As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

In January of 2002, episode of ATWT Nancy (played by Helen Wagner) went home from a talent show - which she won - with a handsome suitor named Andrew Emerson. He was played by Bob Willey, Helen's real life husband

[Mitch]

What the hell was Nancy's talent? Cooking, coffee serving, working "dear," into every sentence, meddling, or ringing the town tramp's beads every now and then? It couldn't have been Wagner's singing?

Just kidding, love them both!

The both look the same as in the mid 80s. What is with that ageless cast?

[DramatistDreamer]

Nothing against the L.A. based soaps but I think ATWT's ageless beauties had to do with the fact that they were no sun worshipers. I would think that would be especially true of Julianne Moore who has very fair skin and would probably burn quite easily. I remember seeing episodes where she was at the Yacht Club and even though it was a show filmed in a studio, 'Frannie' was very diligent about applying sunscreen as she was a lifeguard. I even remember the character talking about how she had to put on sunscreen with her skin. That was about '85, the first year she was on the show.

Kathryn Hays was a model... I think all of those ladies were probably meticulous about taking great care of their skin as they knew it was part of their stock and trade. And the look on the East Coast was (still is) a bit different from the West Coast, that seemed to favor the sun-kissed look. We all know the sun-kissed look can, over time, become the sun damaged look.

[Paul Raven]

http://www.broadwaytovegas.com/February23,2003.html

AS ROSEMARY PRINZ'S WORLD TURNS

It was as Penny Hughes on TV's As The World Turns, which she played for 12 years, that Rosemary Prinz first gained national prominence. In that part Prinz and Juilliard trained Mark Rydell, as Jeff Baker, became daytime's first major teen romance.

Today Prinz is getting ready to star in the world premiere of Carol Galligan's play Killing Louise at CAP21 in New York City.

Along the way Rosemary Prinz has seen her own world take some interesting spins. She spoke with Broadway To Vegas about her fascinating career.

While soap operas were always noted for their cutting edge sexuality, moralistic guidelines controlled the plotlines.

Rosemary Prinz getting wed on As The World Turns. Marriage was required.

"Oh my God, yes," exclaimed Prinz. "There were many guidelines. This was way before Women's Lib. You could never get divorced. That is why so many leading men died," she divulged. "In order to further the story you had to kill off the guy, because it was a woman's medium. You killed off the guy and then the heroine married somebody else. That ran itself into the ground and then he died. If you were a leading man you never signed a long term lease," laughed Prinz referring to the actor never feeling secure enough to make a long term purchase. "You were going to get bumped off, because you couldn't get divorced."

Recently, Lea Salonga reprised her role on As The World Turns, guest starring to help advance the storyline. Any chance Prinz might do another guest shot as Penny?

Helen Wagner and Rosemary Prinz as Nancy Hughes surprised by her daughter Penny at her 80th birthday party on As The World Turns

"A guest shot is always possible," she replied. "It happens something like once every five years. I left in 1968 and I think my first show back was about 25 years later. That was for my brother Bob's wedding," she related about the character of Bob Hughes portrayed by Don Hastings. "Then a couple of years later there was my parents 50th anniversary and I went back. I have maybe five or six times - I wouldn't say it's a career," she chuckled. "But, it's nice because, at this point, I'm the highest paid extra in the world. They don't know what to do with me. They pay me and I go in and say - Hi, Mom."

"I do occasionally see Eileen Fulton in her nightclub act, because she plays New York quite often. So, I'll go and see her," related Rosemary about the actress/singer who created the infamous Lisa.

"Helen Wagner, who played my mother, and I exchange Christmas cards. When I go back, of course, it's like old home week. But, our lives run on different paths. They are doing a soap in New York and I am in the theatre and on the road a lot."

Usually TV Guide has their facts straight. But, in 1988 TV Guide ran a short - mistake ladened - article about Rosemary Prinz that stated: "She was one of soapdom's first bona fide stars in 1956 as Penny on CBS's As the World Turns and helped launch ABC's All My Children in 1970. Quite a track record for someone who almost got bounced from NBC's now-defunct First Love in 1954. Her offense? She laughed uncontrollably when an actor accidentally turned "Chris cracked up the plane," into "Chris crapped___." Not that she's immune to slips of the tongue. "I did a play where my line was 'I've never seen anything as beautiful as John Dickey's villa,'" Prinz jokes. "Well, imagine how that came out!"

Rosemary Prinz not only didn't mess up the line, she wasn't even in the play!

Not true. None of it and Prinz would like to set the record straight.

Referring to almost being fired for laughing Prinz responded; "That is not true at all. It may have happened during a rehearsal but it certainly never happened on the air. And, I was never was almost fired from that show. I would appreciate it if that could get straightened out."

As to having messed up that play line - I've never seen anything as beautiful as John Dickey's villa,' Prinz retorted; "That not only was not me, it wasn't even a play that I was in! It was a play my husband was in with some character actress."

"That was my first husband, Mike Thoma, who had that experience in Pennsylvania, which is where we met," said Prinz referring to the actor that television viewers will remember from the series Fame and Eight is Enough. Thoma passed away in 1982 at the age of 55.

"That did not happened on stage with me. Mike Thoma was on stage with a character actress. She said it backwards and everybody laughed. That part is accurate, but it wasn't me."

Prinz is bright, spunky and fun. She's always been that way. Considering her heritage, that should come as no surprise.

"I think my parents met on a blind date that was set up," she recalled. "Then they eloped to Gretna Green. It was quite something. My grandfather didn't speak to my father for a year until he finally said - Okay, I'll marry her in the Church."

Toscanini was noted for his temper tantrums

"My father was Toscanini's cellist," she related, referring to the late Mortin Prinz.

From 1928 to 1936 the great conductor Toscanini, who started out as a cellist, was musical director of the New York Philharmonic. NBC establish an orchestra especially for him. On Christmas Eve in 1937 the first broadcast was aired. Once a week for seventeen years Toscanini offered the listeners an insight into his wide repertoire; a total of 117 operas by 53 composers and 480 symphonic works by 175 composers were broadcast. His outbreaks of rage and his passionate strict method of conducting remain well-known.

"Toscanini was the maestro," continued Prinz. "He was a genius. In those days it was de rigueur to be difficult and temperamental - volatile. I spent my childhood in studio 8H, which they built for him at NBC for the NBC Symphony. Every Sunday I'd go to the broadcast and occasionally I was allowed to go to the dress rehearsal. I was just a kid - eight years old or something. I'd go to the dress rehearsals and hear him curse away!"

"My father was also in the New York String Quartet. Music was everywhere. Musicians were everywhere. They were playing chamber music in the house. There was always music."

Prinz surmised that "it was just automatically assumed that I would be in the arts. I always knew that I was going to be an actor. By the time I was 16, I had already skipped four times and graduated high school."

"I went into summer stock with a man who became a very well known Broadway director, named Mort DeCosta," said Rosemary about the man who directed the original production of The Music Man.

"This was in my senior term in school. I was graduating in June and he was hiring. I got something called Actors Cues and looked up who would want a young apprentice. I saw that he was looking for somebody to play Dear Ruth in his cycle of plays, which is a 15-year-old-girl. It is a wonderful part. She plays a drunk scene."

Dodee Wick and Rosemary Prinz in Yes, My Darling Daughter at The Lake Summit Playhouse

"I read for him and he hired me. In those days you got your Equity card on the third show. My first show was Dream Girls playing an usher saying - This way, please. In the third show I played Dear Ruth and had this wonderful part. Then I did Kiss and Tell and played the lead. Mort DeCosta said - Walter Davis is taking out a company of Kiss and Tell in the fall. I'm going to call and tell him I've got his lead. I'm going to call your parents and tell them I think you should take it and not go to college in the fall. You're smart enough to educate yourself. That is how it started. They said yes and I was off on the road."

Part of her early years were at the Lake Summit Playhouse in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The Lake Summit Playhouse ran for four summers. For two winters the troupe went to St. Petersburg, Florida. In addition to Prinz, the company was the launching pad for Lee Marvin.

"I went there when I was 18 with The Vagabond Players. I played there that season. Then we went to Florida. We did a winter season there. Then I went back a couple of times when I was better known. I did Cat on a Hot Tin Roof there and Driving Miss Daisy many years later."

Currently Prinz is on the big screen in The Bread, My Sweet, co-starring with Scott Baio and Shuler Hensley, a Tony award winner for Oklahoma.

Rosemary Prinz in the movie My Bread, My Sweet Saving dollar by dollar for her daughter's wedding.

"It has an excellent cast," extolled Rosemary. "It was a love fest. It was shot after Shuler had done Oklahoma in London and won the Olivier Award and before he opened on Broadway. So, it was that period in between."

In Italian, a good man is a "piece of bread" plain, simple and always welcome. In this romantic-comedy Baio, now a handsome 40-year-old, plays Dominic Pyzola, second generation Italian-American, workaholic corporate takeover artist. He has a post-graduate degree, a hot car, and an inkling that he's not a nice guy. Cleaning out "dead-wood" employees is lucrative but not fulfilling for the soul.

For that he turns to his hobby job, running a Pittsburgh biscotti bakery staffed by his brothers, Eddie (Billie Mott) an incorrigible skirt-chaser and Pino (Shuler Hensley) a older mentally handicapped brother.

He is a also surrogate son to Bella, (Prinz) an Italian immigrant who lives above the bakery and who has been saving, dollar by dollar, for her daughter's American wedding since the day she gave birth. The Bread, My Sweet is a love story about what happens when Dominic's worlds collide. He discovers that Bella has six months to live. Then Dominic gets an idea.

"Of course Scott Baio doesn't look his age," commented Prinz. "He looks absolutely divan. And the camera adores him."

"It a very sweet movie," she reported about the flick which has received rave reviews from every critic. The only problem is that it is a difficult movie to locate. "Because it is an indie, it has a small budget for distribution. They can't afford to open everywhere at once. Even for a print it's something like $50,000," explained Prinz. "It opens in two or three cities at a time. It's played in Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Chicago. It is a sweet, sweet, movie and it fills a need right now. They are saying it is going to open in New York. That would be nice."

"It's a lovely role, based on a true story. The writer/director knew this woman and so this movie was sort of a love letter to this woman and her daughter. I was based on a real character. The rest of it was made up, but there was a kernel of truth and then she elaborated for dramatic purposes."

What draws Prinz to a role is "something that is well written, culturally important, in my view. Of course, I've certainly done crap, but I have not done crap in a long time. Sometimes something doesn't work. That doesn't mean its crap. There are only two reasons to do plays - one is, you just need the money. The other is, you need to satisfy yourself artistically. Mostly, that is what I have been doing. Not that I wouldn't do something for money," she laughed. "But only if it was fun and only for a tiny bit of time."

"It was great to have done this movie because I'd never done a feature film. This was my first feature film. Well, that's not true," she confessed. "I did a feature film for the Navy when I was 18 about VD."

"It was a training film, It Could Happen To Your Kid Sister and I cried my through the scene while I told somebody that I had VD."

"It was right after the Second World War. You didn't fly very much in those days. They put me on a train and I went to Detroit to do it. I auditioned for the part. I probably didn't even have a single agent. I probably was making the rounds and got sent up for it. And, I went off and did this little training film."

Prinz is also returning to the New York stage, starring in Killing Louise, which is set in the home and in the mind of the ailing, 89-year-old Louise - played by Prinz. The play confronts questions of conscience, law and morality when she asks her best friend to help her die.

"This one is a beautiful play about choosing ones destiny, about friendship and love and has a lot to say," stressed Prinz.

As for age Prinz has "never bought into it. My friends always say I was the first liberated woman when I was 16. I never bought into all of that anyway. It never seemed fair to me that we were treated as second class citizens. So, that was automatically reflected in the kind of parts I chose."

"In Killing Louise I am playing somebody who is 89. I've played old from the time I can remember. I've played all ages. I did the national tour ofDriving Miss Daisy and certainly had to go up in age. Many years before, I remember doing Twigs. I've done many plays where I had to be a really old lady."

"This is the world premiere. If somebody comes and sees it and likes it they may move it," she added regarding the future for Killing Louise. "One always hopes."

Laurie Metcalf, Christopher Evan Welch, Rosemary Prinz, and Nathan Kiley in Purple Heart

"I did a play at Steppenwolf last summer, Purple Heart, and we have been invited to the Galway Festival in Ireland in July. So, I'm going to be doing that play again. That was another world premiere.

"I've been to London, but this will be my first time in Ireland.While we are there we are going over to Scotland, and try to make it a kind of fun trip. We have to leave the dog, I am afraid, but otherwise the family will be together. I just can't wait. I think it is so terrific to go over and do things in foreign lands."

Roger Robinson, Tony nominee for Seven Guitarsplays Hoke, with Rosemary Prinz in Driving Miss Daisy

Four-footed beasts are an important part of the Prinz household.

"Every dog I've had traveled with me. It never used to present a problem, but now sometimes it can. But, they have to adjust or they don't get me. What is the point of having a dog if you leave it at home? Recently I played Steppenwolf and Pittsburgh and both were just such dog friendly places. I brought the dogs to the theatre. They stayed in my dressing room during the show.

Another vital part of the household is husband, Joe Patti.

"My husband and I took a little vacation in March and went to Prague and Budapest. It was fabulous. I had never been to that part of Europe. It was just fascinating to see all of these old, wonderful buildings and architecture. It was terrific and, of course, we ate our way through..." she laughed.

"My husband is retired. He was a jazz drummer. Occasionally, we would do musicals together. He would decide to make the ultimate sacrifice - since he does improvisational jazz," she kidded, about him playing a locked in score. "That was fun when we could travel together. He always managed to join me at various parts of the tour or the run."

Prinz also performed Glass Menagerie in Japan. It wasn't your run of the mill performance.

"Japan was an exchange program. I had done Glass Menagerie at the Milwaukee Rep and we did a exchange program with Japan," she explained. "They sent a company over and we went over there and did that for five weeks. I just loved it."

"It was the most foreign place that I had ever been and it was like stepping into another world."

"The Japanese love Tennessee Williams. They have a great affinity for him. They were totally befuddled by Sam Shepard. But, they loved Tennessee Williams, even though they didn't understand a word," she continued.

"And, they didn't wear their earphones! Then I realized - Well, of course they weren't going to wear their earphones. When I went to all of the different theatres, the Kabuki (traditional Japanese entertainment men where play all the parts) and the Bunraku (Japanese traditional puppets theater) I never wore earphones. I wanted to see and experience it as they presented it. And, they didn't miss a thing. Of course, they knew the play, but they couldn't follow the exact dialogue. So, we never got any laughs, which was weird. To do a play that you knew where all the laughs were and - it was total silence."

"We got used to it," Prinz said. "But, it was a very different kind of silence. It wasn't just flat silence. It was like - gasp - as a breathe intake silence. They were just with it every second. Then, we would get just wild applause afterwards. It was a fascinating experience."

"And, we did it in the "sin city'" district. It was just amazing. It was just so safe. You could leave you pocket book on the street corner by accident and come by the next night and pick it up. You passed all these love hotels but it was non threatening. It was a terrific experience."

Prinz has never stopped working and has no intention of slowing down. "No, I never stop working. I was rarely out of work. I've been very fortunate."

Killing Louise by Carol Galligan, directed by Michael Montel, starring Rosemary Prinz. March 4th to 29th at CAP21 Theatre, NYC.

Edited February 26, 2015 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

Thanks.

It was 17 years, not 25, but I can see why she got it mixed up.

Too bad they never brought Penny back after 2000. Then again, when you've got Katie and Janet and Liberty, who gives a [!@#$%^&*] about 54 years of history, right Goutman?

Edited February 26, 2015 by DRW50

[cassadine1991]

GL and ATWT still had.lots of historic.characters whose actors were still alive and yet didn't even bring them back. Makes no sense

[DramatistDreamer]

It's just my personal opinion and I have no solid proof of this but I honestly believe that since 2000 (after AW's cancellation in '99) P&G and eventually the CBS daytime network knew that neither ATWT nor GL would make it past the decade.

The choices that the execs made just convinced me more and more ( a lot of previously unconnected characters, filler/new cast members, alienating many veterans, throwing caution to the wind in regards to storylines, in ways that were good and bad), that they were just letting the show slowly wind down.

It was very telling that one show ended in '09 and the other in '10. Neither made it out of the decade.

[amybrickwallace]

I never knew Rosemary Prinz was married to Michael Thoma, who I remember from the EIE reruns as Dr. Maxwell. Great article, thanks for sharing it.

[DRW50]

July 1989 Digest

(that 1972 must be a typo)

[Khan]

"What the -- ? Doug Marland was so not the first gay man to work at ATWT!

"Oh, wait, they meant.... Nevermind."

But seriously, I felt this was a good article exploring the background of Hank's story and how it had evolved from its original intentions. It's interesting to note how far daytime has come from those days...even if most of us agree they still have some ways to go.

Thanks, Carl!

Edited March 18, 2015 by Khan

[DRW50]

It was interesting to read about how they were going to give him AIDS but then became too afraid of viewer reaction. I imagine this is the reason why there were no gay men with HIV or AIDS on daytime until somewhere around 1994 or 1995 (the scenes Julia had with the man dying of AIDS were far more powerful than I had expected).

It's too bad they never really brought Hank back, to test the boundaries further. I guess maybe Marland was wary of pushing too far, as I don't remember reading about him having any plans to bring in more gay characters during his last 4 years writing the show.

[saynotoursoap]

When Margo thought Nevins might have infected her with HIV, she attended a support group in Chicago. There was a recurring character named Gil, played by Mitch Lichtenstein in 1992-93. He and his lover were both HIV positive. There was even a scene where Gil kissed his lover, albeit on the forehead, when Margo visited him in the hospital. Gil was introduced under Marland and appeared to be primed for a more involved role, but then Marland died. About a year or so later, Gil was brought back for one episode.

I wonder whatever happened to Brian Starcher who played Hank? In interviews, he did not seem particurlarly comfortable in the role.

[DRW50]

Thanks. I must have missed his appearances. I'm glad they at least acknowledged that reality.

[Paul Raven]

I've often read that Irna Phillips disapproved of Jane House (Liz Stewart) appearing in the play 'Lenny' and wrote her out.But acccording to a Chicago Tribune article Jane was dismissed around June 71,a good 6 months before Irna returned.

Gloria DeHaven joined ATWT as Sara Fuller in Nov 1965.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Paul Raven

[Paul Raven]

July 1977

-Dan's trial began

-Marion failed to convince Pat not to marry John.

-Chris drew up adoption papers for Jay and Carol to adopt Natalie's baby.

-Natalie offered Ralph a real estate job.