Today in Soap Opera History (October 10)

On this date in...

1913: Longtime ONE LIFE TO LIVE director David Pressman was born. He died at age 97 on August 29, 2011. Watch his Actor's Studio interview here.

1926: Walter Mathews (ex-Gerald, ANOTHER WORLD; ex-Clyde, GENERAL HOSPITAL) was born.  He was on our birthday list last year, but died earlier in 2012 on April 28 at age 85.

1932: General Mills-sponsored BETTY AND BOB debuted on NBC Blue radio.  It was the first show to be produced by Frank Hummert and Anne Ashenhurst.  They married in 1935 to become the "King & Queen of Soaps". BETTY AND BOB contained classic soap themes in a tale of "poor-but-pure" Betty Drake and her once "wealthy-but-now-disinherited" husband Bob.

1972: The character of Janice Frame debuted on ANOTHER WORLD, played by Victoria Thompson.

1975: Susan Oliver debuted as Laura Horton in DAYS OF OUR LIVES replacing Susan Flannery.

1991: On THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, Lauren (Tracey E. Bregman) and Paul (Doug Davidson) had Sheila and Scott over for dinner.



1995: On ANOTHER WORLD, Nick and Maggie (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) get close in the barn.



2000: Gene Palumbo, former head writer of GUIDING LIGHT, DAYS OF OUR LIVES and GENERAL HOSPITAL, died at age 54.  He was also the co-creator of syndicated soap RITUALS.  In our 2011 interview with Sheri Anderson, she discussed working with Palumbo on DAYS in the early 1990s: "Gene Palumbo and I were brought it to write a spinoff for Deidre [Hall] called MANHATTAN LIVES."

2004: Former soap star Christopher Reeve (featured in the video below) passed away at age 52. He played Ben Harper on LOVE OF LIVE in the mid-1970s.



2008: Tristan Rogers appeared on THE VIEW to promote GENERAL HOSPITAL: NIGHT SHIFT.



Celebrating a birthday today are:

Peter White (ex-Linc, ALL MY CHILDREN; ex-Jerry, THE SECRET STORM; ex-Sanford, LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING; ex-Breslin, DALLAS) - 75
Helmut Huber (Susan Lucci's husband) - 75
J. Eddie Peck (ex-Jake, ALL MY CHILDREN; ex-Cole, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS; ex-Hawk, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) - 54
Bradley Whitford (ex-Josh, THE WEST WING) - 53
Martin Kemp (ex-Steve, EASTENDERS) - 51
Sandra Canning (ex-Grace, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) - 47
Mario Lopez (ex-Mike, NIP/TUCK; ex-Christian, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL) - 39
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (ex-Maggie, ANOTHER WORLD) - 34
Aimee Teegarden (ex-Julie, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) - 23
Louisa Lytton (ex-Ruby, EASTENDERS) - 23

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you would like to submit a piece of soap opera history for this daily column, please email it to editor@welovesoaps.com.