Marlena’s Soap Opera Press Memories, Part One

I started watching soap operas in 1967 when I was 13. Both my parents worked—I was a latch-key kid who had our Queens, N.Y., apartment all to herself when she came home from school. I was frequently lonely, since I was an only child, but soaps kept me company back then—and as I grew up, they also gave me my profession. Since 1979, I have been an entertainment journalist specializing in daytime soap operas. I’ve written for magazines, newspapers, and online sites. I became the soap critic Marlena De Lacroix (my pen name, which I’ll explain later) when Soap Opera Weekly debuted in 1989.

My years as a soap journalist have been eventful, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Here are some memories that stand out

1. Susan Lucci (who played Erica Kane on “All My Children”) wins her Daytime Emmy in 1999 after a frustrating 19 nominations without a win. I had written so prolifically about Susan and Erica that I used to call myself “America’s Susan Lucci-ologist.” That night at Radio City Music Hall, I had a premonition she would finally win. When presenter Shemar Moore (who played Malcolm Winters on “The Young and the Restless”) opened the envelope and exclaimed, “The streak is over—Susan Lucci!,” the screams that erupted throughout the hall were the loudest I had ever heard.

Just before the fabled Emmy night, I had written a column in Soap Opera Weekly (called “The Last Susan Lucci Loses Show”) saying I was tired of people calling Susan a loser. She evidently read it, because five minutes after her win we journalists gathered in the backstage press room. Susan came over to me, hugged me, and said, “You don’t know how much I appreciate your support.” Wowsa! Susan also gave me something back: My story on her win made page one of Newsday, where I was the soap columnist. I’ve had a very long journalism career, but that was my only page one story.

2. My acting debut on “Search for Tomorrow” in 1986 as Connie Bronson, a snooty nightclub critic whose bad reviews drove Wilma (played by Anita Gillette), the girlfriend of Stu (played by Larry Haines), out of town. Done up in a black sequined gown and ’80s hair out to there, I couldn’t believe this Connie was me. The show wouldn’t let me wear my glasses, but when I stumbled down the nightclub stairs, the very handsome (OK, dreamy) David Forsyth (who played Hogan McCleary) grabbed me and said, “Don’t worry, Connie, I have your back.” Strangely, my parents never watched that episode. But my great aunt Rere called me up and kvelled, “A Fabian (my mother’s family name) on TV.” She went on about it for nearly 20 minutes.

3. Being the editor of a soap magazine during the apex of soap popularity. The magazine was Afternoon TV. I was the editor from 1981-83, and it was the best job I ever had. My assistant and good friend Randi Walseth and I had a blast running around to all the soap studios that were in New York (there were lot of them then), interviewing actors, actresses, writers and producers; going to the lavish parties the networks threw for their then-money making soaps (Shrimp! Shrimp! Shrimp!); and interviewing soap stars in our office, including new performers who were even younger than we were. One day, Darnell Williams, who was new to “All My Children” as Jesse Hubbard, came up to see us. He whispered so shyly in response to our questions that we had to coax him to speak louder. In just a few months, he became a soap superstar. Jesse’s scenes with his friend Jenny (played by Kim Delaney) and his girlfriend Angie (played by Debbi Morgan) were particularly memorable.

At the magazine, we gave out our own yearly awards (the ATV Awards). But we had no budget for an awards presentation, so we had to travel to the show’s sets to present the awards. When Douglas Marland won Best Writer for his work on “Guiding Light,” he showed up in a stylish blue suit and gave a beautiful speech, as if he were accepting an Oscar. Randi and I, the only attendees, both burst into tears. How we loved him!

At Afternoon TV, I wanted to produce a magazine that was as intelligent as the soap operas we watched. I had been inspired by the soap journalist I had interned for—Jon-Michael Reed, an actor who was the editor of my fave magazine as a teen, Daily TV Serials. Jon-Michael also referred one of his followers, John Genovese (now John K. Read), to us, and he became our critic. This wonderful guy knew almost all there was to know about early soaps. He was such a great critic that the new publication on the block, Soap Opera Digest, lured him away from us by giving him a book contract.

4.  A nice half-Italian girl from Queens becomes the French soap critic Marlena De Lacroix at the launch of Soap Opera Weekly in 1989.

When Mimi Torchin (who started her career as an actress) created Soap Opera Weekly in 1989, she asked me to write a weekly column called “Critical Condition.” Mimi and I had worked together at Sterling’s Magazines (a fan magazine company with titles like Daytime TV) back in the day. My friends at ABC Daytime (at that point, I was writing for their glossy magazine Episodes) told me I couldn’t write for Episodes and Soap Opera Weekly at the same time. So, it was decided that I needed a pen name. My journalist boyfriend at the time came up with Marlena De Lacroix. Marlene is my real middle name (after my great-grandmother, who immigrated to America from Poland in 1903). “Lacroix,” which means “the cross” in French, was a play on my real last name, Passalacqua, which means “crosses the water” in Italian. My then-beau (who was also my foil during the early years of the column because he hated soaps) went by the name Phillipe L’Oeuf in the column. L’oeuf means egg in French. He was and is bald.

How did Marlena become French? Well, my dad, Cosmo, who was an Army staff sergeant in World War II, spent a lot of time marching through France to Germany, and when I was little, he used to mumble French expressions around the house, like “pommes de terre frites.” That means French fries, though the French usually just say “les frites.” That was the inspiration for Marlena using French words and expressions. Of course, the most popular word was moi (which means “me”) because, LOL, Marlena is very much the center of her own universe.

The magazine and column took off right away because of Mimi’s wise management and a great staff of young people. My aim was to tell the truth about what I liked and didn’t like on soaps. Why? Because, as I used to tell my journalism students at NYU and Marymount Manhattan College (I taught college as an adjunct professor during several of my years at Weekly), journalism is truth. My outspokenness as Marlena often got me and the magazine in trouble. (There are a lot of very sensitive people working in the soap industry.)

In fact, there was one soap executive producer (who shall be nameless) who asked Mimi to fire me because I didn’t write about his show enough. She couldn’t do it because the Marlena column was widely read and was helping to sell the magazine. I will be forever grateful to Mimi for letting me say what I wanted to say, no matter how much grief it caused her. (And me!) I left the magazine in 2001 to get my M.A. in history from NYU.

I continue to relay my thoughts on soaps in this online column. My husband, Ed Hayman (who has appeared in the column as Moose), and I started this site (Marlena de Lacroix: Soaps for the Thinking Fans) at http://www.marlenadelacroix.com in 2005.

All these years later, Connie/Marlena says: I love my Thinking Fans so much. Thank you for reading me!