Offbeat Soap Facts/News bits/Anecdotes you still remember

[DRW50]

 

Is that the one of Guthrie in the pink and white shorts and he's squatting? I thought he looked gorgeous in that...I never noticed the testicle though.

 

I was surprised when I saw some of the photos - someone put one here before of Terry Lester in black briefs, and I'm pretty sure you could see his pubes. 

 

By the '90s we were supposed to get hot over baggy basketball shorts. 

 

Speaking of McDonald, article after article in soap magazines at the time documented whether he would be in Playgirl and him being in Playgirl. He was a handsome guy but I have to wonder if some fans eventually started to say - who the hell cares?

[vetsoapfan]

 

Guthrie was squatting in the picture, but I do not recall what color his shorts were.

 

The picture was not pornographic, of course. We just happened to glimpse a small part of his right testicle. It was something like this picture of actor Steve Sandvoss:

 

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Way back then, women were routinely treated as sex objects, but the idea of seeing explicit shots of actors was new and titillating to many fans. Still, we knew that there was never going to be any "real," full frontal exposure, so after awhile all the breathless reporting about male nudes became..."ehhh," LOL.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yep, today only Trump is allowed to grope any woman he wants without fear of consequences. Hallick would be called on the carpet for sure. (Although the picture itself would not really help damn him much, because La Dickson does not look like she's resisting.)

 

And yes, magazines of the day always featured articles about the "confirmed bachelors" of movies and TV. It boogles my mind that many folks in the audience never suspected the truth about men like Liberace (I mean, really!). My gaydar pinged over so many of these guys.

[amybrickwallace]

 

I wonder how many viewers/readers were fooled back then. 

[SoapDope]

 

I guess it could have been worse and Hallick could have been motor boating Dickson. 

 

Not long ago I saw an article with Dennis Cooney and I thought, I can't believe people thought that man was straight. He also appeared in 1979 on Hollywood Squares during soaps week and the female contestant was gushing over him and he blew her a kiss. Richard Guthrie was also on the panel.

 

 

 I guess we would be surprised at how many female viewers were fooled. 

 

[j swift]

Looking back on the Vintage Soap Magazine Tumblr with the current perspective as a gay soap fan the coded language is so amusing.  Bachelors are single because (1.) their busy soap lives doesn't leave time for dating; despite their female co-star pregnant and engaged (2.) they pine for a love left behind in Europe (recently out Gordon Thompson used this line while on Santa Barbara, or (3) they love the single life which was commonly demonstrated through photos of them at home playing a musical instrument.

 

A few years ago, I met a former soap actor and we discussed what it was like to be closeted in the 70/80's on the soaps.  He remarked that most of the soap press was female and there was an unwritten rule that they wanted to continue the fantasy that a viable soap hunk had to be straight.  As a result, he was never asked about his private life.  They would discuss stories and plots, but he was never asked in an interview about his dating life.  In reality, he was out to his family and friends.  However, he was in a de-facto closet because nobody ever asked and the fans didn't really want to know.

 

Given that perspective I have no problem with the choices made by gay actors who were soap hunks and not given an opportunity to discuss their lives.  Nor do I fault the female fans who maintained a fantasy while being sold Prell Shampoo.  What I don't like, in retrospect, were roles given to older gay male actors.  They were always the ones carrying most of the gothic/sci fi stories in the 80's with maniacal laughter and weird lecherous behavior.  AMC and GL in particular were guilty of only hiring older gay actors to play bad guys.   

[vetsoapfan]

Yes, both the actors themselves and the soap press benefited from keeping the myth of "all actors are straight" alive. The actors had no choice if they wanted to keep their jobs, and the press survived by appealing to the devoted viewers/readers, most of whom were thought to be heterosexual woman. Particularly back then, soaps were predicated on romance and the fantasy of the ideal dream man. If viewers became aware of the fact that many of their favorite actors were actually gay...poof! The fantasy balloon would have been popped forever.

[amybrickwallace]

 

Or, if you believed the words of the late David O'Brien (Dr. Steve Aldrich, THE DOCTORS) - you never got over the former lady of your life who became a nun.

[Paul Raven]

Just read a Val Dufour article where he claims to have an ex wife and 2 teenage sons ...never saw them mentioned again..

 

And he trots out the old line about his career as an actor meaning he cant have a successful marriage  ignoring the fact that hundreds of others seem to mamage it.

[Franko]

I guess Dufour's ex-wife and sons were best friends with Raymond Burr's late wife and son.

[SoapDope]

LOL......they also tried to say he had a relationship with Carolee Campbell shortly before she married Hector. I saw some stuff where some girl was supposed to be in a romance with Richard Guthrie and Terry Lester dated Paul Newman's daughter Susan. 

[amybrickwallace]

I always got a kick out of soap stars relating that their real-life kids had seen them on TV kissing their screen partners, and the kids would protest, "That’s not Mommy/Daddy!"

[vetsoapfan]

THE GUIDING LIGHT:

 

--Rev. Ruthledge opened his church in Five Points, in 1918

--Meta Bauer was born in 1919

--Rev. Ruthledge died overseas in 1946

--Bill and Bertha Miller Bauer married on December 9, 1949

--Meta Bauer White's son Chuckie died tragically on September 20, 1950

--Meta killed her husband Ted on September 22, 1950

--Mike Bauer was born in March, 1952

--Ed Bauer was born on December 31, 1954

--Papa Bauer turned 65 on March 14, 1957

--Hope Bauer was born in September, 1963

--Frederick "Rick" Bauer was born in August, 1970

--Papa Bauer died in February, 1973

 

THE EDGE OF NIGHT

 

Mike and Nancy Pollack Karr married on April 22, 1963

 

LOVE OF LIFE

 

Audrey Peters debuted as Vanessa Dale Raven in 1959, on the character's wedding day to Bruce Sterling. Imagine how weird it was to see Bonnie Bartlett playing Vanessa immediately before the wedding and then--voila--a strange woman walking down the aisle in Vanessa's wedding dress, LOL.

 

AS THE WORLD TURNS

 

Grandpa Hughes celebrated his 70th birthday on November 1, 1963

 

THE DOCTORS

 

Steve and Carolee Simpson Aldrich were married on March 9, 1972

 

ONE LIFE TO LIVE

 

Erika Slezak's real-life father, actor Walter Slezak, played Viki's godfather Lazlo Braedecker in 1974

 

THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS

 

Peggy Brooks was raped by Ron Becker on June 16, 1976

 

[soapfan770]

 

LOL I've seen a couple paparazzi shoots in soap mags from the mid-80's of Terry Lester supposedly being linked to a couple ladies but obviously none of them lasted.  

[All My Shadows]

And because Audrey Peters had not memorized all of the characters' names yet, Vanessa simply referred to all of her guests as "dear"

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