Here is my third write-up on All My Afternoons by Annie Gilbert. The book is copyright 1979. This entry will summarize the Guiding Light chapter, which is broken into two sections, the first is general history of the program and the second is called “Charita/Bert Bauer’s Photo Album.”
The chapter on Guiding Light begins with the following quote: “The Guiding Light isn’t just a soap opera, it’s American history.” According to the author, GL celebrates the American dream, about working hard, saving money and you will get good fortune.
The book explains how GL came from the radio, how during those days at one point there were some 73 other serialized programs. Once it was on television, it was rehearsed and performed in the morning on sets, and the cast would then have to travel across town to do the afternoon radio broadcast as the majority of the cast were in both versions.
She compares and contrasts the radio and television versions. The radio version was originally about Reverend Rutledge and his flock. Some episodes were sermons. “The ‘guiding light’ was meant to help people through a period of American history when poverty and war had undermined the nation’s spirit.” Eventually the Reverend left and TGL moved locations from Five Points to Selby Flats to finally Springfield, which is where the show was located at its end. Instead of the program being about religious faith, it was about goodwill and the triumph of family.
According to the book, Papa and Mama Bauer moved from Europe to California. (They don’t mention Germany, but in other sources that is what was stated.) The Bauer parents had three children: Bill, Meta and Trudy. Mama Bauer died shortly after Bert and Bill got married.
Then they do a quick summary of the Bill and Bert story as well as the triangle of Mike, Ed and Leslie. Bert wanted the finer things in life, including a house. She went behind Bill’s back and put a down payment on one. Bill became an alcoholic due to family pressures, an affair and work stress. He did stop drinking eventually. Ed like Bill was an alcoholic and a surgeon at Cedars Hospital (what is not noted is that Cedars was named after Cedars-Sinai in California.) Ed was a mean drunk and beat his wife Leslie. Leslie and Ed had a child together we know as Rick Bauer (who was then known as Freddie though he is not mentioned by name.) Mike and Leslie fell in love, and only admitted it after the divorce. Mike and Leslie eventually did marry, but the book doesn’t mention that she died.
Bert became the pillar of the family and Bill’s resurrection story is mentioned. The crossover to Another World done with Mike Bauer and his daughter Hope is referenced. Mike moved to Bay City after his first wife, committed suicide. He worked as a lawyer with John Randolph and fell for John’s wife. Soon after, Irna Phillips’ who created both soaps and was writing for both programs then brought him back to TGL.
The concept of Bauer Power is then examined. According to the book, Mart Hulswit who played Ed from the 60’s until early 80s, dubbed the term. It mentions the coincidence of Charita Bauer sharing her last name with her character, but how it was not a coincidence that Michael was the name of her son and Bert’s son.
“Charita Bauer is matriarch of a persevering family clan.” They also mention how Lynne Adams who was Leslie Bauer was a second-generation performer as her parents were on the radio version. Then the book goes into the history of Theo Goetz (Papa Bauer); he fled from Austria (while his character was German.) Mr. Goetz came to the US with no friends, family, or place to go with little or no money. He didn’t even speak English, but learned how by going to the movies. Theo had been a successful German language actor before coming to America. Once he knew English well enough, he started auditioning and got a role on the radio soap Young Doctor Malone. In 1949, he was cast on TGL. According to the book, Theo Goetz was basically playing himself. The character preached love, tolerance and kindness. They mention his 65th birthday and how he received over 39,000 letters in celebration. He said how Papa Bauer fills a need, as so many people don’t have a father like him. They quote the on screen eulogy that was written about Papa Bauer and state how that matched Mr. Goetz as well. That speech also summarized the program at that time as it was about “ the conviction that family solidarity brings happiness.”
Many of the photos in the photo album section are ones that appeared in later books on TGL. I am going to share some quotes from Charita Bauer on them. “…she has earned the position of cast mother, cast historian, and ‘the guiding light.’”
The first photo (not of Charita) was of behind the scenes people. It had Ted Corday, Lucy Rittenberg, David Lesan and an ad company person. Lucy recently retired at the time the book was published. She was a director’s assistant who worked her way up to executive producer. David Lesan was the show’s original producer who hired Charita. Ted Corday as most people know went on to become the creator of Days of Our Lives, but he was the first television director for TGL. She shares a silly story about him. When things weren’t working right he would come out to the soundstage, after hitting the talkback button. This became a joke among the technicians, who would say ‘head for the hills, he’s coming out!’ Eventually the crew wrote his sayings on cardboard and numbered them, calling this one number six.
The next picture was Bert and Papa washing dishes. Her quote isn’t really about the picture at all, but about soaps in general. This quote is quite provocative at least to me. She mentions the hope they had from going from radio to television and not being tied down to a microphone. “The potential of these shows has never been touched—and I mean all of them, not just ours. I don’t mean to be putting the soaps down. I think some wonderful things have come out. But think of the opportunity of a dram that goes on and on. What could have become a minor art form was nipped in the bud in the beginning. It’s an essentially commercial medium. I don’t mean that because it’s commercial it couldn’t be creative. I don’t believe those two things are mutually exclusive. But it all got formularized early on. It became a set piece and the forest was lost sight of for the trees.”
The next photo is of Charita, Lyle Sudrow as Bill and Glen Walken as little Michael. Bert started settling down by the time it went to television, according to Charita. During the radio days, she put money down on the house and bought a mink stole. The next page has a photo of Meta (Ellen Demming, who played the part for 14 years) and Charita in character. What is funny is Bert is holding a cigarette, according to Charita you used to be able to smoke on the show, but P&G stopped it due to the surgeon’s general warnings. Charita spoke about how the actors playing these characters were younger than their parts. Meta was supposed to be 35, while Ellen Demming was in her 20s, hence the white bits of hair (they called “little grey wings” that Ted Corday made her wear. On the radio, Meta was not conventional, but over the years she mellowed out a lot.
The next photo was of Papa Bauer being angry with Bill over his affair with Gloria a nightclub singer. Bert was busy with baby Ed during this time. The next three pictures are about the long forgotten character of Mark Holden. Whit Conner played the part. Meta and Mark dated, but he was in love with Kathy (Meta’s stepdaughter). Robin (Zina Bethune) was in the dating picture of Meta and Mark, but the other was Mark and Bill talking. Robin (Meta’s step-granddaughter) had an organ theme song with the lyric “Poor little Robin—walk, walk, walkin’ to Missouri…can’t afford to fly.” Another photo is of Robin being upset as Kathy and Mark tell her about their marriage plans.
They move onto to Meta’s third husband Bruce Banning. When Meta and Bruce got married the actor (Les Damon) who played the part at the time was shorter than Ellen. He proposed to her on Observatory Hill (I wonder where that was.) Due to the height issues, she did the scene in her stocking feet. Another photo is of Meta and Papa talking about Bruce. About Papa, Charita said “He was always very kind and loving and not a butinsky.”
The next photo is of the characters of Dick Grant (Jimmy Lipton or as known to us today the host of Inside the Actors Studio), Marie (Lynn Rogers) and Dr. Paul Fletcher (Bernie Grant). Charita talks about how Dick and Marie were married and she made spaghetti. Met though was “very big on serving tomato juice and chocolate buds.” Charita admits no one know what chocolate buds were, and wonders if that was something they had in Chicago were Irna Phillips lived. This kind of amuses me as they still make chocolate buds, and I’ve had them though never in NY.
The next page has a photo of Robin and Peggy as a young girl. The actress who played Peggy was Fran Myers (or as Charita calls her Frannie.) She grew up on TGL, but in present day still works in soaps as a writer for Days of Our Lives. Charita talks about how they shared a dressing room at this time. They were really close friends even if she is younger than Charita’s own son. Charita mentions Fran’s marriage to Roger Newman who played Ken and that they had a family. Roger Newman and Fran Myers were married until his death, which happened in the last 18 months. The next photo was of Peggy’s parents. Maggie had an affair with Bill, who worked with him. After they were killed, Peggy lived with Bert.
There is a full-page picture of Dr. Paul Fletcher with his character’s sister. Charita summarizes Paul’s story involving his wife Anne and how she was murdered. Paul was acquitted and eventually married Robin.
The last four pictures focus on the Bauer family. There is one of Bert with Ed Bryce’s Bill, and another with Lynne Adams (Leslie) and Robert Gentry as Ed fighting. The last two are Bert with a grown up Mike (Don Stewart) and a shot of Ed Bauer (Mart Hulswit) in scrubs. Charita touches upon how one ended up marrying the other’s former wife (Leslie). She says, “They wouldn’t have had a storyline like that in the old days; a story like that breaks down family ties. Now they don’t really care about the idea of the family anymore. That used to be the theme of the show, but now it’s gone.” Wow…I don’t even want to think what Charita would have thought about some later stories.
So that’s the Guiding Light section of All My Afternoons. For the most part it focused on TGL and didn’t really touch upon what Guiding Light was like in the later half of the 1970s. I find it to be an interesting snapshot of stories that played on TGL in its early days on television.
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