Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

[Paul Raven]

Rare to come across a review of a soap from the time. And afairly positive one at that.

Oakland Tribune 19 September 1967

How Many Splendors Exactly?

Love is a Many Splendored Thlng had its first episode yesterday, an I wouldn't have missed it for anything. The new daytime serial hopes to wring our hearts and  jerk our tears with the same success as the best selling novel and the successful movie. And you remember what they were like. The soaper picks up the tale 20 years later as- Mia the pretty offspring of the novels chief characters - comes to San Francisco from Hong Kong in search of love and  a career in medicine.

CBS is going to make it warm for her. Already pawing the turf are a handsome young soldier (from Oakland yet), a handsome young architect, a handsome young doctor and a handsome young widower of unspecified profession.

If you have a good memory for heartwarming stories, you'll recall the movie ended with the death of the Eurasian girl, and faded out as William Holden wandered bleakly around a hillside to violin accompaniment.

The serial has altered the story somewhat to account for the appearance of Mia (Nancy Hsueh). It is her father who is deceased; her mother is a doctor in Hong Kong. Yesterday found her aboard ship bound for San Francisco. She met the handsome young soldier, to whom she spilled her life story in 10 seconds flat "I've never met my father," she said, "but I know him. I even know his voice. Do you think I am strange?" He didn't think so, and it looks as though he'll be putting out a lot of bridge tolls in the coming months.

Mia is going to join her father's family, where trouble is already brewing. Uncle Phil Elliot is a kindly soul with a handsome young architect son, Mark. But Aunt Helen, who has lost a child, already thinks of Mia as an intruder. (Soap operas have certain codes and traditions; women who have lost children are always bitter.)

Then there are the neighbors, the Donnelys. There is Tom, the handsome young widower with an eight year-old son. There is his sister Iris, a naughty swinger who says things like "Let's have some action." Iris puffs and smoulders with the Elliott boy, but it's obvious they're not really suited; he wants to make beautiful buildings while she only wants to make whoopee.

Tom's other sister is Laura, a fragile beauty who is presently a novice in a convent. But she is troubled. We listened in on a conversation with the Deity, in which Laura confessed a longing for the outside world. Do you suppose she is really meant for the convent life? Tom's father is good-hearted Dr. Will, who worries about Iris's loose ways. "I'm afraid she's on a collision course," he told Tom. "Well," said Tom, "I'm afraid we'll just have to let her collide, and hope she pulls out of it."

Wait, there's more. Dr. Will's associate is handsome young Dr. Jim Abbott. Since Mia is going to pursue a medical career, she is pretty sure to come in close contact with Dr. Jim. Will Iris hate Mia for stealing Mark's affections? Will Aunt Helen hate Mia for intruding into the family's life? Will Mia have one heck of a miserable time right from the beginning? You bet your sweet tear ducts they will, or there ain't gonna be no story. Mia could save herself a lot of trouble by renting a nice bachelor apartment somewhere. But that would spoil all the fun.

[danfling]

How I wish that these early episodes had been preserved!

I had never known that Phil and Helen had lost a child.

I notice that Tom is called a "widower."    Was he hiding the truth about Martha, or did the show change the storyline later?

[DRW50]

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@Vee @vetsoapfan @Paul Raven @danfling @jam6242

[jam6242]

Thanks @DRW50!

[danfling]

I had only thought that Love Is a Many Splendored Thing was the third daytime drama for Ms. Beesch.  (The Secret Storm, The Edge of Night, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing - She appeared on Somerset later.)

What were the other two shows on which she appeared?

[vetsoapfan]

Thanks @DRW50.

 

I love her.

[danfling]

During the time that the late Michael Hawkins was playing Mark Elliott #3, which actresses were playing Iris and Laura?

Edited December 17, 2023 by danfling

[Contessa Donatella]

I am exchanging email with someone who went to UCLA & read the bible Irna Phillips wrote for LIAMST.

 

[danfling]

Ms. Phillips had used abortion as a storyline for the first time on Another World when character Pat Matthews had an illegal abortion.  I don't think that NBC had all of the reservations that CBS seemed to have.

[wonderwoman1951]

from the creation of another world

“While the AW bible may have revealed nothing about Pat Matthew's pregnancy and abortion, according to Elana Levine, as the story unfolded, NBC censors requested a number of script changes. Some were to insure medical accuracy: making clear that the cause of Pat's sterility was the infection that resulted from the abortion, not the abortion itself. Others addressed Pat's level of responsibility for the situation, with one NBC censor warning against her being portrayed as "totally innocent or blameless." While this placed responsibility on Pat for her sexual behavior, not the unjust societal expectations of young women, Levine points out, "it also attributed to her some agency, even sexual agency—'good' young women who got themselves in such situations were not mere victims of duplicitous men."

Levine goes on to say that while these changes were likely made to provide NBC cover from being seen as endorsing immoral or illegal behavior, "they also resulted in greater ambiguity about the causes of Pat’s troubles—did she make bad choices or was her situation an impossible one to navigate? If the latter, what made it so untenable? The openness of soap storytelling invited such questions."

”

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, Dan, exactly so! 

And, I wanted to add in case anyone is in LA & wants to go read some of Irna's papers. From that same email correspondence ... "All the early production notes for the series are at UCLA, and I had a chance to go through the materials (they are non-circulating materials, so you have to schedule hours in one of their archive libraries, where it is freezing cold, to get access to the materials that can only be read at tables in a specific room. However, they do allow you to put in requests for photocopies, at a fee of course, if you want copies for research purposes. I pretended I was about to write a book on Irna Phillips, so that is why I got access to the materials."

Edited February 10, 2024 by Donna L. Bridges

[Paul Raven]

Don't think we've ever seen Brooke Mills as Iris. Here with Sam Wade who was recast later on.

Poor Brooke-got so far as doing publicity shots and then dumped for Leslie Charleson.

Edited October 7, 2024 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

Great find.

[DRW50]

Posting here as this is closer to the right timeframe...is the Ivory ad with Beverlee McKinsey at the start of this video already well known? I can't remember if I've seen it before.

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[Khan]

The only reason why Beverlee McKinsey's taller than the other women in that commercial is because of her hair.