I wasn't a fan of later Search openings. The music and graphics were cheesy and dated quickly.
The great Larry Haines.
The interviewer calls himself a soap opera freak but the line of questioning is quite disrespectful IMO. Maybe he was going for witty/sardonic but it comes off as rude.
THE JOURNAL-NEWS, SUNDAY, JUNE 4. 1972
He's riding bubble in soap opera by Philip Nobile.
God must love minor actors - he made so many of them.
\You know their faces, but not their names. Take Larry Haines, for example. Who? See what I mean? Well, Larry Haines is undeniably a household face. He happens to play to a noontime audience of seven million people, five days a week and he’s been doing this for almost 20 years. Haines is better known as Stu Bergman of the long-running TV soap opera Search for Tomorrow. He also has a reputation on Broadway as a character actor - five shows and five Tony Award nominations. I interviewed Haines backstage after a matinee performance of his latest Broadway efffort — Twigs. I never talked to a minor actor before (nobody ever seems to bother). But as a soap opera freak, I wanted to know whether Larry Haines can really find happiness in playing the schleppy Stu Bergman in the sentimental Search for Tomorrow.
Q: Did you always want to be a big minor actor?
A: There’s no such thing as a minor actor; there are only minor parts.
Q: Well, the term is “feature player” or character actor. What is it about feature players that seems to keep them feature players?
A: In my particular case, I think the reason is physical. I'm only 5’ 7” and I have certain physical limitations as far as stardom is concerned. But believe me, I'm very happy with where I am now.
Q: You mean there are advantages in being something less than a superstar?
A: Yes. the big advantage is that you work more frequently as a feature or supporting player than you do as a star. A star has to wait for the proper vehicle and the proper vehicle may come along only once every three years or so. The star also has to draw the public. If you do a play written by an unknown playwright and directed by an unknown director and you are the star, it’s a tremendous responsibility. Everything hinges on you. So the pressure is there.
Q: Can you mention any feature players who made it to stardom?
A; Eli Wallach was a character actor for a number of years. I don’t think Jason Robards started as a star. I think Dustin Hoffman is another good example. So is Gene Hackman. The other night I saw The Godfather and I think Al Pacino will really zoom to super stardom. You just have to be seen in the right thing at the right time by the right person.
Q: Soap opera is one of the last refuges for character actors, isn't it?
A: It isn't the last, it's one of the first. Soap opera is one of the big sources of income for character actors in New York. It's about all we have in live television right now. All the series are being shot in Hollywood.
Q: You played Search for Tomorrow's long-suffering schlep, Stu Bergman, for about 29 years now, haven’t you?
A: He’s not a long-suffering schlep. No, Stu is a happy-go-lucky, good-natured guy who has just recently been hit with tragedy. But prior to that, he didn’t really have that many problems. He was always trying to help people solve their problems.
Q: How can you stand playing the same role all these years?
A; Well, because, fortunately, in soap opera, you have a new script to tackle every show. That keeps your mind alert, keeps you from getting bored. In the theatre. however, you have to say the same thing night after night for a long run.
Q: It sure looks like easy work — not too many lines or too demanding scenes.
A . The difficulty with soap opera is the speed with which it’s done. There is not that much time to prepare or rehearse We come in at eight o’clock in the morning and we have our first blocking and work to about 9:30. Then we are off to make-up and costume and we don't get back into the studio until 10.15. Then we have a dress rehearsal. We may work on it for a little more than two hours and that’s it. Next we tape the show and it’s 2 o'clock before we’re through.
Q: One thing has always irked me about soap operas. At the end of every scene you have those long dissolves while the organ plays and the actors stare at each other stupidly until the commercial comes on. How come?
A: If the show is playing too fast, the director may take more time on a dissolve to stretch out the time. Then it’s purely mechanical and you have to cooperate. Sure, it's uncomfortable. But it’s one of the mechanical difficulties of television.
Q: Do you ever get annoyed by the story lines? Let’s face it, some are a little silly.
A: I mean this most sincerely: I don’t think we’ve had that many silly incidents on Search for Tomorrow. They have been pretty believable situations. What Stu has been playing now has been very tragic where his daughter’s husband has just died.
Q. What’s unreal though is that so many bad things could happen in a single person’s life. Not necessarily your character. For example, the leading woman’s: Joanne Tate goes from tragedy to tragedy. It’s kind of exhausting.
A: Let's not lose sight of the fact that we are playing in a world of make believe and we do have to create situations and story lines to hold an audience. If we didn’t, we wouldn't still be on the air.
By
Paul Raven ·
