The daylight hours, however, were another matter. Though the nation was growing accustomed to radio entertainment, it still was a nighttime thing. In one representative city, morning brought such off-putting programs as, "Beautiful Thoughts," "Our Daily Food," "Mouth Hygiene," and "The Premium Man." For anyone wanting to be entertained, there wasn't much on the dial to turn to.
But there were already a few who were asking, "If it can work at night, why not in the day as well?" Some experimenting started.
Teacher Irna Phillips, advertising people Frank Hummert and Anne Ashenhurst (later Anne Hummert), and writer Charles Robert Douglas Hardy Andrews (one person), began to explore the possibilities of daytime drama aimed specifically at housewives. All four would become legends of radio soap opera—the Hummerts had more than two dozen shows going at one time by the late 1930s—and Phillips would go on to play a major role in the creation of television soaps. (Though she died in 1973, four of her shows— The Guiding, Light, As the World Turns, Another World, and Days of Our Lives are still on the air.) But Phillips' first effort, Painted Dreams, was heard only in Chicago and was not successful. Nor was the Hummerts/Andrews', The Stolen Husband, though as the last title suggests, they were on the right track in terms of subject matter.
Clara, Lu, 'n' Em and Vie and Sade, neither of which was created by any of the four pioneers, were the first daytime serials to be broadcast on a national network. While they contained some soap opera elements, however, these shows cannot be considered soaps as we know them. Clara, Lu, 'n' Em was a semi-improvised rap session between three women who'd sit around talking about themselves and their neighbors. It was more fictionalized gossip than drama. The other show, Vie and Sade, was a folksy, humorous serial, a kind of Amos 'n' Andy, only with mid-western whites.
Soon after, the Hummerts along with writer Andrews put all the right ingredients together and created a program that was soap through and through. The show, Betty and Bob, which premiered October 10, 1932 on NBC, could with a little updating appear on television tomorrow and fans would have. no trouble recognizing it. Betty was a secretary who fell in love with and eventually married her boss, Bob Drake, the son of a millionaire. Of course Bob's father objected to Betty because of her humble origins, but that trauma was overcome and the couple embarked on an appropriately stormy married life.
The show was successful enough and ran for seven years. Don Ameche, later a movie and television star, played Bob Drake. He was the first of many actors and actresses who went from soap opera to stardom. (Interestingly, Betty and Bob was not sponsored by a soap company, but rather by General Mills, the people who make "Wheaties," etc. That fact led one writer to note that if Procter & Gamble and other soap makers had not become so heavily involved in later daytime drama, the genre today might be called "cereal drama" instead of soap opera.)
The success of Betty and Bob opened a floodgate. The genre quickly developed a pervasive tone—the one established by Betty and Bob—and a format that became de rigueur for nearly thirty years. Typically, a soap was fifteen minutes long. It would begin with some theme song usually played with melodramatic portentousness on the organ. Then on came the narrator to announce the program, maybe tell a little bit about it in general, and give a brief update on the status of the story. After twelve minutes of dialogue, the narrator would return with a recap and a question like, "Will Jill marry George? Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of...."Organ music followed—end of show.
There was one other important part of the format that shouldn't be overlooked: the commercials. (After all, soap opera got its name from its sponsors.) Usually there were two commercials: one after the opening announcement and the second before the recap. On occasion, however, a commercial was worked right into the scene. (Something like: Kitchen sounds. "Are you busy, Sue? "No, Betty, I'm just cleaning up with this new miracle cleanser called ———" "Oh I use it too. It really makes a kitchen spotless in no time." "Yes, I finished this whole job in ten minutes. Now I'm free to sit and talk with you, Betty." "Oh Sue, it's John...")
Compared to today's elaborate pricey commercials, some of the old radio ads seem silly and naive. And surely no sponsor today would allow the line soap- star Mary Jane Higby heard on the air: "And remember, ladies, J.C. Penny is the biggest sheet house in the country." Nevertheless, the shows were effective in pushing products. That fact is apparent when we see that many of the same companies are sponsoring serials 40 years later.
Soap opera was only ten years old when sponsors were clamoring for a piece of the action. Networks began running out of time slots. Soaps went on throughout the day. By radio standards, today's fan is deprived. In the early 1940s, there was at least one, and more often two or three serials on the air for all but one quarter hour between 10a.m. and 6p.m.—over sixty soaps every day on the major networks. Seventy-three new programs made their debut between the years 1937-42 alone. And there were actually more than that. Some local stations had their own serials.
Out of the great number of radio serials, over thirty ran for more than ten years. These hits were similar in some respects. They dealt mostly with domestic troubles and were chock full of romance, adventure, and misunderstanding. It's curious that even as writers were spinning out one tale of domestic woe after another, they were evolving the soap opera philosophy that happiness is in the family.
In spite of the similarities of theme and content, soaps came in many packages. Some of those variations might seem hopelessly out of date now, while others will be instantly recognizable to any fan. Still, we can't really appreciate the history of soap opera without a look at the kinds of serials that dominated the daytime radio waves.
Return to "Media"
