@SoapDope78 Thanks for that episode. Has it been up before?
The Journal April 17 April 1977
Actor Outlasts Soap Operas
BY DICK KLEINER
After 11 years of playing Dr, Bill Horton on NBC's Days Of Our Lives, Edward Mallory has reached the pinnacle of daytime television. He is one of the most popular of all the soap opera heroes.
But does h e find the work satisfying? " No , " he says. " No , it's not totally satisfying. I'm like an airplane. I've been through all the training—Carnegie Tech and all that — and I'm a good plane. I'm all fueled up and ready to take off. But then I'm stopped just before the wheels leave the ground. I've only taken off a few times in 11 years with Days of Our Lives.
Why, then, does he stay with the show? "Because of the money," Mallory says., with refreshing candor. Mallory comes originally from Cumberland. Met-, where he had a pleasant childhood. There was never a thought of acting as he went through school. After graduating from high school, he became a management trainee with a tire company. Then came the Korean War, which changed his life totally. He went into the Army, became a lieutenant, and was assigned to duties as an instructor. He found he could get his ideas across to his recruits better by dramatizing them — giving impressions, acting out his commands. It worked and -he enjoyed it.
So, when he was discharged, he decided that perhaps he had a future in acting. He went to Carnegie Tech — now Carnegie-Mellon — where he studied drama. He acted in many of the colleges plays and continued to act during s u m m e r vacations. After graduation He stayed in the Pitsburgh area, working on local TV stations. He was spotted there by an ex agent who advised him to try California. In i960 Mallory m a d e the move, and quickly established himself in a career that would ultimately lead to his role on Days Of Our Lives.
Now, however, Edward Mallory wants to branch out. His goal is directing. He has already tried his hand a t directing local little-theater plays, a film about acting, and a spoof of Days Of Our Lives for the cast's amusement. Now he's in the midst of making another spoof of the show, but this one is larger and more ambitious. So far, he's p0ured some $15,000 of his own money into the project. He's using the Days of Lives cast. And he's built a set — the castle of "Dr. Neilsonstein" in "Neilsonvania." The castle set is in Mallory's own living room. "It's all about a rating war between networks," he says. "And the upshot is that CBS tries to build the perfect soap opera hero — -and that's where Dr. Neilsonstein comes in. He makes the perfect-soap opera hero come to life."
By
Paul Raven ·
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