Irving Vendig created EON, Three Steps to Heaven, Hidden Faces and wrote SFT. Definitely underappreciated .
Buffalo Evening NEWS—TV TOPICS June 29, I963
How They Write Edge oi Night Two Authors Do 3-Day Sequences
Irving Vendig is one of the most successful men in TV, but he lives in Sarasota, Fla., and rarely bothers to come to New York, as he did recently. Vendig and his associate, James Gentile, write the popular, long running CBS soap opera Edge of Night. Vendig has been turning out well polished daytime misery for 25 years, and he is considered the best in his field. Playwright Marc Connelly calls Edge of Night one of the best written shows on TV, and fan mail has come in from the likes of Tallulah Bankhead and Shirley Booth. Many a top exec, bedded down with some minor ailment, has become so enthralled with the troubles of Edge of Night that he has lengthened his illness hoping to see the end of a plot. But Vendig's show is one that never ends.
I ASKED Irving whether he responds to audience criticism of the show. "I get quite a bit of mail," he replied, "and Jim and I go through all of it. We do not change the situation to please the fans, but years of experience have taught me how to interpret the letters. "If we get a batch of threatening mail telling us that if we don't do something the listeners are going to turn us off and never watch again . . . then we know we're on the ball. "In fact, such letters are a tipoff for us to slow the pace of the series. Conversely, complimentary letters mean we have to speed it up." Vendig, who used to write Judy & Jane and Perry Mason on radio, always used an apprentice to assist him in the grind. Thirteen'years ago, he was shopping around for an assistant when James Gentile was suggested to him by a mutual friend, a University of Florida professor. Jim was working in a Florida radio station and Irving refused to see him, but requested a copy of anything he had written. Gentile set him an article on artificial insemination and Vendig saw something in the style and quality, and offered the young man an apprenticeship at $50 a week. "During the .first year I had him writing dialogue, but I don't think I used a sentence a week," continued Vendig. "Then, as he progressed, I gave him more and more responsibility—and money—and now he is a full partner. "At the time, I was doing Search for Tomorrow, a 15-minute show, and that's where Jim really started."
VENDIG AND Gentile are now interchangeable writers. They do not have to collaborate on individual scripts. "We each write three day sequences," explained Vendig. Then we edit each other. We work anywhere from 45 to 60 hours a week, so please don't picture us loafing on our lawns in Florida.' The series is generally plotted as much as four years in advance, but there's always room for changes. "Naturally, this means writing ahead, but all our vacations and side trips require that; New York always has three or four weeks of complete d scripts," said the 59-yearold native of Holly Springs, Miss.
VENDIG IS a bug on plot structure and that probably accounts for his reputation as the best in the field. He runs one main plot and one sub plot and develops them in such a way that when a main crisis is resolved the minor one is ready to bloom. "Characterization is also vital,'* he said, "because our audiences must believe that these people exist. We do not want stereotypes, but living, breathing people with real problems. living's daughter, a former actress who appeared on one of his shows, is married to a doctor and Irving admits that her childhood problems often cropped up in the show. Gentile has a wife and three youngsters who are also used as models.
IN ADDITION to Edge of Night, Vendig is working on a play. He is writing it alone, but he said that when it's finished partner Jim will come in for the rewrites. "Performers on my show are more famous than the biggest nighttime stars," he said. "Wherever they go they are greeted not by stage name but by character name. One of my actresses summed it up beautifully when she said that she's a celebrity in every restaurant but Sardi's."
By
Paul Raven ·
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