1956 article on TV and radio soaps

[DRW50]

1956 TV Radio Annual

[dc11786]

I will comment more later when I take the time to read all this. The pictures are stellar. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but 1955-1956 was the big boom for soaps. NBC and CBS had added a few to their television line ups and the radio serials hadn't been cancelled yet. Within in a year or so, a lot of the radio soaps would begin to disappear.

Thanks, DRW50. I don't thank you enough for the time you take to post these. Forever thankful.

[EricMontreal22]

A great read--thanks for posting it.

I believe 1959 is seen as the end of the radio soaps--the last four major ones (or was it more--I know Right to Happiness was one--and I still find it odd that, given it was constantly very well rated, it never switched to TV) all ended on the same day.

[DRW50]

Thanks for reading. I think two pages are out of order. Sorry about that. I thought you might have already read this - I'm glad you hadn't.

Yes, I think this was right before they started canceling radio soaps en masse.

It's sad when I look at ads from around 1957 or 1958 that tried to advertise Ma Perkins or other radio soaps in some new, "relevant" way. It was somewhat awkward.

I wish they'd been given more of a chance.

[dc11786]

Eric, you are absolutely right that the end of radio soaps is seen as the day the final broadcasts aired of the remaining four soaps. I want to say the date is November 25, 1960. It really is amazing to think that they had radio soaps up until 1960.

Before this date, the shows started the slow trend of dying off, which we are unfortunately repeating today. For example, "Guiding Light" discontinued its radio version in the mid-1950s despite (or maybe due to) its popularity on television. Other classics were slowly dying off. The "Daytime Diary" section of the TV-Radio Mirror was still filled with numerous entries for television and radio soaps when it was discontinued in the summer of 1956, but I don't think that lasted much longer. Really, I was wondering whether this time was the peak where both radio/TV coexisted before TV soaps overtook radio ones., but I didn't word it as well as I would have liked.

It was a fascinating article.

Teri Keane seems to be one of the few (like Charita Bauer) who made the transfer to television and managed to hang around for a while. She was around in the 1980s on "Loving" and "Guiding Light" if I recall.

I don't think I had ever read about Debbie on "The Secret Storm." Those little details seemed to have been lost over time.

I don't think I knew Manya Starr wrote "The Doctor's Wife." In the Daytime Diary section of the Radio-TV Mirror, I noticed it replaced "King's Row." I think it might have been one of the last serials created for the radio.

In the past year or so, I've developed an appreciation of the radio soaps. I just wish more consecutive runs existed of the ones I was interested in.

DRW50, your mention of the Ma Perkins ads is amusing. In that book on radio soaps I read, the author mentions how Helen Trent ends up dumping Gil Whitney after years of romance in order to date more modern men. The eternally 35 year old heroine ended up dating a beatnik who romanced her by reading her German philosophy.

[DRW50]

One of the last new radio soaps I remember seeing articles on was one with Madeline Carroll. I can't remember the name.

[dc11786]

A quick search seems to suggest you're referring to "The Affairs of Dr. Gentry." It did premier in 1957, several years after the "The Doctor's Wife." I had seen so few references to new radio soaps during that time period, but not everything is well documented. I know several shows were cancelled and revived in that period ("The Right to Happiness" being one of them), but so rarely I had I seen new dramas referenced.

[~bl~]

According my copy of The Serials from 1971...the last radio serials were the following:

1957 - The Affairs of Dr. Gentry (as mentioned above, and seems like the last traditional soap opera that wasn't an omnibus or shorter length story)

Five Star Matinee (an NBC serial with changing stories and various sponsors which was discontinued in 1958)

1958

Real Life Stories (an NBC serial similar to Five Star Matinee)

1959

Whispering Streets - a daytime single-unit drama by ABC in 1953 this series adopted a 5-part serial in 1959 for CBS. The stories were narrated by a fictional Hope Winslow, played in 1958 by Bette Davis. In 1959 Anne Seymour assumed the narration duties. The myriad stories were written by Margaret E. Sangster. The show ended in 1960. (What I wonder is do they mean Bette Davis narrated the 1953 version or if there was a typo at the top and it really started in 1958 not 1959 on CBS.

1960

Best Seller - five part dramatizations on CBS starting on June 27, 1960. The first was Frank Yerby's The Serpent and the Staff adapted by Greer Johnson. Per this book, it was radio's last serial drama.

[DRW50]

Here are a few interviews with Jimsey Somers, who played the daughter on Gentry. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1798&dat=19570717&id=UIEfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=04oEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5135,1455238 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=19570715&id=YusrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=c2cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1168,1010115

[danfling]

I especially enjoyed seeing the photograph of Wendy Drew. I remember her as the original Ellen on As the World Turns.