Miss Another World Today? Stuck at Home With Nothing To Do?

[anotherw...@gmail.com]

Hi, Everyone -

It's been a long while, and I sincerely hope everyone is doing as well as can be expected in this difficult time.

The soaps are being preempted right and left, we're stuck at home unable to go out out... what can we do?

I have some fun news! 

SoapHub, a website I've been writing for, has added my original soap opera, "Best For Last," to their line-up! It's going to be five days a week, every week!

If you enjoyed "Another World Today," I hope you'll take a peek here: https://soaphub.com/insider/a-daily-original-online-soap-best-for-last-episode-1/ and leave a comment.

I've missed interacting with and hearing from you!

Please take care and stay well -

Alina Adams

www.AlinaAdams.com

[Another World Today]

Hello, again!

It's been a long time.

If you enjoyed "Another World Today," not to mention "Another World," itself, "Guiding Light" or "As the World Turns," then I think you'll love my new project!

"Go On Pretending" is a serial about the creation of P&G soaps, including all of the above and more, featuring Irna Phillips as a supporting character!

Please check it out at: https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-a-serial-about-soaps/

And leave a comment. You were my favorite readers back in the day, and I can't wait to hear what you think!

All the best -

Alina Adams

www.AlinaAdams.com

[Another World Today]

Ever wondered how that worked?

Read all about it in my new SoapHub serial!

***

Their biggest problem, however, was sex. They couldn’t show it. This was radio, not the movies. They couldn’t speak of it. This was radio, not…the bible. (Irna had chortled at that one, too, which was the biggest compliment Rose could hope for.) On The Romance Of Helen Trent, one of the few radio soaps not created by Irna, where the titular heroine had been proving that “romance can begin at thirty-five” for seventeen years — while managing to remain thirty-five – they spoke of the “emotional understanding” that could only come with marriage. And not a second before. They meant sex. Everyone knew they meant sex. But no one was allowed to say it. Irna was definitely not going to adopt that awkward turn of phrase for her own shows.

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-romance-can-begin-at-35/

[Another World Today]

Irna kept Rose so preoccupied that the only love lives she agonized over were Bill and Bertha Bauer, battling that floozy, Gloria, and whether widowed reporter Joe Roberts should choose Nurse Peggy, who his children preferred, or ex-jailbird Meta. These days, Irna was thinking bigger than radio. She’d already produced one television soap opera, These Are My Children, which sputtered out after less than a month of episodes on NBC. But Irna remained convinced the fledgling medium was her serials’ future. To that end, she was trying to convince Procter & Gamble to resettle Guiding Light on the small screen. To assuage their doubts about its viability, Irna used her own money to produce a pilot. When it failed to convince her sponsors, she set to work on a second one.

Get the whole story on what happens next by clicking:

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-from-radio-soaps-to-television/

[Another World Today]

Rose had been in the process of rising to greet him. She’d just pressed her palms into the desktop, which came in handy when she nearly lurched forward, only stopping herself from plunging face first by the fact that her arms were already locked at the elbows.

She’d braced herself for Jonas Cain being short. She’d braced herself for him being ancient, him being a child half her age. She’d braced herself for his having a face Mama called “perfect for radio,” and a host of other deficiencies, as well.

She hadn’t braced herself for this.

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-the-mystery-man-behind-the-voice/

[Another World Today]

She led him into the soundproofed studio, a plate of glass separating the actors from the production staff. A dual keyboard organ stood at the far left corner, Rosa Rio, who played it daily for every intro, outro, and dramatic pause in between, setting up her sheet music. The sound effects bench was on the left, featuring every tool necessary to make doorbells ring, coffee pots pour, cards shuffle, trains chug, brooks babble, and fists fly. To the right of the organ hung three microphones, a CBS logo engraved along the bottom, from three separate poles dropped from the ceiling. Each set-up could accommodate up to five actors. Leads with the most dialogue would gather in groups of two or three around the first two mics, while those covering smaller parts rotated around the remaining. They stood on mats to muffle the sound of shoes on studio floor concrete. They held scripts in their hands, dropping pages to the ground once done to avoid the rustle of turning. Though they wouldn’t be seen, everyone reported formally dressed. Men in suits, women in dresses, skirts, blouses, hair styled, in full makeup. They were professionals. No different from theater or movie performers. Though they didn’t engender even a fraction of their respect — or their salaries. They were just selling soap. To housewives, no less.

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-a-chance-to-do-the-right-thing/

[Another World Today]

“With all due respect, sir,” Jonas emphasized the final word, setting an example of how one should address a fellow man properly, “My 761st Tank Battalion broke through the German lines in Tillet so the rest of you could come strolling in after. One of our tankers, Private Ernest Jenkins, received the Silver Star from General Patton himself for our effort. Kraut bastards got a pounding they won’t soon forget from The Harlem Hellfighters.”

Rose had been about to step in to shield Theo Goetz, who played Papa Bauer. He was a Jew, born in Vienna, Austria. A proud naturalized American, but Jonas’ Kraut slur could still prove offensive to him, when the unnamed actor countered, “Eleanor’s n*g***s is more like it.”

Mrs. Roosevelt’s outspoken efforts to end Jim Crow laws and integrate the military, all of which came to a head when she was photographed personally handing out refreshments inside Washington DC’s first mixed canteen amongst Negro servicemen and white hostesses, earned all colored soldiers the demeaning sobriquet. 

Rose had been about to chastise the use of the epithet Kraut. But now she stood frozen in the face of an even worse slander. There was no question it was up to her. When Irna was in Chicago, Rose was the established authority. Except she had no idea what to say. 

Find out what happens next by clicking: https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-such-behavior-would-not-be-tolerated-on-the-guiding-light-set/ and make sure to leave a comment!

[Another World Today]

Irna Phillips had just launched a revolutionary new story on The Guiding Light. Meta Bauer was another of Irna’s single mother characters. Meta bravely fought for custody of her baby boy, Chuckie, from his adoptive parents, then felt pressured by her family to marry Chuckie’s biological father, Ted, who had initially wanted nothing to do with either of them.

But Ted proved a horrible parent, bullying the sensitive boy and insisting Chuckie take boxing lessons so he wouldn’t grow up a sissy. The 5-year-old fell out of the boxing ring, struck his head, and, after lingering in a coma for weeks, tragically died. Blaming Ted for the loss of the child she’d fought so hard for, Meta shot and killed her no-good husband. She was sent to prison and put on trial, where every mistake she ever made was dredged up by the prosecution. So far, so typical.

Where Irna broke new ground was in letting the audience play jury. She asked her listeners to call, write, and send telegrams declaring Meta either innocent or guilty. In the end, CBS received over 75,000 votes, with those advocating for Meta’s freedom outnumbering those who wanted to see her punished nearly 100 to one. The show’s ratings spiked higher than they ever had before. And the success of the Meta Bauer trial finally convinced CBS to launch The Guiding Light on television.

Find out how it happened at: https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-the-guiding-light-makes-the-move-to-tv-with-a-hitch/

[Another World Today]

Rose outlined Irna’s plans for a Guiding Light radio spinoff while the main program transitioned to television. If she’d told any other of her actors they were about to become the centerpiece of a show all but guaranteed to be a runaway success thanks to its pedigree, Rose might have expected shock, block-long grins, tears of joy, demands to renegotiate their contract. Jonas’ facial expression didn’t change. He listened politely. And then he kept listening. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. Because this wasn’t a mere shoe. This was a steel-heeled boot. And Jonas harbored his suspicions regarding whose neck it was about to crash on.

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-waiting-for-the-other-show-to-drop/

[Another World Today]

What would soaps be if people didn't take chances... and risk everything? The nighttime drama behind the daytime drama continues!

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-risking-it-all-for-profit-and-fun/

[Another World Today]

"Irna’s programs are progressive. Maybe not on the surface, but deep down. She’s quite subversive. In her way. She gives women a voice. She speaks up for unwed mothers, girls who’ve made mistakes they can’t live down."

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-this-isnt-who-i-am/

[Another World Today]

Not a week went by that Rose didn’t hear about some mishap during the live broadcast, whether it was needing to make actors in their twenties look like they were in their thirties by adding white tufts to their foreheads which they dubbed “little gray wings” — and were constantly inadvertently loosening when they ran their fingers dramatically through their hair, or the Thanksgiving episode when, not only did the prop man forget to put a turkey in the oven, leaving actress Charita Baur to peek inside, slam it shut quickly and announce, “I think it needs a few more minutes!” but an actor’s head kept getting in the way whenever the camera would track around the festive holiday meal, so that, with every circuit, elderly Theo Goetz was forced to duck under the table.

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-live-from-new-york-its-guiding-light/

[Another World Today]

“I’m a writer. I’m a soap-opera writer,” she stressed the distinction. “Not a novelist, not a playwright, a soap-opera writer. I believe that no matter how dire things get, no matter how bleak the situation may seem at end of day Friday, I can always figure out how to engender a happy ending come first thing Monday.”

“When life mocks her, breaks her hopes, dashes her against the rocks of despair,” Jonas intoned, “Helen Trent fights back bravely, successfully, to prove what so many women long to prove, that because a woman is 35 or more, romance in life need not be over, that romance can begin at 35.”

Rose’s first thought was, “Does he think I’m 35?” But her second, more offended one, which she spoke out loud, was, “That’s not one of Irna’s shows!”

“My apologies.” Jonas’s grin matched the merriment in his eyes.

“Are you auditioning for them?” So many issues floating in the ether between them, yet this was the one Rose felt compelled to address first. “Are they trying to poach you? What are they offering? Because, whatever they’re offering, I can match it. I can beat it.” She was already going over her budget, wondering what she could cut in order to sweeten the pot and compel Jonas to stay with them. With her. 

“What are you offering?” 

“Anything.”

Read more: https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-friday-cliffhanger-monday-happy-ending/

[Another World Today]

Jonas filled Rose in on the history of Smalls Paradise before they entered. It had been the only Negro-owned and integrated Harlem joint throughout the 1930s and beyond. All the others, including The Cotton Club, once located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, had colored performers, but exclusively white customers. While The Cotton Club and its ilk closed at 4 AM, Smalls Paradise remained open all night, culminating with a 6 AM floor show of dancing girls and waiters serving drinks on roller skates.

“Don’t worry,” Jonas reassured, “It’s a very respectable place. W.E.B. DuBois celebrated his eighty-third birthday here just this past February. A favor from the owner. The party was originally supposed to be held at the Essex House, sponsored by Paul Robeson, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Albert Einstein! But then those Joseph McCarthy fellows told the Essex House they were all Communists. Essex canceled the Banquet, so Ed Smalls stepped in and let them have run of his club for the night. What would you have given to be a fly on the wall and watch Doctors DuBois and Einstein kicking up their heels on the dance floor!”

Read the whole story at: https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-was-it-too-late-to-turn-tail-and-run/

[Another World Today]

Rose finally went home in the evening to call Irna and hear all the criticism she’d been forced to pent up for 48 hours. Irna didn’t ask where Rose had been, and Rose didn’t offer any information. Only at the end of the call did Irna ask, “Are you happy?” She could have been referring to anything. But both women knew what Rose meant when she answered, “Very.”

“The show comes first,” was Irna’s penultimate reminder. Followed by, “Good.”

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-the-guiding-light-comes-first/

[Another World Today]

Mixing history with fiction....

"I work for Procter & Gamble now! It doesn’t get more all-American than that!”

“Does Miss Phillips know?”

“No. The one time somebody mentioned the loyalty oath to Irna, they ended up slinking out of her office like The Burghers of Calais.” Jonas should appreciate the Rodin imagery.

“So you’re in no danger.”

“Not at the moment. But who knows what might happen tomorrow? Phillip Loeb, he was in The Goldbergs on Broadway, then on television. Red Channels called him a Communist and General Foods insisted Gertrude Berg fire him or they’d drop their sponsorship. Pert Kelton had to leave The Honeymooners. Jackie Gleason covered for her, said it was heart trouble, but she was listed in Red Channels, too. Lucille Ball only got away with keeping her show because Desi claimed she was too dumb to know what she was doing when she registered as a Communist.”

“You’ve been keeping a close watch.”

Rose shrugged. “I had to. The Hollywood 10, they were all writers, all blacklisted.”

“Any colored folks on that list of theirs?”

“Paul Robeson, Lena Horne, Langston Hughes, Harry Belafonte, Hazel Scott, Canada Lee,” Rose rattled off. She hadn’t realized she’d been keeping track.

“So we all can’t claim to be too stupid? Hardly seems fair, seeing as how we’re judged too stupid to do anything else.”

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-does-irna-phillips-know/

[Another World Today]

CBS had awarded Guiding Light the great privilege of being their first daytime show to experiment with a color broadcast. There would be massive publicity surrounding it, and likely a boost in the ratings. Irna was not pleased. First, because she had no control over how the show would look, and no opportunity for a test run to make certain the result met her standards. And second, because it hadn’t been her idea.

When Rose walked into Irna’s office, Irna was huddled with Agnes Nixon, her recently hired associate writer, and the only woman Irna seemed capable of collaborating with outside of Rose. Rose couldn’t help feeling jealous. And suspecting Irna thought the Catholic, Chicago-born, Nashville-bred Agnes was more suitable to writing The Guiding Light’s white-bread Bauer family than someone of Rose’s background.

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-agnes-nixon-joins-the-guiding-light/

[Another World Today]

By the time the broadcast day for Guiding Light’s first color episode came around, Irna had figured out a way to circumvent her problem. She wrote a script in which the entire show took place in a hospital room. The broadcast may have been in color, but the walls were gray, the medical uniforms were white, and Irna had made her point.

Meanwhile, Rose had lost her nerve. It happened after she heard Agnes Nixon was lobbying to add a Negro character to The Guiding Light. Irna was adamantly against it. Rose figured if Irna’s latest pet couldn’t budge her on the issue, Rose had no business drawing further attention to it — even peripherally.

That is, until she was faced with no other option.

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-procter-gamble-hates-fuss/

[Another World Today]

“No soap operas,” were the first words out of his mouth, even before Rose’s back hit the chair’s recline. This was destined to be a short meeting. “We have no interest in upsetting Miss Phillips.”

“Miss Phillips certainly can’t say the same about you,” Rose couldn’t help her retort as she thought of the screaming phone calls she’d witnessed between Irna and the “suits,” as she called them. “She fired your most popular radio actor. That wasn’t in P&G’s best interests.”

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-we-have-no-interest-in-upsetting-irna-phillips/

[Another World Today]

Soaps were considered a woman’s medium, its writing deemed trite, melodramatic, and confessional, fit only for bored housewives. Combining serialized storytelling with critically acclaimed dramaturgy could be a boon for the genre, and earn it the respect it deserved.

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-lets-give-soaps-a-little-class/

[Another World Today]

“The practical thing to do,” Jonas said, “would be to get married.”

“Well, yes, obviously,” Rose dismissed and attempted to hurry onto the next topic, as if a proposal — unconventional as it was; then again, what about her and Jonas was conventional except for absolutely everything…and nothing at all? — was just another on a long list of equally viable suggestions. “But, as my mother loves to say, a fish may fall in love with a bird, except where would they live? Especially in New York City.”

https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/go-on-pretending-are-you-in-love-with-me/

[Another World Today]

Part #1 of "Go On Pretending," my historical fiction which starts off during the early days of radio and TV soap-operas with Irna Phillips, Agnes Nixon, The Guiding Light and more is now officially complete on Soap Hub. 

Read it from the beginning or just catch up on the latest chapter. And let me know whether you'd like to see this story turned into a full-length novel by posting a comment at: https://soaphub.com/go-on-pretending/

I really appreciated your support of Another World Today, and I really appreciate it here!

Alina Adams

www.AlinaAdams.com

[Another World Today]

What was your favorite soap-opera moment of all time? 

Join Soap Hub for their book club discussion of my book, "Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama's Greatest Moments," and see if you agree with the other fans' selections. 

Read for FREE on Amazon Kindle. More information at: https://soaphub.com/soap-hub-book-club/soap-hub-book-club-soap-opera-451/

[Another World Today]

Happy almost summer, everyone!

I'll be doing a remote book club appearance in Chicago on June 14, and the organizers have kindly committed to buying a copy of "My Mother's Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region" for everyone who registers to attend.

Check them out here: https://eventregistration.juf.org/?EventID=27303

Or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1894161434264967

Hope to see you there!

[Another World Today]

It's tonight! Your chance to tell me and SoapHub your favorite soap opera moments!

Please join us. Would love to see the faces which go with the names who supported Another World Today! It's FREE!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/join-us-for-soap-hub-book-club-tickets-640684623957

[Another World Today]

Soap opera fans! I need your opinions about what were the greatest daytime drama scenes of all time. Please read why and how at the link. I am dying to hear from you!

https://alinaa.substack.com/p/how-to-write-a-book-without-doing