The Joys of Soap Swag

This jacket has “a special place in my closet.”

Marlena and Moose are on the move again and I’m digging out a lot of things I forgot I had. What I’ll never forget or part with is an amazing collection of soap souvenirs I as a soap opera journalist received from the networks and Procter and Gamble during the eighties and early nineties. Those were the days when the profits from daytime soaps (and there were so many more of them then!) literally supported primetime television.

The heads of the networks realized that soap operas were gold, and they established excellent public relations departments to work with members of the soap press (there were only soap magazines then, pre-Internet). Many of the publicists like the late Audrey Fecht (“All My Children”) and the very astute Rodi Rosenzweig (“One Life to Live”) plus Frank Tobin (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) — who  caught the bouquet at my wedding — were just incredibly great at working with soap reporters. We journalists were encouraged to interview everyone from daytime network vice presidents down — soap executive producers, headwriters, costume designers, set designers and of course whatever actors we wanted.

We in the soap press helped generate and build audience loyalty to the network soaps. In return we were invited by the networks to lavish soap anniversary parties and on location shoots. In 1984 I went to the Washington D.C. to report on a “Loving” remote in which Vietnam veteran Mike Donovan (played by the brilliant James Kiberd) saw the ghost of his dead comrade Gage. The late Agnes Nixon, who as you know did the best social issue stories, wrote this sequence to coincide with the opening of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall. What a moving day that was!

When “All My Children” went to Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1992 after the fall of the Iron Curtain to shoot a sequence in which Susan Lucci’s Erica Kane modeled new fashions against a background of the beautiful Blue Danube, ABC sent along a passel of reporters, myself included — for a full week!

For a few years ABC invited us along on an annual Super Soap Weekend in Disney World in Orlando, Florida. As you know ABC is owned by Disney. Fans were invited, too. The biggest stars, like Susan Lucci, made glorious public appearances. What fun that was! One year, I even got to meet my childhood cartoon favorite, Mickey Mouse!

Years ago, the networks also gifted out a huge amount of soap-based swag merchandise. I have an “As the World Turns” cup which I still put pens, a “Crimson Lights” mug from “The Young and the Restless,” and a stack of soap t-shirts and sweatshirts. My prize possession is an expensive “Days of Our Lives” leather and wool jacket NBC gave out in 1991 to celebrate the show’s 30^th anniversary. Sadly, I can’t wear it because of the wool, to which I am allergic. But it occupies a special place in my closet. An inside pocket has an embroidered signature by Ken Corday: “With admiration and many thanks, Ken.”

Oh my! Some of this swag was very clever. I have a bottle of sand that NBC gave out to celebrate “Sunset Beach”’s Terror Island fantasy remote story. And best of all, I have an engraved Martimmy glass, given out by NBC in honor of a soap character I wrote about often and with great pleasure because I truly loved him: “Passion”’s Timmy, played by the late Josh Ryan Evans. He and Tabitha, the witch character played by Juliet Mills, charmingly swigged Martimmys from such glasses as often as they could.

Today the networks and soaps don’t have the budget to support such good time generosity, so the days of swag are over. We fans find the bucks to keep our collections growing. In addition to the gifts from the networks, I’ve bought a lot of soap collectibles, too. There’s plenty out there. I have a bunch of “General Hospital” anniversary t-shirts. And even an “Edge of Night” shirt which incredibly brought me a new friend. Once when I was wearing it, I fainted in a TV store one hot summer afternoon. When the ambulance attendant saw it, he said to me, “I’m from Cincinnati and I loved ‘Edge of Night.’”  As you know, “Edge”’s owners Procter and Gamble is headquartered in Cincinnati. The show’s opening sequence, a shot of its fictitious hometown Monticello, was really the skyline of Cincinnati.

Do you have soap collectibles too and stories or photos to go with them? Please write to Marlena and tell me all about your favorites! Let’s share our wealth of good memories!