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| Helen Wagner turns 90 on 9/3; Wednesday | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 1 2008, 10:33 AM (1,345 Views) | |
| RogerNewcomb | Sep 1 2008, 10:33 AM Post #1 |
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Post your favorite Nancy clips here! [dohtml]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pd9X1gs5NJc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pd9X1gs5NJc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><BR> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6DttZUv7CaA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6DttZUv7CaA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/dohtml] |
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| loves2turn | Sep 1 2008, 10:39 AM Post #2 |
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That's the same day I'm supposed to sit Jury Duty, let's hope it gets changed. 2thumbs |
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| Linda | Sep 1 2008, 10:54 AM Post #3 |
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I wonder if the show will do anything special to celebrate Nancy's birthday? I must say, she looks fantastic for her age. 2thumbs |
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| fee93 | Sep 1 2008, 10:35 PM Post #4 |
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I wish they would but I'm not holding my breath. |
| - Scott | |
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| flashdance | Sep 1 2008, 11:12 PM Post #5 |
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I just sent the following EMail to my mom and 3 sisters. It is hard for me to remember any specific scenes or moments during ATWT that are extra special because NANCY HUGHES was involved. WHY? MAINLY because she has got to be one of the most consistent characters on a soap opera. AND THAT SIMPLE STATEMENT is a HUGE STATEMENT to be m a d e about a CHARACTER on a soap opera. The only other true soap opera character that comes close to this feat is EMMA SNYDER. I do have one very special memory of NANCY HUGHES...and that was her tremendously strong and visible relationship she had with CHRIS HUGHES played by PaulKorver. With so many characters changing and experiencing the current DU JOUR storyline....it was extremely special to watch the LOVE and the RESPECT that this GRAND MOTHER and GRANDSON experienced. The EMail that I sent to my remaining family follows.... Helen Wagner.....AsTheWorldTurns...she turns 90 on Wednesday... Being almost 52...AND thinking of the various television shows that I began watching with SOME member of my family...be it MOM...who does not watch ATWT as much any more....or ERMA(my grandmother)...who I still blame for hooking me on watching ATWT while she was ironing and I was playing with cottage cheese carton castles.....or DAD...when the TWO of us would break from working in the fields or on the farm and have lunch and DAD would sleep and I would continue to watch ATWT..... It is nice to realize that a major milestone is occurring on WEDNESDAY when the first person that ever spoke any words on the ATWT television show....is STILL ON THE SHOW and turning a healthy 90 years old on Wednesday. I have no clue if HELEN WAGNER....aka NANCY HUGHES....will be on the show on WEDNESDAY but it is nice that such a fine woman's birthday can help me remember some wonderful moments of resting and relaxing for the same person and television show that I probably started to watch when I was SIX years old. |
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| flashdance | Sep 1 2008, 11:16 PM Post #6 |
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to be made about ..... The above phrase generated a mad because I used the word ( m a d e ).... FYI.... |
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| RogerNewcomb | Sep 3 2008, 09:09 AM Post #7 |
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Here's the write up I did on my blog today: Happy 90th Birthday To ATWT's Helen Wagner! Helen Wagner was born in Lubbock, Texas, on September 3, 1918. She has played matriarch Nancy Hughes McClosky on AS THE WORLD TURNS, with only a few interruptions, since the show's debut in April 1956. This has earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records ("Longest Time in Same TV Role"). She actually was part of a pilot taping for the show in late 1955 which means she has been "Nancy" for nearly 53 years now. Before she signed a 13-week contract with ATWT at the age of 37, Ms. Wagner played Trudy Bauer on both THE GUIDING LIGHT (original cast) and VALIANT LADY. She uttered the first words on ATWT, the now famous "Good morning, dear." She had been a singer and stage actress, sometimes working as a church soloist to pay the rent. She had roles in "Oklahoma!" and "The Bad Seed" on Broadway, played Blanche opposite Lee Marvin in a touring production of "A Streetcar Named Desire," and often did television drama in days when the medium was experimental and actors were sometimes unpaid. In 1963, she was on live television, debating whether her soap son should remarry his faithless ex-wife, when Walter Cronkite broke in to announce that President Kennedy had been shot. "That's my dubious claim to fame," Ms. Wagner has said. "I'm in the Smithsonian on tape, saying, 'I gave it a great deal of thought, Grandpa,' as Cronkite broke the story." The New York Times once said: "The character she created became an icon for a generation of women who understood her mostly futile attempts to run the perfect household and raise the perfect children. Nancy was Donna Reed with real problems in the days before soap characters traveled through time, engaged in espionage or almost routinely were reunited with evil twins." Wagner has taken some breaks from ATWT, both voluntary and involuntary. After six months in the role of Nancy, show creator Irna Phillips fired her because she did not favor the way Wagner poured coffee. After an overwhelming consensus was reached to hire her back, Irna did so begrudgingly. "When we went on the air, Nancy and Chris couldn't sleep in the same bed," she said. "And when we finally got a double bed, one of us had to be in the bed and the other one had to have his feet on the floor so there was no hanky-panky going on." "You'd be surprised how much mail I got asking for advice," she added. "I got hate mail back in the early days: 'Why don't you leave your kids alone?'" Wagner left the show again in the early 1980s. Then-producer Mary-Ellis Bunim (who later went on to produce THE REAL WORLD) wished to take the show in a different direction and wanted to gear the stories toward the younger generation by showcasing the Hughes family less. Wagner and co-star Don MacLaughlin (Chris) walked away from the show after vocal dissent in the press. She returned to the role in 1985. Nancy and Chris celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1986 as AS THE WORLD TURNS celebrated it's 30th. McLaughlin died shortly after this was taped. In 1988, Wagner's alma mater, Monmouth College, awarded her with an honorary degree of "Doctor of Humane Letters". Although she has played the role for almost fifty years, she never won a Daytime Emmy Award for her work until four years ago. She was finally awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for her role on the show in May 2004 (along with Rachel Ames, John Clarke, Jeanne Cooper, Eileen Fulton, Don Hastings, Ray MacDonnell, Frances Reid and the late Ruth Warrick). The night before that Daytime Emmy show, New York's Mayor Bloomberg had an Emmy reception at the Mayor's mansion. I was a volunteer that night and was assigned the task of escorting Helen Wagner for the evening. It was truly a pleasure and a night I'll never forget. She was 85 at the time and I was 34 and I couldn't keep up her. My only job was to keep track of her and make sure she was where she needed to be at the right time. She was full of energy and life and kept me on my toes all evening. It was such an honor to see all the wonderful daytime legends that night and also the next evening at the Emmy telecast. I also had the pleasure of seeing Wagner at the Museum of Television and Radio the night ATWT was honored on its 50th anniversary. Hearing her stories from the early days, when the show was live and how things have changed over the years was music to the ears of this soap fan. "It's more the people than it is the story," she said. "It was like growing up in a family. We've always been a happy show." Longer than her ATWT role, her marriage to Robert Willey has lasted 54 years and is still going strong. Wagner has said she has no plans to retire. "I'll just die with my boots on! That's my Texas background." |
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| Judy | Sep 3 2008, 09:51 AM Post #8 |
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Happy Birthday Helen  So many wonderful memories. I treasure every time we get to see her now. I so hope in some way the show acknowledges Helen and Nancy's birthday. They did honor her 80th with a return of Penny and Ellen. I'm thinking it was Chris and Emily who put that surprise together so maybe this time Casey and Emily can do it  There is a 2 page spread in the latest SID on Helen. (please don't c&p to other sites and instead link back here.) |
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| RogerNewcomb | Sep 3 2008, 10:00 AM Post #9 |
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Thanks, Judy. I love that picture of Helen and Don with all that mail. I hope Helen is able to make appearances on ATWT for many more years. Alice Horton has been written some into DAYS recently but Frances Reid hasn't been able to come to the set because she is too frail. 
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| MrSnyder | Sep 3 2008, 11:30 AM Post #10 |
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Happy Birthday to Helen Wagner!! Thanks for the SID scan Judy. |
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Ciao! B_.  In matters of principle stand like a rock, in matters of taste swim with the current." ~ Thomas Jefferson | |
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