In this next series of Jason47's "From the Vault", take a look back at problems "Days" faced 43 years ago...problems which still exist today.

From the overuse of contract castmembers, to not having enough in the budget to expand the cast, the same stuff was happening over four decades ago.

Also included are a few treasures from soap newcomer Susan Flannery and future "M*A*S*H" star Mike Farrell.

Plus, find out who was suggested to play Doug Williams before the character was even named!! If that came to pass, would Susan Seaforth have ever even met Bill Hayes??

Have some fun digging into the "Days" of old... http://www.jason47.c.../memos1969.html

Can't wait to read this. Thank you so much.

I never knew Mike Farrell wasn't on contract.

Bill Bell saying they should eliminate day players - very ahead of his time!

Here's Myron Natwick. Never was on a soap, unless you count Dante's Cove.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0622452/

Thank you so much for sharing those letters Jason47. I never thought I would be able to see anything from behind the scenes like that, especially not any type of communication from Betty Corday to Bill. Bell. Its sad that the same problem still exists today though, on all of the shows.

Here's Myron Natwick. Never was on a soap, unless you count Dante's Cove.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0622452/

Myron was on "Days" for a bit too. When he didn't get the Doug role in 1970, they eventually hired him for the role of Rick, a drug addict, who was on 29 episodes in 1972.

That's interesting. Was he in some type of group therapy scenes or something?

The First Major "Days" Death, 1967

In today's update of Baby Dickie, read the latest installment, episode # 390 (May 19, 1967), in which Baby Dickie Martin dies.

If you've yet to read the earlier synopses, take a moment and catch up with all the details of episodes # 386, 387, 388 and 389.

http://www.jason47.c...1967recaps.html

Coming soon...Episode # 391...David finds out about Dickie's death and goes to comfort Susan.

Thanks for sharing this with us. Chilling scenes (although the nurse asking Tom if he should have helped them with their marriage felt out of place - how long was that nurse around)? You can feel the agony building up in this, and then you have David's father unwittingly setting his son's death in motion.

That was excellent, thank you for posting

although the nurse asking Tom if he should have helped them with their marriage felt out of place

I actually liked the irony of that line because Tom was meddling in their lives from the beginning. Tom was the one who talked Susan out of having an abortion and recommended that they get married. He was the one who insisted that Julie be the maid of honor at David and Susan's wedding as to 'help' Julie get over David. He even did follow up visits to Susan after the marriage to council Susan on trying to make the marriage work and convince her not to give the baby up for adoption.

I love Tom Horton, but he did a lot of meddling in everybody's lives in the early days.

I wonder how much guilt he felt over that.