All this talk about Hurricane Irene has us thinking--where have we heard that name before? We'd like to take this opportunity to invite you on a brief stroll down the soap opera's memory lane... September 12, 1920: Actress Irene Dailey is born. The late-blooming actress is perhaps best known for her roles in THE EDGE OF NIGHT and ANOTHER WORLD--for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in 1979. Read more in this our obituary http://welovesoa.ps/IreneD .
From 1974 to 1986, and then again from 1988 to 1994, Miss Dailey played her Emmy Award-winning role Liz Matthews ("Aunt Liz") in ANOTHER WORLD — an upper-class-bred matriarch of a middle-class family dealing with the convolutions of life in the fictional town of Bay City.
In 1959, Miss Dailey appeared on the soap THE HOUSE ON HIGH STREET. For a year, in 1969, she played the role of Pamela Stewart in the crime-mystery soap opera THE EDGE OF NIGHT. Her many other television credits included appearances on shows like BEN CASEY, DR. KILDARE, THE TWILIGHT ZONE and THE DEFENDERS. Miss Dailey’s film credits include roles in No Way to Treat a Lady, Five Easy Pieces and The Amityville Horror...
October 20, 1930: Writer and actress Ireene Wicker stars in Irma Phillips' SUE AND IRENE, sponsored by Lever Brothers’ detergent “Super Suds.” Some say it was the first soap opera. Read more in this article from We Love Soaps contributor by Rob Wargo: http://welovesoa.ps/SoapBirth . One day in 1930, schoolteacher Irna Phillips visited Chicago’s WGN looking for work. Although initially hired as an actress, her interests soon turned to writing, and she created the series SUE AND IRENE in which she and Ireene Wicker (best known as radio’s “Singing Lady”) provided all of the voices, with Irna playing “Sue” and Ireene playing “Irene.” Scheduled during the daytime, SUE AND IRENE was sponsored by Lever Brothers’ detergent “Super Suds.” The dialogue was conversational in tone, rather than full-out acting, similar to another early serialized entry CLARA, LU AND EM.
The success of SUE AND IRENE spurred Phillips to create another series with greater dramatic possibilities. Within three months, WGN gave Phillips a chance to write two weeks’ worth of scripts for a serial revolving around an Irish-American household. Although Phillips was unsuccessful in securing a sponsor for the series, the station put it on the air on a sustaining basis.
The program – PAINTED DREAMS – aired six times per week for approximately one year before it landed a Chicago-based meatpacker, Mickleberry Products Company, as sponsor Phillips not only wrote the series, but also played the lead character, the elderly, widowed Mother Moynihan, a kindly, philosophical, all-wise protagonist coping with the realities of the Depression era. Her single goal in life was to ensure the ultimate happiness of her grown children...
August 10, 2011: ONE LIFE TO LIVE character Irene Manning (now played by Barbara Rhoades) dramatically reveals that she has returned to Llanview! More at http://welovesoa.ps/ManningMom . The mother of Tina and Todd (and Victor Jr.), Irene Manning, is alive and well--and back in Llanview!
Barbara Rhoades (GENERATIONS; SOAP; BUSTING LOOSE) has now debuted in the mysterious, pivotal role of the not-at-all-dead mum, and We Love Soaps is proud to welcome the talented film veteran (Serial; The Goodbye Girl) and Broadway baby ("Funny Girl"; "Love, Loss, and What I Wore") back to daytime...
Who do you think of when you hear the name, "Irene?" Please share with us in the comments section below.
Kevin Mulcahy Jr. is a Harvard alum who is currently working as a staff contributor at welovesoaps.com writing theater and web series reviews as well as other in-depth features. Read all his Web Series reviews here. To contact Kevin, email kevin@welovesoaps.com.
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