Saturday, April 16, 2011

FLASHBACK: Father of Soaps Defends Serial Art 1955

Soap Opera Father Defends Serial Art

By Wayne Oliver
Associated Press
April 4, 1955

New York -- The man who's often referred to as the father of soap opera comes clean about a pet peeve:

"I've resented the term 'soap opera' from the very start," says William M. Ramsey, director of radio for the biggest sponsor of daytime serials (Procter & Gamble.)

"I think now everybody uses the word, though," he concedes. He also thinks the terms has lost some of its earlier derisive connotations.

"It's simply the age old art of telling a story," he says. "Some are well told and some are poorly told. Many daytime serials are tripe but there are many well written ones.

"Looking down the nose at them is done by people who refuse to listen. Daytime serials are criticized mostly by those uninhibited by knowledge of what they're talking about."

Ramsey's company has 13 daytime serials on radio and five on TV, and also is a big sponsor of evening TV shows.

He cast the principals for CBS radio's MA PERKINS in the roles they're still playing 21 years later.

Some radio serials have been transferred to TV but Ramsey doubts MA PERKINS will be. Too many people, he says, have formed their own mental images of Ma and the images probably vary widely.

1 comment:

  1. This article is just really very cool. I love that he says the people who look down their noses are the ones who don't know what they're talking about. Over 50 years later, people who do know what they're talking about are still saying these things. Thanks for sharing!

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