A brief look at the daytime shows that held the afternoon hours on TV in the 1950's including such dramas as The Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow and others.
The Guiding Light was one of the first TV soap operas and made its TV debut on June 30,1952, after having run on radio since January 25,1937. It was the story of the Bauer family of the fictional Springfield, and the original stars were Charita Bauer (1922-1985), Lyle Sudrow and Theo Goetz (1894-1972) as Papa Bauer. For a while the show was aired on radio as well as TV and Canadian actress Susan Douglas (Mrs.Jan Rubes), was featured on the TV version for many seasons. Other actors on the show were Herb Nelson, James Lipton, Ellen Demming, Zina Bethune, Bernard Grant and Christopher Walken as a young boy. The soap still runs every afternoon and has a large and devoted following.
Love of Life
made its debut on September 24, 1951, and the stars were Peggy McCay , Hildy Parks, Jane Rose, Dennis Parnell and Joanna Roos. The serial ran for many years and in 1974 Sammy Davis Jr., a real fan of the show, appeared in a segment. Peggy McCay left the show to try her hand as an actress in Hollywood and later returned to the daytime scene for a role in NBC's Days of Our Lives. Audrey Peters and Ron Tomme starred for many years and Christopher Reeves was on the show for a while.
Search for Tomorrow
found several future stars in the cast when the show premiered on September 3, 1951. The leading female role was played by Mary Stuart, who had appeared in films; Lyn Loring was her daughter Patti; Melba Rae and Larry Haines were the neighbors and George Petrie also starred. Others who appeared on the drama were Don Knotts, Terry O'Sullivan, Vicki Voila, George Maharis, Robert Mandan, Carl Low and Ken Kercheval... a very strong cast for the long-running show, which was extremely popular with the viewers.
The Edge of Night
was another early afternoon soap and the original cast included John Larkin, Teal Ames and a young Bob Hastings, who uttered the very first words of this new show, which premiered on April 2,1956. Millette Alexander, later to became a concert pianist, was seen as Gail Armstrong and the film actress Celeste Holm made a few brief appearances. Larry Hagman, Mary Martin's son in real life, also joined the cast as a lawyer, Ed Gibson. Barry Newman became a Hollywood actor and the actress Dixie Carter played a glamorous prosecutor.The show had a tremendous following and was one of the highest rated of the soaps.
There were many other daytime dramas coming along and in another article we will discuss some of them.
For further reading:
Source Ma Perkins to Mary Hartman by Robert LaGuardia, Ballantine Books, 1977
