Portia Faces Life/The Inner Flame

[DRW50]

This was an adaption of the 1940-1951 radio soap, starring Lucille Wall. The TV version initially starred Frances Reid, later Fran Carlon, in the titular role. It was written by Mona Kent, who was also a writer on the radio version. In the first episode, Portia tried to help a woman who had a gambling debt. Portia's husband Walter, owner of The Parkerstown Herald, was often in Portia's shadow, which annoyed him to no end.

The show changed its name to The Inner Flame on March 14, 1955. All in all the show ran from April 5, 1954 to July 1, 1955 on CBS, at 1 PM EST.

Instead of organ music the show used a background guitar, by Tony Mottola.

Portia Manning - Frances Reid 1954, Fran Carlon 1954-55

Walter Manning - Donald Woods 1954, Karl Swenson 1954-55

Shirley Manning - Renee Jarrett 1954, Ginger McManus 1955

Dickie Blake - Charles Taylor 1954-55

Dorie Blake - Jean Gillespie 1954

Kathy Baker - Elizabeth York 1954

Bill Baker - Richard Kendrick 1954

Morgan Elliott - Byron Sanders 1954

Karl Manning - Patrick O'Neal 1954

Phoebe Faraday - Sally Gracie 1954-55

Tony Faraday - Mark Miller - 1954-55

Ruth Byfield - Mary Fickett 1954-55

(Thanks to Chris Schemering's Soap Opera Encyclopedia)

[DRW50]

The July 7, 1954 episode. I wonder why Frances left. I like her work here, and the idea is a bit ahead of its time. I also like that they don't just use organ music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9AFAqSFjiA

A 1955 episode of The Inner Flame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJcYnxZ-Dmc

[DRW50]

August 1954 TV Radio Mirror

[DRW50]

Gardening is new to Frances, and that's a little odd, considering that she grew up in Berkeley, California, where flowers and gardens are certainly no novelty. Her family moved to California from Texas when Frances and her three sisters were little girls. And it was at the Pasadena Playhouse that the younger with stars in her eyes got her first chance.

"But, even as a little girl," Frances explains, "I knew I was going to be an actress, I used to learn long pieces of poetry, and I would insist on reciting them whenever anyone came to the house. I don't know how Mother put up with me, but I guess she was amused. I know she is delighted that I have a career. I'm the only one who has worked. My sisters are all married and are housewives. But there was always something in me that insisted that I wanted to act."

After a couple of seasons at Pasadena, Frances did the impossible. She got a job with a summer stock company at Martha's Vineyard - by mail. The manager had never seen her act. But she enlisted the aid of everyone she knew in the theater or movies in California. They all wrote letters. So did she. "I guess they were so startled they just hired me," she explains.

After the season ended, Frances came to New York, where for a little while it looked as though her luck had run out. But she was determined to stay and take her chances. Because eating is important, even to a girl who thinks she can live on applause, Frances took a job as a stock girl in a Madison Avenue dress shop. But every once in a while, she would emerge from behind the racks and cast her eyes toward Broadway. She didn't make Broadway right away, but she did get a chance iat Brooklyn. Offered the part of Lucy in a stock company performance of "Dracula," she jumped at the chance. "I wasn't going to be any good as a salesgirl, anyway," she laughs. After "Dracula" came a season in Maplewood, New Jersey, with the chance to play with such theater greats as Philip Merivale, Alison Skipworth, Grace George and Eva LaGallienne.

Frances has a very special reason for being grateful to stock companies, becaue it was while acting in such a company - at Ridgefield, Connecticut - that she met her husband-to-be. Frances and Philip Bourneuf acted together in stock and in early TV plays. "It was ghastly at first," Frances admits, "because we treated each other like husband and wife instead of as actors. But, once we learned not to do that, everything was fine. I like playing with Philip. But it's harder on him, because he's a better actor than I am an actress."

The Bourneufs would like to do a Broadway play together and add themselves to the growing list of husband-and-wife teams such as Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.

The majority of Frances Reid's successful stage appearances have been in classical plays. She played Ophelia opposite Maurice Evans in "Hamlet." She was the Roxanne, loved and lost by Jose Ferrer, in "Cyrano de Bergerac." Her slim figure showed to advantage in the boy's tights worn by Viola in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." In fact, the only contemporary hit she ever had was a war play, "The Wind Was Ninety," in which she acted with Kirk Douglas and Wendell Corey - when they, too, were just making a name for themselves.

Frances' success in costume plays is actually just one more reason why this gifted woman loves the part of Portia. "The drama pose real human problems, faced and solved by real people every day," she says seriously. "It gives me a chance to portray a warm-hearted woman who is intelligent enough to be good at more than one thing. I like that, because I have found it possible to be a pretty good housewife and cook and still be an actress. At least, Philip likes my cooking, and that's all that counts."

Frances' schedule is going to use these talents to the utmost. She is hoping to be able to commute to New York form their Bucks County house. This means catching a 7:45 train every morning (and the station is fifteen miles away), remaining at the studio every day from 9:15 AM until 3 PM - and, of course, giving a show each day. "I manage by taking my lunch with me,' she says, "I have a huge handbag and stow away a thermos of coffee and a sandwich. This way, I don't have to take time to go out in the half-hour lunch period. I try to get my studying all done by six o'clock, so that I can spend the evening with Philip or go over scenes with him if he is working. This summer, he is going to be at the Bucks County Playhouse and the Theater in the Park in Philadelphia, so that it all should work out fine. Besides, we love it here." Looking around the spacious living room with its pine-panelled walls, high ceiling, and the view of the rolling Jericho Valley, it's not hard to see why.

The house was built to the Bourneufs' own specifications. Between them, they planned and decided what they wanted and then - and only then - did they engage a contractor. "We couldn't bear to build in an old form," says Frances, "but neither did we want anything too aggressively modern."

The result is somewhere in between. The spaciousness of the living room gives a modern impression, as does the free-form coffee tabl, a gift of the famous Hungarian actress Lili Darvas. There are sling chairs of canvas and wrought-iron, too. But, at one end of the room, is an old Welsh dresser - a period piece which is perfect in the room. There is only one bathroom, but a modern and practical note is the two wash basins side by side.

"Our apartment in New York is much more colorful than this house," Frances explains. "Here we think there is so much color out of doors that we limited ourselves inside to browns and greens. In town, where everything outside is gray, we went mad with color indoors."

Everything about Frances and her husband shows this same reasonableness of approach. They have made their own adjustments to their parallel careers. And the fact that they are parallel - and not conflicting - is testimony to the ability of each of them to face life.

[BFORE02]

I have episodes of Portia Faces Life/ The Inner Flame for my complete list of Vintage Soap Opera Episodes email me at [email protected]

[DRW50]

September 1954 TV Radio Mirror

[DRW50]

[Paul Raven]

Byron Sanders went on to be one of the actors who appeared in the most soaps,appearing on shows for over 30 years,although not recognized as a soap stalwart.

[DRW50]

His most memorable soap role might be Talbot Huddleston, since they always play the clip of Karen Wolek pointing at him and screaming.

[DRW50]

[dc11786]

Thanks for the picture.

This was another soap that got a radio run in Australia according to Wikipedia, which I know isn't always the most accurate lists it as being on Aussie radio from 1952-1970.

Here's a recording from youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoVqcpfwAVU

[slick jones]

Portia Faces Life/ The Inner Flame

April 5,1954-July 1, 1955

Parkerstown

Cast:

Bill Baker.....Richard Kendrick

Kathy Baker.....Elizabeth York

Dickie Blake......Charles Taylor

Rolland "Rolly" Tennyck Blake.........William Redfield

Ruth Byfield......Mary Fickett

Flo Dolan.............

Morgan Elliott........Byron Sanders

Phoebe Farraday.......Sally Gracie

Tony Farraday..........Mark Miller

Harriet Gower............

Mrs. Ingram..............

Dorie Blake Lawlor.........Jean Gillespie

Ralph Lawlor..........

Karl Manning...........Patrick O'Neal

Portia Blake Manning..........Fran Carlon

...........Frances Reid

Shirley Manning ................Renne "Gail" Jarrett

...............Ginger McManus

Walter Manning................Karl Swenson

...............Donald Woods

Murray Slater...................

Lt. Mitchell Stanley..............

Adele..............Eda Heineman

Bea.............Joan Chambers

???????????Bernard Grant

??????????Don Hastings

??????????Terri Keane

??????????Helen Mack

???????????Mellibrand Warner

??????????Melissande Gorman

This is the cast info I have found over the years. If anyone has more info, please let me know.

[danfling]

Lloyd Gross, who is mentioned as the director of Portia Faces Life in an article above, was known mainly for directing game shows.

[Paul Raven]

Billboard 11 Sept 1954

Changes at Young & Rubicam who produce PFL. Producer Beverly Smith resigned,replaced by Charles Irving,whose production company will supply Hal Cooper as director and Charles Gussman as writer replacing Mona Kent who will now be working on'Woman with a Past'.

Plot lines will change and lead Frances Reid as well as other cast members will likely be dropped.

[Paul Raven]

PORTIA FACES LIFE Network: CBS -TV. Time: Mon.-Fri., 1:15 -1:30 p.m. EDT. Producer: Beverly Smith of Young & Rubicam. Director: Lloyd Cross. Announcer: Bill Shipley. Guitar Accompanist: Tony MIttola. Cast: Frances Reid, Donald Woods, Elizabeth York, Richard Kendrick, Charles Taylor, Renne Jarrett. Sponsor: Post Cereal Div. of General Foods. Agency: Young & Rubicam. Production Cost: $9,000 per week.

EVERY weekday afternoon, televiewers whose daily schedules do not confine them to more constructive pursuits, are getting a chance to see a valiant lady cope with this confused busi- ness of living, courtesy of CBS -TV and Post Cereal Division of General Foods. Portia Manning is now taking the bull by the horns on television as well as radio in a fairly new video adaptation of one of the latter medium's sturdiest soap operas, Portia Faces Life. Evaluating Portia with a soap opera slide rule ends in one conclusion which distinguishes it from most of its contemporaries. Less is said, less is done and less is accomplished in the 15- minute time period allotted to this program daily than on perhaps any other show on tv. This is going some in a drama category characterized by its perennial lack of action and intelligence. Portia's writer is doing a superb job of stretching out a story that has nothing to say in the first place. This criticism is based on the assumption that the May 11 telecast was typical of the type installment featured on the series. Commercial segments occupied a healthy percentage of the program's time, which in this case cannot be considered too objectionable. In the interest department, Grape Nut Flakes will beat out domestic upset of the Portia kind any day. Between breakfast food plugs, the viewer was forced to conclude that all was not well at the Manning residence. Mother Portia had gone and done it again. This time her rugged individualistic nature had propelled her into the middle of a gambling raid which made headlines in the local paper of which her husband is publisher. Her 13- year -old son. took a very dim view of his mama's recreational habits until a fair -haired girl reporter, who is the idol of this young man's life, reminded him that we must love others not because of their virtues but in spite of their faults. Adoption of this pleasant philosophy softened our young man's attitude toward mother and her most recent escapade. All was forgiven. And the curtain fell on tv's impression of a typically domestic American scene. Lending the element of sight to Portia has simply added insult to injury.