Marla Adams Returning to 'The Young and the Restless' as Dina Mergeron

Actress Marla Adams will be making a return visit to CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless as Dina Mergeron, mother of Jack, Ashley and Traci.

Last seen on Y&R in 2008, Adams' is scheduled to return to the top-rated daytime drama on May 3.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm' (Part 10)

Dan Hamilton as Robert Landers and Ellen Barber as Joanna Morrison.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm'

The Soap Box
Vol. IV No. 1 January 1979
by John Genovese

(continued from Part 9)

Joanna moved out of Belle's apartment and fell in love with Robert Landers, a carefree mechanic and race care driver, with whom she began a cozy living arrangement in the back of his garage. Belle and Robert's brief mutual antagonism soon turned to a hot and heavy affair behind Joanna's back. Robert charmed Belle into giving him money for his many racing stints. Robert had a secret of his own: unbeknownst to all others, he was Dan Kincaid's estranged son and was romping with Belle only to even the score with Dan for walking out on Robert's mother, Naomi Russell Landers!

Dan was released from prison and returned to Belle, but the marriage wasn't the same. Robert planned marriage to Joanna after he made her pregnant and realized that he was very much in love with her, but Brian suspected Joanna of having cancer and recommended a biopsy. Kevin went to London to have a delicate operation which enabled him to walk again, and it was there that Robert (who was in London for a race) admitted to Kevin that he was Dan's son.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm' (Part 9)

Dennis Cooney as Kevin Kincaid, Lynne Adams as Amy Ames Kincaid,
and Bernard Barrow as Dan Kincaid.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm'

The Soap Box
Vol. IV No. 1 January 1979
by John Genovese

(continued from Part 8)

Doug Winthrop proved a disappointment to his mother, falling hopelessly in love with a former drug addict, Joanna Morrison, who came from a sad background. Her mother, May, had married a slob named Ed Rutledge who was known to beat Joanna while on frequent benders. Refusing to return to this less-than-idyllic existence, Joanna was taken under the wings of rivals Amy and Belle. While Amy gave Joanna the compassionate "tea and sympathy" approach, Belle took a hard line and made Joanna shape up and make something of herself. Ursula vehemently disapproved of Doug's relationship with Joanna and its effects on him. He was subconsciously shedding his "square" ways to fit in with Joanna's friends, Polly and Alden, a pair of "flower people" who always acted as if they walked seven feet off the ground. Belle and Joanna moved into a modern penthouse apartment and campaigned vigorously for Dan, who moved in with Belle and helped provide Joanna with the so-called secure family environment she had always lacked. Doug grew disgusted with Joanna's new life as a singer and left Woodbridge, and Joanna gave up singing to work in the hospital cafeteria.

Belle pretended to play hard-to-get when she kept stalling Dan's marriage proposals. Her secret dream was to marry in a lavish ceremony in the governor's mansion once Dan won the election. Alas, Belle's delusions of grandeur were thwarted: Dan surprised her with a secret wedding in their penthouse! Belle and Dan told no one about their marriage, mainly because of Kevin's distrust and disapproval of Belle, but the truth came out one night when Dan confessed his drug connections to Belle and had an automobile accident. Belle shocked Amy and Kevin by revealing she was Dan's next of kin in order to give him the hospital permission to operate. Dan recovered, turned state's evidence and went to prison for several months. Belle took a job with the Clarion, now published by a black woman named Ann Share.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm' (Part 7)

Lori March as Valerie Ames with Jada Rowland as Amy Ames.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm'

The Soap Box
Vol. IV No. 1 January 1979
by John Genovese

(continued from Part 6)

Casting replacements abounded during this period. Susan and Pauline reappeared from story limbo; storylines were abruptly wrapped up to give way to new ones; the budget was increased to allow for a rash of sumptuous new sets--Woodbridge was hopping, and the Ames family had a new lease on television life. But the glories were all too brief, as evidenced by the storyline digression over the last five years of The Secret Storm.

Grace Tyrell took ill but thankfully remained her lovable, feisty old self. Amy decided to turn the tables on Belle and realized that Paul still loved her, so the former Mr. and Mrs. Britton arranged to meet at a hotel. When Paul was picked up for speeding and could not arrive to meet her at the hotel, Amy considered it a rejection and began to lose her mind. She locked herself in her room and played with dolls. Valerie knew that her stepdaughter was not playing with a full deck and committed Amy to an institution run by the handsome Dr. Ian Northcote. Susan and Pauline didn't trust Ian's obvious "sexiness" at first, until they realized that Amy was making progress. Belle, Amy's victorious archrival, was left with the care of Paul's daughter, Lisa, but saddled her newly-arrived aunt, the sharp and down-to-earth Aggie Parsons, with babysitting chores. Paul took a job with an elderly publisher, Kingsley Collins, and halted Belle's jet-setting plans.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm' (Part 6)

Marla Adams as Belle Clemens, Nicolas Coster as Paul Britton, and
Jada Rowland as Amy Ames Britton.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm'

The Soap Box
Vol. III No. 13 December 1978
by John Genovese

(continued from Part 5)

Charlie Clemens was becoming the Hitler of the journalistic world and came to resent the Ameses for their ownership of the Herald. He had a penchant for firing everyone who caught on to his power lust--people like Martha Novotny, Jerry's friend, who supported her brother, Ben Norris, and lost her husband Andy Warren in a fire. Another victim of the Clemens axe was a young competent reporter named Nick Kane.

Nick enjoyed his work at the paper, but his nagging wife, Joan, had bigger ideas for him. Joan was a money-hungry product of the struggling Borman family and tried to pressure Nick into joining the business owned by his wealthy father, Tom Kane. Tom knew better than to pressure his son and let well enough alone, but Joan grew blindly jealous over Nick's friendship with Valerie, who was fifteen years his senior! Once Joan struck up the alliance with fellow Ames-hater Belle, and Charlie sided with Belle against the Ameses, when they took over Jerry's advice and fired him, the battle lines were clearly drawn.

One night, Nick and Valerie were traveling when a storm developed, and they were given shelter by George and Cassie Peterson, an old farm couple. Joan's misfit brother, Archie, and his buddy, Stan Collins, were paid off by Charlie into bribing the Petersons to testify at the Kanes' divorce hearing that Nick and Valerie slept together. It was a dirty court battle which pitted Ames family lawyer Phineas Cook against Joan's smooth shyster, J. Laurence Fluellen. But Nick and Valerie were proven innocent of any indiscretion. Charlie Clemens, a ruined main, joined Arthur's not-so-beloved Clarion for a while, but fled to Arizona once all the evidence stacked up against his character. Nick obtained his divorce and fell for Amy, convincing her to divorce Paul who was enamored with Belle. Paul and Belle lived together before marrying in New York, while Karen Clemens, disgusted with Belle's antics, joined Charlie in Arizona. Jerry returned to Paris and made brother-in-law Frank publisher of the Herald.

Christina Crawford as Joan Borman Kane, Marla Adams
as Belle Clemens, Keith Charles as Nick Kane, Jada
Rowland as Amy Ames Britton, Nicolas Coster as Paul
Britton and Lori March as Valerie Ames.

The judge at the hearing was Sam Stevens, an old friend of Valerie's, whose strong-willed daughter-in-law, Jill, had known Amy for years and supported her decision to divorce Paul. Jill's husband, Ken Stevens, was down on his luck until country club president Alex Lockwood gave him a job tending bar at the club. Alex was in love with Nola Hollister, the alcoholic wife of club member Wilfred Hollister, and mother of a fragile teenaged girl named Laurie. Wilfred was a fearsome tyrant who wanted Laurie locked up for accidentally causing the death of her little brother many years earlier. Laurie, terrified of her father, struck up a friendship with Ken who understood her situation. When Ken and Laurie began writing songs together and performing them at the club, Nola was very pleased with her daughter's new happiness.

As expected, though, a jealous Jill and a disapproving Wilfred didn't share Nola's enthusiasm. Ken decided that he and Jill shouldn't live off his father any more and found an apartment on Cooley Street, which was not exactly Woodbridge's ultimate residence. A stubborn Jill refused to move to a slum and remained with her sympathetic but objective father-in-law, while Ken lived alone at the Cooley Street apartment--that is, until Laurie ran away, and Ken brought her back to live at his place. The living arrangement, however, was strictly above board and platonic. Even as Ken and Laurie grew closer and fell in love after Ken lost his job by beating up a drunk who heckled Laurie at the club, there was no physical relationship--yet!

As Nick Kane pursued Amy, Sam Stevens pursued Val--both in vain. Joan allied herself with Eleanor Gault, Sam's worshipful secretary, and tried to help plain-Jane Eleanor get her hooks into Sam and lure him away from Valerie. Eleanor backed down, but Sam accepted a Washington offer and was out of Valerie's life anyway. Joan then began to worm her way into the Hollister's lives, thinking good deeds would get her in on the Hollister family funds. Paul and Belle moved back to Woodbridge when Paul found he couldn't adjust as a jet-setter in New York.

***

It was now June of 1969. The show's ratings had continued to dip when Lou Scofield replaced John Hess as headwriter. But when Roy Winsor had replaced Scofield with Don Ettlinger, the audience began flocking back. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough for CBS. The network leased both Love of Live and The Secret Storm outright from American Home Products and gained control of both shows, while the idealist genius of Roy Winsor was no longer called for. Roy Winsor was forced to close his office, and The Secret Storm was to endure countless different writing regimes before the real end came.

Or had it already come in June of 1969?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Check back on Saturday for Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm' (Part 7), published in the January 1979 issue of The Soap Box.

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