fox, confers a convincing air of distastefulness on the whole business: “They wanted me to sign a seven-year contract, move to California, become a starlet.I didn’t want to be locked in.” Her friend Ed Zimmermann explains: ‘‘l’d say she wants most to do good work.” Finally, Andrews points to her off-stage existence: ‘‘She thinks a lot about her home life.”

By any standard, it’s a life worth thinking about. At 35, she’s married to rangy Jimmy Hammerstein. He is the son of Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, is a respected director in his own right (most recently of a pair of off-Broadway Pinter plays), and was. undeniably a catch. They live in a 17-room Stanford White house in Nyack, N.Y., complete with a six-acre spread of rolling lawns, fruit-tree orchards, greenhouse, lavish swimming pool, and hilltop gazebo overlooking the Hudson River. Their four children are abundantly rosy-cheeked and well-fed. And they solved their servant problem by importing an entire family from Honduras—but the bargain included five more children and an  88-year-old grandmother, all of whom live-in.

After that the law of diminishing returns takes over and things look a bit raffish at the edges. There’s a bright red four-wheel-drive jeep in the driveway, and unwary visitors are assaulted by a friendly tangle of six dogs and seven cats. A tour of the interior turns up stray dolls and hobby horses, jars of freshly made fruit preserves in the kitchen, a pair of well-used pianos, an alarming assortment of electronic instruments and an open Dickens volume in the bathroom. Not to mention sound effects—the indecorous clatter of nine children, plus sputtering balloon sounds and Indian yells.

It all looks disarmingly like a television headache commercial featuring Millette as its miscast heroine. As keeper of the house and grounds, and Big Mama to that brood, she’s more like the earthy old lady who lived in a shoe than an other-worldly Cinderella. ‘‘! don’t even nose-count any more,” she laughs.

“She looks like quite a socialite,” says Teri Keane, ‘‘but she can get down there in the garden and weed!” And that’s not just a figure of speech. In off hours, Millette weeds with gusto, dips deeply into art and music (she’s a highly skilled pianist, also plays violin), finds time for exquisite needlepoint projects and generally has a disconcerting affinity for over-achievement. “She's got a helluva lot of energy,”’ says one friend, and another adds, “It must be pretty exhausting.”

Which raises a final question: How did an admittedly ‘“‘overly sensible’’ teenager from the Great Neck (Long Island) High School Orchestra find her way from first-chair violin to the center of such a helter-skelter life?

“I finally got sensible about myself,” she explains happily.

[Forever8]

Jennifer Ashe is going to be on Alan's show on September 1st, at 3PM ET. 

 

[Soapsuds]

He mentioned it during the Liz Hubbard tribute show. I can't wait!!

Edited August 24, 2023 by Soapsuds

[Soaplovers]

She was pretty vocal during the Loving reunion about Loving so I hope she keeps that energy on this one.

[Soapsuds]

I've been busy and I forgot about this. It aired earlier today.

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by Soapsuds

[DRW50]

I only got to see the last 20 minutes so probably missed all the good stories, but she did seem to have mostly good memories. She talked about what a pro Lisa Brown was, that Steve Basset was serious, etc. She was asked about Kathryn Hays and said she never really got to work with her. She said she never really worked with Colleen Zenk either, and they interacted mostly through Colleen telling her how envious she was of the lush head of hair Jennifer had.

She talked about a scene where she was in bed with Josh/Rod and while she was trying to get off the phone, Bill was licking up her arm. She said she remembered the show trying to figure out whether the scene could get on the air or not.

She also mentioned that not long before Douglas Marland died she went to his home in Connecticut to pitch a story idea to him. She had no idea whether he would have gone with it or not, and she couldn't really remember the idea. 

Edited September 2, 2023 by DRW50

[Vee]

You can always go back and rewatch it all. I plan to with several of these recently.

[DRW50]

I probably will if I have time, I was just recapping what I saw before it left me.

[Soaplovers]

Jennifer was very open with her positive and not so positive memories of her soap opera era... but mostly had positive memories.

She mentioned that she did a round robin of auditions for the 3 main female young female characters on Loving (Stacy, Lorna, and Lily).. and that she assumed she had the best chance of getting Lorna.  When she met Susan Walters.. she knew that Susan would most likely Lorna and that she wouldn't be cast on the soap. She said she was surprised to get Lily because the character of Lily was the direct opposite of her and didn't know if she could play her.  She mentioned that Agnes Nixon was at the auditions.. but not Marland.

The funniest story was her audition as Meg.. because she mentioned that her tv was broken so she had no idea who Dusty was.  So her audition piece had her acting as if she was going after an older man vs a peer.  It was only when she went to a store during when when As the world turns was airing did she then see who Dusty was and figured at that point she blew the audition.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Soaplovers

[GLATWT88]

She was wrong

 

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[Soapsuds]

So delicious!!

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[Liberty City]

Bloom's take on Dusty was so different to McCouch. Makes me wonder why the change...? I know there was a major gap of time between Bloom & McCouch, but still..

[GLATWT88]

Yes. Do you feel like Marie Wilson's take on Meg was also very different from Jennifer's? I remember thinking McCouch was so hot at the time, but now in retrospect I may prefer Bloom's looks...lol. Probably off topic but anyway 

[Soaplovers]

Marie Wilson would have been better as an Ellie recast... she had the look and essence of the characte..imho