FLASHBACK: TV Work Far Far Cry From Radio, Actress Frances Reid Learns (1954)

TV Work Far Far Cry From Radio, Actress Frances Reid Learns

By C.E. Butterfield
Associated Press
April 16, 1954

A far cry from the easy life of her counterpart in radio, a soap opera actress in television really has to put her nose to the grindstone.

Rather than showing up each day to simply read a script before a microphone, a TV heroine must memorize her lines and learn stage positions. It means a full eight-hour day.

Attractively slender Frances Reid quickly found that out when she took her first role in the new video version of PORTIA FACES LIFE. This serial, now in its second week on CBS-TV, was on radio for 12 years.

Frances, who plays Portia, says she puts in six hours a day in the sutdio for rehearsals and telecasts. She also spends two hours in daily homework for study o fthe five-day-a-week story and its constantly changing lines. She says it's a lot different from the stage, where a single script lasts days and days.

In the transfer of PORTIA to television a completely new cast of six basic charcters was selected and a new storyline devised. However, Mona Kent, who wrote the radio serial for 10 years, also is doing the TV script.

Due to the strain of daily appearances, members of the cast usually are given one day off a week by temporariliy writing them out of the story.

Cast in Many Roles

This isn't Reid's first TV part. She has had principal roles in many of the top dramas of STUDIO ONE, TV PLAYHOUSE and TV THEATER. She was picked to play Portia because the producer thought she looked the part.

Frances has an extensive Broadway background. She met her actor husband, Philip Bourneauf, while playing summer stock in Connecticut.

In between acting they spend much time on their three-acre country home near New Hope, Pa. Right now they are getting ready for the gardening season and adding some essential touches to their new house.

PORTIA is to continue through the summer. It is the eighth serial to show up on the CBS-TV schedule.