March 1969 TV Radio Talk

Thanks for the article!

Edited May 9, 201510 yr by jam6242

Not to do with Valiant Lady itself, but a mostly lost film starring James Kirkwood Jr's father has been found. 

 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/box-of-old-movies-recovered-from-eaton-s-store-in-1940s-contains-lost-film-1.3355719

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-lost-film-secrets-1.4057564

Billboard review July 1957

Living on borrowed time from extension to extension, "Valiant Lady" is making valiant attempts to wind up and then extend its story line with each reprieve. Author Robert J. Shaw is currently heavily dependent on significant looks from the actors to imply suspense and conflict. The excellent cast continues to feature Flora Campbell in the title role, with Robert Webber and Joy Hodges especially good as a mismatched couple shadowing her life. Herb Kenwith's direction is inventive and lends a different air from the average soap opera, a theater quality in the movement and gestures. This pleasant approach is echoed in the sets and costumes of the Leonard Blair production.

 

2nd anniversary cake cutting.

Thanks for these.

Adrian Spies became headwriter April 1955.

 

He continued writing for primetime up until the late 80's.

 

With Helen Wagner, woohoo.

 

 

Who is the actress playing Myrtil?  (is her name Myrtil or Margo?)    I recognize Lawrence Weber.

 

I thought that Helen Wagner played Trudy (or was on The Guiding Light?).   Here, she is called "Jane."  Does she have a last name?   Is she supposed to be an Eve Arden-type character?

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 20187 yr by danfling

Original cast publicity shots

 

Great find. That second one - "I coulda been a contenda."

July 1957 HOOSIER IN MANHATTAN By JANE ALLISON

Very shortly now, on Aug. 2, a very famous lady is going off the air, perhaps never to be seen in the same valiant form again. She is Flora Campbell, the "Valiant Lady" of CBS television, one, of the most popular daytime heroines of all time, who, as Helen Emerson, has visited daily in the homes of the nation tor the past two and a half years. During that time, she has, in spite of the frantic communications from her fans, managed to be jilted in three most unfortunate romances, has suffered a major crisis a week, and many, many minor ones, and lived through a constant procession of nagging worries and fears attendant to the rearing of three television children, all distinctly difficult cases.

Two and a half years of that would tire anyone, whether he took his soap opera life seriously or not. And it has definitely tired  Flora Campbell, who has lived Helen Emerson's  life almost as deeply and intensely as her own. When she goes off the air in August, she's going off to rest, and unless she's more valiant than she thinks she is at the moment, the next few weeks will be Flora Campbell's swan song to the role, of Helen Emerson.

For what some critics are apt to ignore in their ridicule of network soap opera is this: the stars of these daily dramas are really fine actors and actresses, most of them with a long background of Broadway successes. And it is because they are really good and convincing that shows like "Valiant Lady" have the hold they do on the viewing public. And secondly, these stars can't go on giving first-rate performances over a long period of time without becoming genuinely interested in the character they're portraying, feeling the next turn of the story-book plot line almost as deeply as the next turn of life in their off-camera living. Such has certainly been the case with Flora Campbell, former Broadway star of George Kauffman's "The Land Is Bright," "Foxhold in the Parlor" with Montgomery Clift, "Many Mansions" and a host of Robert Montgomery Presents, Date With Judy, Studio One and Kraft Theatre productions, from many of which she won awards.

But after months and months of portraying, and really believing in Helen Emerson ("I think she's a pretty balanced, pretty straightforward woman, with, thank God, a good sense of humor, but more good-looking beaus than anyone has a right to have.") Flora Campbell's schizophrenic life has caught up with her, and she's almost too weary to go on being valiant. Up each day at six, she catches the seven o'clock train from Darien to New York. By eight she's rehearsing at CBS. At 9:30 she goes into costume and by 10: 15 she's back on camera, rehearsing straight through until noon, when the show is televised. After a quick hamburger, she grabs the next train for home, where, by 3 p.m., she begins to cope with the pleasures and problems attendant to raising two real life children, tall Tommy, 17, and little Creel,  7, running a big remodeled Connecticut farmhouse, and trying to arrange a normal home-life for her prominent society band leader husband, Ben Cutler, whose hours are hopelessly askew and never the same. When bedtime finally comes, she can never flop instantly into gorgeous slumber. Instead she sits up for an hour or so, memorizing tomorrow's lines.

In the "Valiant Lady" studio, no teleprompter is ever used, and pages and pages of dialogue have sometimes to be memorized in a few hours. It's a living, all right, and a good one. But Helen Emerson has given Flora Campbell a split personality that's almost knocked the Oklahoma accent back into her glamorous voice. Should she, as Helen, marry the Governor? Everyone thinks she should. But heavens, everyone wants her, meaning Flora Campbell's, husband Ben to play for their parties, when what she would really like to do is have him stop his crazy hours so she could see more of him. The Governor? No, Ben. Etc. On stage, Helen has a daughter so neurotic she resents all her mother's efforts to help her in any way. Off camera, Flora's daughter also has a problem. It's her hospitality. There's nothing she likes better than having all the neighborhood children in for hamburgers, cokes and some rousing cheers that part just about the time Flora is going over Helen's for the morrow. "I work very hard and I don't like to kid around about the show," says Flora Campbell about "Valiant Lady." Which undoubtedly explains why Helen Emerson has been such a real and beloved daytime heroine for so long. 

Edited June 2, 20223 yr by Paul Raven

I am fortunate enough to have seen Flora Campbell in her final soap opera role, Margaret Garrison, on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.

I don't think I've seen this one on Youtube before.