OLTL's Ellen Holly's Open Letter to Fans and Historians

[John]

The thing is Ellen said she always found it fishy and that she had someone that would have Rep'd her if she went to him but she didnt. So Ellen IMHO has to own some of the responsibility there with that 1st contract.

I do agree that later especially after ABC bought OLTL she probably faced a lot of racism from that company

Ellen seemed to think it was weird that she was cast just weeks before they needed the role to begin but that happens a lot in Daytime that you cast and could start the next day or the following week. EH seemed to use that as a reason for her casting being a gimmick. That cant be true, since its pretty common to happen when casting daytime.

[Juliajms]

She didn't say it was weird. She said the AN saw her picture and thought EH was perfect for the part. Not just perfect, but the only person AG has seen who she thought could pull the role off. That AN thought she would have to ditch the story until she saw that picture of EH. Then magically some guy calls up acting as an agent and won't give his name. That is incredibly shady as far as I'm concerned.

EH probably thought she couldn't go to an agent because she already had one. That guy did get her the part as far as she knew at the time. She did have to pay him a commission, although he negotiated with the show to get it once she insisted, so as far as I can see there was a plan to screw her over. Only the motivation is in question (race or greed). I guess we can say she should have turned the job down, but it's not like she knew she could get a better deal.

I'm not 100% on her side because I think she comes across as sort of entitled. It's ok to feel entitled to pay parity, but some of her comments rubbed me the wrong way. Plenty of people in this world work harder than any actress and have little to show for it.

[Dana]

On the first part, that doesn't absolve Ellen from protecting herself. She said she knew someone she could go to. She should have gone to that person instead of relying on some unknown mysterious voice on the phone. I wonder if that kind of thing happened to anyone else in the soap world, because that is definitely shady and weird. And it's still not clear to me if she actually tried to talk to the production company for future contract talks or just took the memo at face value and signed it.

On the 2nd, I do agree somewhat. Even though racism does exist, then and now, that doesn't mean Ellen is right about every little thing, or she may have her own skewed take on some things. Perhaps she didn't speak up at times because she, being black, "knew her place" at certain times in history and didn't feel she had any power. But in terms of the show remembering history, I think this was touched on before that the show doesn't really remember its very early history, not like GH and especially AMC did.

[Juliajms]

OK, but someone failing to protect themselves doesn't give someone else the right to victimize them in such a calculated way. She may have been naive and too trusting, but she is still the victim if everything she is saying is true. The only reason I have the slightest doubt is that this person was paid, so I don't understand why she doesn't know who he now. There has to be a record, doesn't there?

That would be my guess. I also think this is how they got her to sign with the shady guy in the first place. She knew there weren't a lot of options out there, would it really make sense to rock the boat when someone representing themselves as an agent got you a job on TV? Plus she didn't know at the time that others were making so much more than she was.

Even though she said she knew an agent who would help her if AN approached her directly, that doesn't mean she felt comfortable approaching that person, when they would not have been able to represent her in the deal. If one agent get you the job and audition, doesn't seem to me you can just bring another agent into it. She had every right that someone representing themselves as an agent would have a vested interest in getting her the best deal possible (to get the most commission). Maybe she could have hired a lawyer if she had the money. Being too trusting may have been her mistake, but that just doesn't compare to the downright shadiness of other people involved.

There are bigger tragedies and injustices out there, but I still feel kind of bad for her.

[marceline]

EH certainly wouldn't be the first actor (or athlete for that matter) who was out maneuvered in business/financial affairs. How many times have we heard of someone like Josephine Baker or Joe Louis who both died pretty much penniless. Then you have someone like Ray Charles who had the "genius" to negotiate ownership of his masters but that was unheard of at the time and he'd certainly made a lot of people rich before that. I'm not trying to paint EH as a martyr because there's a lot in that letter that raises red flags for me but I think a lot of people are looking at her business decisions through a filter of hindsight. She may have been too trusting but she's certainly not alone in that.

I've said before that I hope Oprah would interview Susan Lucci for "O Magazine" but now I REALLY want her to interview Holly. I want somebody to sit and talk with this woman. Somebody who will respect her contributions, understand her journey AND be willing to push back. Not some soap fanboy or fangurl who will be more interested in fanning nostalgia for Agnes or the genre. For the record, I still love Agnes but nobody accomplishes what she did without selling out at least a little.

Stuff like this is the reason I'm not crying over the death of soaps. They spit in the face of minorities and women: the two audiences who kept them alive.

[Paul Raven]

I wonder what sort of contract Lillian Hayman and later Al Freeman had on the show and whether this was ever discussed with Ellen.Or other performers in the early days,for that matter.

Carla and Ed having a child of their own would seem a natural story progression.Was this ever discussed onscreen?

One would have hoped that the desire to show black characters in a positive light onscreen would have extended to behind the scenes also.

[Dana]

But can someone be your agent just by saying they're your agent without meeting you first and getting your ok or a signed contract between the two of you? If that can really occur, then that is extremely shady and shouldn't be allowed to happen by the actor or the industry. If the guy was not really an agent for her but someone with the production company, then that seems to represent fraud to me and a basis for one hell of a lawsuit. All of that just seems so shady and all kinds of wrong, but Ellen just allowing that to happen seems wrong as well. I just have a hard time believing that all went down exactly like that and continued like that the length of her contract. Something just seems really off on that story.

[John]

Dana CH may have had an attorney call and EH thought it was an agent. My issue is that you never sign without having an attorney on your side look at it and EH said she had someone she could have gone to. Why didnt she??? IMHO that is her mistake and I bet she regrets it but hopefully she learned from it

Now when ABC took Over I could see the racism coming in big time.

[Chris B]

Considering how black people were being treated in 1968, I can't believe anybody thinks she would question the contract lol. Hell, in 2011 there aren't many roles for black people. She had two choices: take it or leave it. Disputing it means "leave it." They clearly didn't care what she thought. She's black and needs to stay in her place. This is 1968 we're talking about. I wonder who would be playing Carla had she had her attorney look over the contract because it certainly wouldn't be Ellen Holly.

[SFK]

And agents don't get paid just once and that's the end of it. They get that 10% with every check, and if CH/mystery man was collecting a commission off of her checks, that is not only shady as [!@#$%^&*] but absolutely illegal. One would have to be an AFTRA franchised agent to negotiate her contract and to collect a commission on her behalf. I still find it extremely odd that contact was never made with this mystery agent. Did she notice that commission wasn't being taken from her checks and she knew that she wasn't paying an agent so was she being shady? She asked for the extra $25 per show so she had to have noticed that his fee wasn't being subtracted... or was it?

In local markets where there are no agents, casting directors work directly with talent all the time and there is no bargaining when it comes to money. Scale. They are the direct link to the producers and agents are out of the equation. So what this "person" did, while smarmy, is "allowed". He/they played her and got what they wanted. If she had demanded, "Wait! What is your number so my agent can call you!" things would have gone differently, but alas, she thought he was an agent and didn't think to pretend and go run and secure one, and he let her think that knowing she didn't have one or else CH would have heard from him.

[R Sinclair]

Everybody who watched the AMC 35th Anniversary special on Soap Net knows that, even though she said it in her cute little lighthearted manner, Agnes poached Ray McDonnell from EON to play Joe Martin, with P&G almost firing its producer Nick Nicholson for releasing McDonnell from his contract to go to All My Children. So, I strongly doubt that Agnes was just clueless as to the dealings going on with the actors SHE wanted to have on her show(s).

That's the trouble with creating living legends... they're still around to speak for themselves.

[Mr. Vixen]

So, I just realized I read all of Ms.Holly's letter, and every reply in this thread - but failed to comment myself.

I am really at a loss for words, and like someone above said - I don't really know where to begin. I feel very sorry for Ms. Holly. I believe wholeheartedly that she was the victim of racism, at the hands of the majority of executives during her tenure, including Agnes Nixon. While AN may not have been as blatantly racist as EH paints her here, I thoroughly believe that she turned a blind eye to the unfair treatment that Ms. Holly was receiving at the hands of OLTL's brass. I hope that EH has found an inner peace now, but it seems she still harbors quite a bit of resentment - and that just isn't healthy. The soap-fan in my mind really hopes AN reads that letter and gives EH a call, so they can have a long overdue conversation about all of this. What I would give to be a fly on the wall for that one.

It makes me sad to know that Carla will never return to Llanview. I suppose we all knew it wouldn't happen, but with the show still being on the air, there was a margin of room for all of us to hope, no matter how unrealistically. The story of Carla Hall will, along with Karen on the Witness Stand, always be OLTL's most iconic storyline. And most of all, it makes to me sad that the relationship between Ms. Holly and OLTL will never be properly mended, with the show ending.

[Chris B]

Well sadly, they did offer returns for Ellen in the past, we know for the 25th anniversary and also the role on Loving. I wonder what he reason was for turning those offers down. It could've led to something bigger and since they were requesting her she could command the type of money she deserves.

[SFK]

Now I'm at a point where I want to hear what her cast mates and crew thought of her. Just to get a fuller picture. I want to know what she was like to work with, if they observed her struggle, if they sensed her being ostracized, if she suffered in silence, if she spoke her mind and strove for excellence and got branded difficult like Rowell and Strasser, who EH was rather fond of. In her book she talks about some very rough luck in romance not to mention on the job and she struggled with alcoholism.

Frankly, I think TV One needs to do an Unsung on her.

[NorrthCafe]

I don't see hatred, but heroism. I see a woman who refuses to allow history to be written from the perspective of people who've been seemingly dishonest about their achievements. That includes the ABC Brass. I think it's important to have a true record of what's happened in the history of daytime and how many of the 'advancements' in regard to the issues of race are nothing more than inch deep and a mile wide approaches to dealing with very serious issues. Minority actors have long been faulted for not being able to 'draw audiences in' when the reality is that there has never been a real commitment to those actors or their characters, IMO. (This includes sexual minorities too).

To treat characters as (barely) equal onscreen, and then treat the actors who portray them as 'reluctantly hired help' offstage means, to me, that daytime's faux heroes/heroines should not receive credit for their 'courage' in introducing marginalized groups onscreen. I would be more impressed with the opposite behavior: actors being treated with fairness and equity behind the scenes. The onscreen stuff would take care of itself if that was the model.

I think Ellen points out what has been perceived as true for a very long time, the huge discrepancy in the private and public faces of the entertainment industry. Victoria Rowell tried to do the same and was called a 'trouble maker' and 'crazy'... by the very people who are part of the problem.

Daytime will die with a history of failure to reward the work of minority actors - given the few Emmy noms or wins for minority actors. Daytime will die having given minority writers few opportunities to lead shows. The same is true of daytime's failure develop and support minority directors, executive producers, etc. The ways in which daytime failed to integrate minorities of all kinds into the history of the genre will be its great shame. I thought I would miss daytime when it was gone. EH's letter reminds me that I won't miss it at all.