A Woman to Remember
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A Woman to Remember was a soap opera which ran on the DuMont Television Network from February 21, 1949 - July 15, 1949. The show initially ran in daytime but starting May 2 aired Monday through Friday from 7:30 - 7:45 PM EST. John Haggart served as creator and writer; Bob Steele was producer and director. The show followed Captain Video and had no sponsor.
The main focus of A Woman to Remember was the backstage drama of a radio serial. Radio soap opera star Christine Baker (Patricia Wheel) was the central heroine who had to spend much of her time dealing with malicious Carol Winstead (Joan Catlin), who fought against her both at work and in Christine's relationship with Steve Hammond (John Raby). Other characters included Christine's actress pal Bessie Thatcher (Ruth McDevitt) and sound man Charley Anderson (Frankie Thomas). Thomas would later star in popular series Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. His mother, Mona Bruns (who appeared on many soaps), had a small part on the show and described the backstage atmosphere as very hectic. The show was broadcast live from a tiny radio studio in Wannamaker's department store, with a budget of $1,750 a week, a three-hour rehearsal period, and at most two TV cameras.
The studio bathroom was used as the dressing room, there was little ventilation, the sets were cheap and the actors were barely paid. One day, the air conditioning broke down and five technicians fainted from heat exhaustion. Bruns had to say, "I've just had a tooth pulled," but was so delirious, she said (live on air), "I've just had a pooth tulled." The actors struggled not to laugh, which kept them from fainting from the heat. Leading man Raby once had a scene with an actress who panicked once the broadcast began. She tried to flee the set, but he pushed her into a chair and kept her there. He blurted out, "I can guess what you came to tell me," and proceeded to recite all of her dialogue, along with his own lines. After the scene ended he went to the bathroom and threw up.
The concept of the soap opera was novel: the idea was that viewers would get two soap operas in one. The radio soap opera contained within the TV continuity had its own story-line and characters, and in addition the actors and actresses had a separate story-line involving their own conflicts.
For many years A Woman to Remember was considered the first television soap opera, due to some magazine articles which erroneously claimed the series debuted in 1947.
