As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

Even disposal of master reels involves a process. NYC has anti-dumping laws. You can’t just dump thousands of chunks of plastic and tape in the East River. The cops will come to your door.

I have listened to those livestreams in the past and to be respectful, sometimes stories get thrown around which are later discovered to be not the most accurate. I am not calling it intentional but it has happened.

Also, what of Another World? Guiding Light? Edge Of Night? Why no talk of them? Was there something about ATWT that made them especially ripe for mass destruction? That would be a massive dump and would likely cost a good amount of money, if you don’t want to violate environmental laws.

[vetsoapfan]

True. The story about about Dumont's video archives being dumped in the river has always sounded somewhat peculiar to me, which is why I used "allegedly." Stories with only a germ of truth in them get told and retold and distorted often, but end up being accepted as fact.

Doing some quick searching right now, it's said that the story about Dumont's material being thrown in the river originated from Ernie Kovac's wife Edie Adams, during a hearing on television preservation in 1997.

While I may have some doubts about the accuracy of her claims, Adams' account of the fate on vintage TV material, as transcribed below, is very interesting. (Well, to me, LOL!)

https://web.archive.org/web/20070927072638/http://www.loc.gov/film/hrng96la.html

Edited August 13, 2022 by vetsoapfan

[DramatistDreamer]

Yeah, but that allegedly happened in the 1970s, right? I just don’t think a company could get away with that in 2010 or 2012 or 2015, with environmental laws having evolved into what they are. Dumont dumping happening in the 70s could be entirely possible but P&G dumping in 2013 seems unlikely.

[vetsoapfan]

Yes. I'm not negating the dumping-in-the-river story because, as you say, it allegedly happened 50 years or so ago, but I'd like to have more than one person's (Adams') word for it, just like I'd want to have confirmation about the wiping of P&G tapes from more than just Zenk.

Of the two stories, I would give more credence to Adams', however. I'm not old enough to  have watched Dumont's programming, but it saddens me how little of it is reported to survive, no matter how the rest of the archives got destroyed.

[DramatistDreamer]

Oh absolutely. I agree. I am someone who likes verification.

[DRW50]

Is this Gillian Spencer? 

 

[RavenWhitney]

I don't believe so

[vetsoapfan]

No. Her name is skirting around the very edges of my memory, however. She was a charactrer actress who appeared in various sitcoms back in the day.

[Faulkner]

 

[DRW50]

Thanks @RavenWhitney @vetsoapfan I was also wondering about Anita Gillette...

@Faulkner That was a nice obit.

[adrnyc]

Um....P&G probably threw away the VHS tapes (as I threw away 300+ cassettes I was holding onto 2 years ago) and, with the push of a few buttons, can digitally erase every digital ATWT files. It cracks me up at the lengths people will go to on this board to hold on to the delusion P&G's soaps will ever see the light of day. 

And, no, Colleen didn't tell me they just wiped ATWT. They wiped GL, SFT, AW...every soap opera they had. Someone high up in the parent company (because the company that made the soaps, P&G entertainment, hasn't existed for over a decade) has such a hatred of soap operas, they wanted to delete everything they had. It made them feel better. That's what small, petty, corporate American people do. I've known many of them. Men with tiny d!cks that want to prove their power.

[DRW50]

The people who replied are some of the most clear-minded people you'll find on here. I don't think anyone really believes we'll be seeing this material, one way or another. Any random episode or clip from earlier years that shows up is a miracle.

Edited August 15, 2022 by DRW50

[vetsoapfan]

Carl, the actress in the Stove Top commercial is K Callan.

Here she is in a clip from All in the Family.

 

 

[vetsoapfan]

Of course, no one HAS EVER announced the certainty that "the P&G soaps will ever see the light of day."

Not "en masse," anyway.

Posters express their "It would be so great if...." fantasies about seeing more vintage material, and their hopes that additional treasures from the past will be unearthed one day. But no one on this board expresses delusions about significant amounts of classic P&G material being released. It's been widely accepted for decades that the company wiped the bulk of their videos up until the late 1970s.

The delusions about delusions are non-existent.

[DRW50]

Thanks so much @vetsoapfan no wonder I kept thinking I knew her. She was my favorite part of Lois & Clark, before I quit watching that show.