Victoria Winters - the 2nd Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama (Dark Shadows)

I am having a thrilling time re-reading these Dark Shadows novels from the late '60s (which continued into the early '70s, well past the end of the television show).  It has been so many years since I originally read them, it is like I am reading them again for the first time.  And the author, W.E.D. Ross (writing under his most popular pseudonym, Marilyn Ross) does a pretty decent job with the characterization, capturing some of the nuances the actors instilled in the characters on TV.  I especially like the fact that these early books, like the early episodes of the TV show, focused on Victoria Winters, as she was by far my favorite character from the show.  Thankfully, Ross manages to instill her a bit more strength and awareness than she was given by the writers on the daytime soap.  It breathes a little more life into her, and definitely makes me love the character all the more!

 

Victoria Winters is the second book in the series, and the story picks up some months after the events in the first book (which depicted Victoria's arrival, her meeting the Collins' clan, her romance with Ernest Collins, and the terrifying events that led to Ernest leaving for an indefinite period of time).  Now, as summer has arrived, Carolyn and David are gone on a vacation, leaving Victoria behind to act as a personal assistant to Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.  The Collins' attorney, Will Grant, is still around (still trying to woo Victoria), and we meet his sister, Nora, with whom Victoria has developed a close friendship.  Burke Devlin makes a few quick appearances in this novel, and Matthew Morgan is his usual grumpy self.  Roger Collins continues to be the ultimate spoiled playboy.  The new characters who are introduced in this book are Paul Caine, a visiting artist who takes an instant liking to Victoria, as well as Henry Francis and his two daughters - the gorgeous Rachel Francis (who becomes entangled with Roger) and the invalid Dorothy (who is recovering from major brain surgery and is confined to a wheelchair in a near catatonic state).  It turns out Henry was an old classmate of Elizabeth's back in the day, so she welcomes the man and his daughters into her home unlike she would anyone else.  And now, with all the characters in place, the mystery unfolds...

 

 One might recall in the first book, it turned out Ernest's first wife did not really die as everyone believed, but was being kept secreted away in the dark halls of Collins House, as she had gone mad. It was revealed that she had murdered a woman Ernest had later fallen in love with - Stella Hastings, and she would have killed Victoria as well, if fate had not intervened.  Well, it seems that story was not quite over, as Victoria begins to see the face and ghostly apparition of a woman who she eventually finds out is none other than Stella Hastings!  Did the woman not die, as everyone thought?  Or was her spirit haunting the house where she had been killed?  As Victoria tries to figure this mystery out, she must also fend off a would-be killer, someone who is following in the footsteps of the silk-scarf strangler who Henry Francis tells her killed several woman back in Pennsylvania.  Did the killer follow the Francis family to Collinsport, stalking Henry's daughter?  Is Victoria simply another in a long-line of victims?  Or is there something much more sinister going on in the Collins' great house?  

 

We spend a bit more time outside of Collinwood (or Collins House, as Ross repeatedly refers to it) in this book.  Victoria and Nora head into Collinsport on several occasions, frequenting the Blue Whale, as well as Will Grant's office and the general store and post office.  Victoria and Nora also spend some time on the beach - after all, it is summer.  These interludes are nice reminders that there is an entire world within the Dark Shadows mythos, and the characters are not limited to the great house. It is also nice to see that Burke Devlin continues to make his brief appearances.  This book has a first printing date of March 1967, and by that point in the television show, viewers were treated to the final revelations regarding the mystery surrounding Mr. Devlin and his animosity towards Roger Collins.  Fans were also in the middle of the story where BIll Malloy is murdered and the phoenix, Laura Collins (David's mother and Roger's ex-wife!) shows up to claim her son.  While there are passing references in the books to Roger's ex-wife, there are no details given, and from what I can recall, the books never actually address who she is or her supernatural essence.

 

Ross once again gives strong hints at the supernatural, with the ghostly appearances of Stella Hastings, but as with your standard Gothic tale from this period, the haunting is explained away with real-world circumstances (in this instance, a look-alike who is mistaken for Stella).  Each of the continuing characters (Elizabeth, Roger, Will) are still exhibiting odd quirks and mood shifts that hint at secrets being withheld from poor Victoria, leading one to understand that Ross was likely hedging his bets, keeping their actions mysterious, yet not direct, so that if anything major was revealed on the television show, he could incorporate it into his stories.  I do like that he keeps Victoria true to form, in that she is not a Nancy Drew-type mystery solver, but rather, someone who seems to fall into these situations and is forced to go along for the ride until they resolve themselves.  I laughed at one line in the book, where Victoria was overwhelmed, and she realizes "[s]he had reached the stage where things when on around her and she simply sat in a kind of daze and allowed them to happen" (p. 100).  Many fans would say that is a pretty accurate description of how Victoria was always written on the TV show.  Thankfully, Ross does give her a bit more fortitude, so that even as she is forced into these situations, she has the mental acuity to reason things out.

 

As with the first book, this novel featured two different covers.  The first, which appeared on the early printings, was a painted cover (above), showing Victoria, in her overcoat, running away from Collins House.  This scene is taken from early promotional photos for the show, which shows Alexandra Moltke in that same position (also above).  For later printings, Paperback Library reprinted the book using a still photo from the television show, once again with Alexandra Moltke as Victoria and Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins.  As Barnabas did not make his first appearance on the show until April 18, 1967, a month after this book was initially released, and considering his character does not appear in the story at all, I find is somewhat misleading that the later printings used such a photo.  No doubt, Paperback was simply cashing in on Barnabas' popularity (since, by the time these books were reprinted, Barnabas had gained his success on the show, and the books were featuring Barnabas as their principal character).  Still, there were plenty of images of Victoria with other characters that do appear in the stories, which the publisher could have used.  Unless, of course, it was a mandate from Dan Curtis Productions, in which case, they would not have had much of a choice in the matter.

 

 This second book definitely takes the story of Victoria Winters further away from the direction she was written in the television show, and as such, it makes for some great reading.  These are new and unique stories, a "parallel time" of sorts, and it is a shame Ross was forced to write Victoria Winters out when she left the show.  This forum would have been the perfect place to reveal Victoria's true parentage, the one mystery that never got solved on any version of the television show (although, for the 1990's remake, that question was answered in Innovation Comics' Dark Shadows' comic book series, which picked up where the TV show ended and ultimately revealed Victoria really was Elizabeth's daughter...)

 

Only 30 books left to read in the ongoing saga of the Collins family!

 

RATING:  10 tiny silver earrings shaped like a leaf out of 10 for great Gothic suspense and ghoulish ghostly scares, with some well-written misdirects to keep the twist ending (somewhat) a surprise!

Dark Shadows - the 1st Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama

It has been so many years since I first read these Dark Shadows series of novels based on the television soap opera from the 1960s and '70s, that I decided it was time to go back and re-read them.  While I remember them being different from the show itself, I did not recall just how different.  The series was published by Paperback Library, with this first book being released in December 1966, nearly six months after the premier of the television show in June 1966.  The series continued for 32 books, not including the novelization of the House of Dark Shadows film, as well as the Barnabas Collins in a Funny Vein, Dark Shadows Cookbook, Book of Vampires and Werewolves and Jonathan Frid Photo Album.  The last five books in the series were published after the TV show went off the air.  While my favorite character, Victoria Winters, features heavily in the early books, when she was written out of the show, the book series followed suit (and, sadly, neither the television show, nor the book series, resolved the mystery surrounding Victoria's true parentage!).

 

Dark Shadows is the aptly titled first book in the series and provides readers with a very different version of Victoria Winters' arrival in Collinsport, Maine and her introduction to the Collins family.  The backstory remains the same - Victoria was raised in a foundling home, money was sent for years from Bangor from a mysterious, unnamed benefactor, and Victoria is offered a position at Collinwood (referred to as Collins House in the book) as governess for the young David Collins.  There is even a scene where Victoria meets Maggie Evans briefly, although in the book, Maggie is not quite as negative about the Collins family. Here, the story deviates, as Victoria takes a taxi up to Collinwood, but on the way, the taxi has a flat tire (in the show, Victoria is unable to get a taxi, because she is told the only taxi in town has a flat).  Along comes the Collins' family attorney, Will Grant, who helps get the tire fixed, and Victoria is soon brought to Collinwood, where the first person she encounters is an entirely new character, never mentioned in the television show!

 

Ernest Collins is Elizabeth and Roger's cousin (there is no definite explanation of how they are related; however, since he bears the name Collins, it can only be assumed his father and Roger and Elizabeth's father are brothers - unless the "cousin" is merely a casual reference, and they are actually more distantly related), and he surprises Victoria when he grabs her unexpectedly, only, as it turns out, to save her from stepping onto the rotting wood covering an old well.  Ernest is a concert violinist who has returned to live at the Collins' house after suffering some devastating losses - the death of his first wife, as well as the death of a young woman with whom he was becoming close in Collinsport.  Victoria has sympathy for him, but she soon learns Ernest has some dark secrets, and it's quite possible the death of the young woman was not an accident!  Is he mad, having had an emotional break after his wife died, or is there something else going on?

 

While Victoria tries to sort out her feelings for and thoughts about Ernest Collins, she must also deal with the secrets of the rest of the family.  She is warned that David is a "monster" and very difficult to handle, but she soon learns that his problem stems from his anger at being taken away from his mother.  When she broaches the issue with Roger and Elizabeth, she is told it is not her concern and to stay out of it.  As far as Roger is concerned, Victoria experiences his alcohol-induced womanizing first hand and must forcefully assert herself to him in order to avoid his advances.  With regard to Elizabeth, the woman is stern and secretive, clearly hiding something she had hidden in the basement of the great house (which,, I'm guessing, was taken from the whole mystery in the television show surrounding the disappearance of Paul Stoddard that left Elizabeth a recluse for eighteen years), and she is so quick to write off the mysterious happenings in the house, even going so far as to blame young David, even when Victoria knows the boy is innocent!  It seems Carolyn is the only "normal" person in the family, but even she has her moments, leaving Victoria to wonder.

 

The story throws in a number of nearly supernatural moments, when Victoria hears horrific scratching noises, sees moving shadows, and is frightened by a horrific mask in her room.  It all culminates in a dark, stormy night when the terrifying secret that has been haunting the house makes its presence known, and Victoria faces a life-and-death situation as everything (well, related to this story, anyhow) comes to light and a specter of the past comes back to seek revenge!  The author, W.E.D. Ross writing under the pseudonym of Marilyn Ross, does a fantastic job of building the suspense throughout the story, but as with most of his Gothic tales, the climax always happens a little too quickly, wrapping up usually in a few pages in the final chapter.  William Edward Daniel Ross (1912-1995) was known for the plethora of Gothic novels he wrote under various pseudonyms - Marilyn Ross, Clarissa Ross, Dana Ross, Leslie Ames, and others.  The Dark Shadows series was the longest series of Gothics that he wrote.

 

The book is thoroughly enjoyable in spite of (or maybe because of?) its deviation from the plotlines in the television show; yet, there are some glaring errors in the book that really stand out.  For instance, Elizabeth's daughter, Carolyn, is referred to as "Caroline" (p. 11), with even Carolyn referring to her name with that spelling (p. 34).  In addition, Victoria is told to stay away from the east wing, as it is closed off and in disrepair (p. 73); but, in the TV show, it as the west wing that was closed off and alleged to be haunted.  What I found even more surprising, however, is when Carolyn convinces Victoria to join her at The Blue Whale, Joe Haskell sits down at the table with them, placing three beers on the table - which they all drink (p. 88)!  Carolyn is only seventeen, and Victoria not much older - so Joe was basically serving alcohol to underage girls (as the drinking age in Maine at that time was 21 years old).  Some things did stay true to the show (at least, at that time), such as Elizabeth's reference to Jeremiah Collins as her great-grandfather (p. 23), which matches what she says in the second episode of the television show.  There is also a reference to Isaac Collins as being the one who founded Collinsport (p. 26), although the book indicates he arrived prior to the Mayflower, which is inaccurate - the Mayflower landed in 1620, and Isaac Collins did not arrive until 1690.

 

The book has two covers.  The first is a painted scene featuring Victoria Winters holding tight to her overcoat, with the wind blowing, while behind her is the stately house of Collinwood, the moon shining overheard.  The bare tree branches around Victoria give the scene a sense of loneliness and foreboding.  Later printings of the book featured a photo still from the television show, oddly enough showing Victoria (as portrayed by Alexendra Moltke) standing next to Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), who is not even in the book - in fact, at the time the book was first published, his character did not even exist!  Most likely, Paperback Library was simply trying to cash in on Barnabas' popularity in the later years, so covers were re-issued with his image on them to increase sales.

 

A good start to an alternate timeline for the series (and let's face it, the television show did plenty of altering its timelines - with trips to the past and the future, and even trips to parallel time!).

 

RATING:  10 bent steering rods out of 10 for offering fans of the television show some different takes on the same characters they had come to love! 

Curse of Dark Shadows - an original Dark Shadows Graphic Novel

Sixty years ago, a new soap opera premiered on daytime television, and while it only lasted five years for a total of 1,225 episodes, the show has had a legacy that has far surpassed that of pretty much any other soap that has ever aired.  Sure, General Hospital is still on the air; but let's face reality - despite being on the air for 63 years, that show did not spawn a series of books; it did not have board games and models; it did not see various comic book series published over the years; it did not generate enough fandom to warrant audio stories to continue the tales of its characters; it did not generate not one, not two, but three feature films based on the show; and it did not give rise to a fan base that 55 years after the show ended is not only still going strong, but getting stronger with every generation.  Dark Shadows has done that and so much more.  A Gothic soap opera that struggled its first year, it hit its stride when it introduced the reluctant vampire, Barnabas Collins - and from that moment on, history was made.  The show went off the air in April 1971, leaving viewers wondering just what happened to all of the characters on the show.  There have been various continuations, both in book and audio form, that have given fans a taste of what could have been and how the stories might have continued.  Sadly, neither the films nor the updated television shows continued the stories; rather, they simply retold or reimagined the tales already told in the original soap.  So, it is only fitting that with this 60th anniversary, fans should have a special treat - and it's my hope this is only the first of many to come out this year!

 

Curse of Dark Shadows is a graphic novel published by Hermes Press that brings the Collins family and their hometown into the present time.  It's been over 50 years since we last saw the Collins clan, and a lot has changed.  Roger Collins is dead, his ghost now haunting his son, David.  Elizabeth Collins Stoddard is also dead, having left her daughter, Carolyn, with a revelation and request - Victoria Winters, the former governess who was called back in time, truly was Elizabeth's daughter (and Carolyn's sister!), and Carolyn is given the task of finding her and bringing her back home.  Maggie Evans is a grandmother.  And Barnabas Collins ... our ill-fated vampire ... well, it seems he took off back to Europe with Dr. Julia Hoffman, where they finally married and lived out the remaining years of her life.  The only thing that remains the same is the dark shadows that always seem to linger over Collinwood, infecting its inhabitants with terrors that never seem to end.  But Carolyn is working on that.  She has spent half a century trying to find a way to bring Victoria Winters back from the past, and in so doing, putting an end to the curse that has held the family in its sway for centuries...

 

The graphic novel is written by Craig Hurd-McKenney, who has been writing comics since 2000, including a story in the first issue of the the recent revival of Gold Key comics' Boris Karloff Gold Key Mysteries.  This book appears to be his first foray into the world of Dark Shadows, and it is clear he has a love for the show, its characters, and its rich history.  While the story is set in the present, it definitely builds upon everything that has come before - Hurd-McKenney even makes a number of references to events in the television series, citing the actual episodes where they took place.  And the simple fact that he brings Victoria Winters back from the past - well, that puts him right on the top of my list of favorite writers!  Victoria, as portrayed by actress Alexandra Moltke, has always been my favorite character on the show, and it truly disappointed me that they wrote her out of the show the way they did.  Lara Parker (who portrayed Angelique in the show) wrote a Dark Shadows novel that brought Victoria back to the present; and while I enjoyed that story, I have to say, I love the way Hurd-McKenney did it so much better.  I can't say I'm overly thrilled with the characterization of Carolyn Stoddard-Hawkes in her old age; however, having spent the last half-century inside Collinwood, I can't begin to imagine what that would do to a person.  I did, however, like the fact that David was still being haunted by his father's presence - a man he never really got along with when he was alive, so it only makes sense that Roger would still haunt him after he died.  While Barnabas does come into the story, we see very little, if any, of the other supporting cast.  Hallie works in the Blue Whale with her son;  Maggie Evans is a grandmother, and she owns the Collinsport Inn.  But I would love to know what happened to Amy Jennings ... and Quentin Collins ... and Angelique ... and so many others ... perhaps Hurd-McKenney has some more stories rolling around in his head, and we'll get further graphic novels that continue the story (considering the number of sub-plots hinted at throughout the book, he darned-well better have more in the works!).

 

The interior art is provided by "Jok with Gervasio." This is a team of artists that I was completely unfamiliar with prior to buying this book.  It appears they have collaborated on a number of other graphic novels and illustrated books.  Jok is an Argentine artist who has had work published in a number of countries since 1993.  Gervasio is also an Argentine artist, who has worked with Jok in producing some of the "I Survived" graphic novels for Scholastic, as well as some other works.  Their art has a distinctive style to it, and while I can definitely see it as being conducive to darker stories, such as vampire, ghost, and supernatural tales, I must admit that I did not find myself enjoying it much for the Dark Shadows story.  None of the characters bore any resemblance whatsoever to their television counterparts, and perhaps that was their intention.  Thankfully, Hurd-McKenney's story was strong enough to carry me past the art, and it was ultimately still a thoroughly enjoyable read.

 

An added bonus to this book are the character profiles that appear after the story - seventeen pages detailing some of Dark Shadows' greatest characters over the years.  From Adam to Judah Zachary ... from Nicholas Blair to Count Petofi ... from Roxanne Drew to Janet Findley ... from Sarah Collins to Peter Bradford ... and so many more!  Each character is drawn by a different artist - including one by Luciano Vecchio, a wonderful artist that I have the pleasure of knowing through his work on Drumfish Productions' Sentinels books some years back.  And I love that the Victoria Winters depicted in these bios is a much stronger resemblance to the Alexandra Moltke that I so loved from the show.

 

There are a couple of things about the graphic novel that did leave me somewhat perplexed.  For unexplained reasons, page 3 of the story repeats itself (it appears on both pages 7 and 8 of the book).  Then, just a few pages later, page 10 of the story appears a second time, appearing first on page 15 (right after page 9 of the story), and that again on page 17 (right after page 11 of the story).  And if that were not confusing enough, after page 22 of the story, the page numbering reverts back to page 1, even though the story continues without any break (in fact, page 22 and page 1 thereafter contains a 2-page spread of Victoria Winters fighting the Leviathan on Widow's Hill in the past).  I can only assume there was some production issues when the book was put together, because I can't image the creators intended these mis-matched pages on purpose.  Finally, there's the curious misspelling of Quentin's name in the character bios - he is listed as Quentin "Collin," without the "s" at the end of his last name.  This was likely a simple editing snafu.

 

These gaffes, though, did not in any way spoil the story for me.  I still highly recommend the book for any Dark Shadows fan, as it not only brings the show and its characters and mythos into the 21st century, but it gives us fans a long-awaited continuation of the original series.  Big Finish Productions filled that void for a number of years with their audio dramas; now Hermes Press is picking up where Big Finish left off and giving us even more Gothic horror to fill our insatiable need for more Barnabas ... more Victoria ... more Carolyn and David ... more stories of those people who may at times be only shadows in our mind, but who continue to fill the days and nights of our every tomorrow!

 

RATING:  9 empty baby cribs out of 10 for taking the Dark Shadows' lore far beyond that of the original series and crafting a new tale of mystery, suspense, and horror in the tradition set by Dan Curtis some 60 years ago...

Secrets of Peyton Place - the fourth Peyton Place novel by Roger Fuller

I can't believe it has been more than a year since I read the last Peyton Place novel by author Roger Fuller!  It does not seem that long, but apparently time has just flown by.  So, it was with great relish that I pulled out the fourth book in this series, curious to see what scandals would rock the small New England town this time, and which of Grace Metalious' original characters would make appearances in the story.  Each book has dwelt on a different family in this anything-but-average community, and this book is no different - another new family moves to Peyton Place, and another female character is caught up in the sinful desires that seem to take hold of everyone in town at one point or another! 

 

Secrets of Peyton Place introduces readers to Phil and Nancy Merriman, a young couple from Sampson, South Carolina, who move to Peyton Place to pursue Phil's budding engineering career at Sono-trol, an up and rising company who has grown swiftly, taking on government contracts, as well as numerous private contracts.  Nancy is supportive of her husband's career, but this sudden move has left her feeling out of place.  The Merrimans move into a subdivision in which all of the Sono-trol families reside, and Nancy finds that she must do whatever it takes to fit in with the other housewives, as their actions have a direct reflection on their husbands' careers.  One wrong step could end a career. And the last thing she wants to do is hurt her husband's career - despite how badly she wants to return hom to Sampson!

 

Fuller once again delves into the depravity of these outwardly small-town people.  The "good" people of Peyton Place give the outward appearance of piety and purity, yet their devious and sexually deviant natures make the poor people of Shacktown look downright innocent!  Yes, Shacktown comes back into the forefront for this story - in fact, there are tons of moving parts that all eventually intersect to nearly turn the entire township upside down and nearly bring an end to Leslie Harrington's long-time reign as the one who pulls the strings of everything that happens in Peyton Place!  It seems Harrington finally has some competition in the form of Allen McCampbell, or "The Man" as he is known by all of the employees of Sono-trol.  It seems the outwardly handsome, smooth-talking Mr. Campbell is hiding plenty of secrets - from his political aspirations to his insatiable desire for women (particularly married ones!) - and he is a sly chess-player that knows exactly how to maneuver all those around him to get exactly what he wants.

 

And when a young college girl of Indian descent is nearly brutally raped in Shacktown, it becomes the catalyst for plenty of changes in a lot of lives in Peyton Place. Reverend Tibbs suddenly steps out of his role as the timid pansy and nearly beats the rapist to an inch of his life ... Nancy Merriman realizes she finally has a purpose in Peyton Place, and that is to help the people of Shacktown, what with the attempted rape and the swiftly spreading typhoid fever ... Doc Swain sees this as an opportunity to open the eyes of his fellow citizens of Peyton Place as to the poor conditions of those living in Shacktown ... and Allen McCampbell sees this as the perfect opportunity to remove the sheriff, take power away from Harrington, and take complete control of Peyton Place!  And all along the way, Nancy sees McCampbell as the savior this town needs, doubting all the stories of his liaisons with married women - until one fateful night he makes the mistake of making a move on Nancy.  Her husband has been away on work projects for so long (at the behest of McCampbell, of course!), and he is handsome and powerful and able to bring some hope to those people in Shacktown, but what good Christian woman would ever give in to that kind of temptation?

 

As the blurb on the back cover of the book says, "An innocent bride learns the ways of the world in a small New England town..."

 

Fuller brings in Doc Matt Swain and Sheriff Buck McCracken ... we get some brief moments with an aging Leslie Harrington ... we do get the brief mention of the farmhouse where the Fiske family tragedy took place in the last book ... so Fuller keeps the continuity strong and the story moving in a forward direction.  These books are not stand alone, even though the stories are somewhat self-contained.  The books continue the soap opera format of Metalious' original novels, and expands the cast and definitely darkens the stories.  While the last book shied away from explicit sexuality, despite its plot, this book brings back some pretty sexually explicit scenes, particularly for the decade in which the book was published.  I am actually surprised this was not censored, as I cannot imagine your standard publishers in 1968 were so open about explicit scenes like those in this book. Yet, Fuller managed to get away with it, and Fuller manages to include some very steamy scenes with Nancy and her husband, as well as with Allen and one of his mistresses.

One surprise I did find while reading this book was Fuller's reference to the Bible - which, I suppose, should not have surprised me so much, since Nancy Merriman from the get-go is described as a Christian woman.  When Nancy is first offered an opportunity to go help the less fortunate in Shacktown, she is hesitant - but then she recalls the admonition of the Lord:  "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ... ye have done it unto me" (p. 104).   This comes from the verse Matthew 25:40 from the New Testament.  For all of the sin and debauchery going on in this town, it was actually refreshing to find a character who actually wanted to serve others as she believes the Lord would have her do - and when ultimately tempted, she overcomes and actually makes the right choice!  Hurray for Fuller for not making everyone bad!

 

Interestingly, this book does not give a solid ending.  While we do have resolution for Nancy and her husband, Allen McCampbell's future is not necessarily a given, and Harrington's vow to regain his power in Peyton Place leaves me to wonder if these characters are not going to resurface in later books (as this was far from Fuller's last book in the world of this New England town).  After reading this book, the television series from the late '60s is extremely tame in comparison!

 

RATING:   7 games of high-stakes bridge out of 10 for keeping the drama in Peyton Place as high as it has ever been, but proving that some people are strong enough not to be pulled into the wicked ways of this town!

The World of General Hospital - Six Decades of Drama in Port Charles

Back in the late '70s and early '80s, I watched the daytime drama, General Hospital, with my mom each afternoon.  I remember the whole Cassadine island / Ice Princess story, the romance and wedding of Luke and Laura (and yes, I watched that episode when it aired!), the death and later resurrection of Laura Spencer, and so many other great stories of that era.  But I fell away from the show, and it was not until decades later, when ABC cancelled its other soaps (All My Children and One Life to Live), that I picked up on the show, as I loved the idea of Todd Manning, Starr Manning, and John McBain coming over from One Life to Live to continue their stories on General Hospital.  Thirteen years later, and I'm still watching the show, even though those three characters (and the actors who played them) have been long gone.  I've been very fortunate in recent years to meet in person a number of the actors who have been on the show, and so when I saw this book listed on Amazon, I picked it up, thinking it would offer up a great history about a television drama that has aired daily for more than 60 years!  Sadly, I could not have been more wrong...

The World of General Hospital offers very little when it comes to any specific history of the show.   Written by Jesse Shanks, whose biography on Amazon indicates he has "shown talents for writing, genealogy, programming, and research," this book reads like a fluff piece that provides general information about a show that has been on television for more than six decades.  While I was hoping for some decade by decade look at the various stories and characters, as well as, perhaps, some cast listings and character profiles, and maybe even some synopses of various major stories over the years, I instead got a book that repeats itself often about the importance of Steve Hardy and Jesse Brewer, the revitalization of the show with Luke and Laura, and the current emphasis on Sonny Corinthos.  We get some brief mentions of the different families that have appeared on the show (the Hardys, the Quartermaines, the Conrinthos, and the Spencers) and some quick references to some of the locations on the show; but there is very little in-depth look at either the characters or the locations.

 

This show has been on the air continuously for more than 60 years!  While I do realize a full, in-depth look at the show for that length of time could very well take up 600 pages or more, I do think Shanks could have spent some more time on some of the major highlights.  As he indicates in the book (more than one, I might add), the wedding of Luke and Laura was a major network event that garnered more viewers than the royal wedding around that same time!  One would think he would spend some time looking at the relationship of these characters, and how they evolved over the years - from Luke's vicious rape of Laura, to their unconventional love on the run story, to their magnificent wedding, to Luke's loss when Laura disappeared in the fog, to her shocking return (and with it the beginning of the life-long conflict with the Cassadine clan), to their children, their divorce and various other loves (Luke with Tracy and Laura with Kevin).  I mean, for years, "Luke and Laura" truly defined the show!  So, why was their story given only a few pages scattered throughout the book?

 

I have to wonder if the author even watched the show prior to the 2000s (or, possibly, the '90s).  Many of the more lengthy descriptions of stories (such as the text-message killer) are from the more modern era; however, there were plenty of great stories back in the day:  the murder of Diana Taylor; the Prometheus disc / Grant Putnam story (talk about a revelation when viewers found out he was really a Russian spy!); the murder of Phil Brewer; Heather Webber accidentally injecting herself with LSD; even the outrageously crazy Ice Princess story and the Cassadine weather-control device.  These, and so many more, deserved some attention and some details; instead, most do not even get mentioned, and when they do, it is only in one or two sentences before moving on to something else.

 

I do give Shanks credit for giving at least a brief look at the various changes the show has undergone over the years - from one-half hour to one hour in 1976 (I did not realize it had become an hour show only a couple of years before I started watching it!); from medical drama to adventure stories with the hiring of Gloria Monty in 1978; the inclusion of more social issues when head writer Claire Labine came on board in 1993; and even how the show has been filmed (from black and white to color, then to HD, and how those changes affected the way the sets were designed).  Shanks also takes a few pages to look at how the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Writer's Strike affected the show, and how these events affected the way the show was filmed and the stories written.  So, despite the overall "general" information provided for most things, the author does give readers a bit of technical history that can be appreciated.

 

But, other than that, there is absolutely no behind-the-scenes look at the show.  There is no discussion of the actors' interactions with one another and with writers and/or directors; no talk of how the actors dealt with certain stories or were affected by cast changes around them; no look at how long-term actors have grown with the show (such as Leslie Charleston, Genie Francis, Jane Elliott, Mauirce Bernard, Rebecca Herbst, Finola Hughes, or others who have been on the show for 20 years or more!);  no real list of famous actors who got their start on GH, such as John Stamos, Amber Tamblyn, Demi Moore, Mark Hamill, and others); and no mention of the various actors who made a real impact on the show and who have passed on in real life (such as Anna Lee, John Ingle, Peter Hansen, John Reilly, Tyler Christopher, Billy Miller, Susan Brown, Shell Kepler, and the list goes on).  

 

On top of all of this, there are glaring errors in the content of the book.  The book indicates Aurora Media was founded by Drew Cain and Jason Morgan (p. 116) - which is wholly incorrect, as the company was established by Drew Cain and Sam McCall after they acquired it from Derek Wells Media back in 2017.  Jason was never involved.  The book also references the revenge porn story, indicating it took place from 2017- 2018 and it involved Oscar Nero (p. 116). I have no idea where this came from as Oscar was never involved in any revenge porn story, which did not occur until 2022 (four years after his character on the show died!) and involved Joss and Cam, with Esme Prince setting up Trina to take the blame. In addition to that, the book states that Port Charles' newspaper, The Invader was run by Julian Jerome, "and later Martin Grey..." (p. 116).  While The Invadeer has been run by a number of people on the show (Shawn Butler, Valentin Cassadine, Nina Reeves, Adrian DeWitt, and Alexis Davis), Martin Grey was never the head of that paper.

 

With the huge reliance on AI for so much these days, I'm left wondering if this book was not a product of AI.  It is lacking in any real depth, and it glosses over so much that has taken place in the 60-plus years of General Hospital's history, plus it contains some very glaring mistakes, that I find it hard to believe that Shanks put a whole lot of time into researching and writing this book.  With so many rich storylines, so many great characters, and so many years of amazing history to draw upon, this book is a disappointment in its lack of specifics and detail.  Longtime fans of the show will be extremely let down by this book, particularly with the $15.99 hardcover / $8.99 softcover prices (I bought the hardcover).  I would not recommend this book at all, unless you are someone who simply must have ever book out there about General Hospital - in that case, it might be worth it to you.  As for me, this will go on a shelf and likely never looked at again.

 

RATING:  3  hospital corridors echoing with hurried footsteps out of 10 for at the very least mentioning one of my favorite characters, Nelle Benson (although not at all mentioning my other favorite, Sabrina Santiago, even though she was instrumental in bringing the Nurse's Ball back to GH!).

 

 

Love in the Afternoon - the wild novel of a soap opera superstar!

Sometimes you come across some of the best books when you are not really looking for them.  Such is the case with this book.  I was combing through the paperbacks at the Family Bookstore in DeLand, when, as I reached the end of the section, my eyes glanced over the title to this book and had to take a second look.  The slogan "Love in the Afternoon" was used by ABC to market its soap operas for a decade, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s - advertisements with a catchy theme, giving clips of the various soap operas in ABC's line-up - Ryan's Hope, Edge of Night, All My Children, One Life to Life, and General Hospital.  (It should be noted that NBC had used that same slogan to market their soaps in 1974, but gave up on it rather quickly, which is when ABC decided to take the banner for their channel.)  Because of this, the phrase "Love in the Afternoon" pretty much became synonymous with soap operas.  So, when I caught the title to this book, I figured it would have to be about soaps - and sure enough, it was!  Therefore, I shelled out the couple of bucks and bought it.

 

Love in the Afternoon gives two taglines on its cover: "Daytime TV will never be the same!" and "The wild, brilliantly hilarious novel of the on- and off-camera lives and loves of a soap-opera superstar."  Written by Ed Zimmermann, the book was originally published in hardcover in 1971, and the Pocket Books paperback came out two years later - and both came out before either NBC or ABC ever began their ad campaigns using that slogan!  Leads one to wonder if this book may have prompted the use of the phrase by NBC and ABC.  In any event, it turns out Ed Zimmermann, the author, was actually a soap opera actor himself, having played the role of Dr. Joseph Werner (the second actor to play the role) on the CBS soap, Guiding Light from 1967 to 1972.  He was only 39 years old when he died of a heart attack on July 6, 1972 (just a year after this book was first published).  He was also a stage actor, and he was in Ogunquit, Maine auditioning for a part in "Who Killed Santa Claus?" when he died.  He only authored this one book.  A huge Guiding Light fan, on her blog, indicates this book is based upon the behind the scenes experiences of Zimmermann while working on the soap.

 

The book tells the story of actor Steven Prince (which, to me, feels like a cross between Steve Trevor and Diana Prince from the Wonder Woman comics!), who takes a role on a television daytime drama, playing Dr. Harlan Cross on a soap opera that centers around Pinewood Hospital.  After acting on Broadway, making the transition from stage to the small screen is quite an experience for Prince.  For an actor used to months of rehearsals to a show where you get only hours of rehearsals before filming live - one can't even begin to imagine; however, Zimmermann does his best to provide the reader with just how much stress that can cause an actor new to daytime TV.  From being handed the first script, to meeting his co-workers, to learning where everything is in the production building - it is basically like being thrown into the water and being told, "Go ahead, now, and swim!" He even provides a schedule that Prince is given his first day on the set (from page 24):

8:00 - 10:00 - Dry for Blocking (First Rehearsal)

8:00 - 10:00 - Makeuip and Costume

10:00 - 10:30 - No Fax (Blocking on Set with No Cameras)

10:30 - 11:00 - Camera Conference

11:00 -12:00 - Fax 1 (Blocking with Cameras and Boom)

12:00 - 1:00 - Break

1:00 - 1:30 - Fax 2 (Run Through)

1:30 - 2:00 - Break and Film Check

2:00 - 2:30 - Dress

2:30 - 3:00 - Break

3:00 - AIR

I look at that schedule and realize just how tight it really is and how little time the actors have to get it right.  I've heard actors from Dark Shadows talk about how fast-paced daytime television is, and their experiences pretty much line up with what Zimmermann shares here.  It's evident he took his own experiences on the set of Guiding Light and integrated them into this story.  With frazzled nerves, Prince manages to make it through his first day, and as the days turn into weeks, he begins to enjoy playing the villain everyone loves to hate.  And his interaction with the cast is bound to have come from his real-life interactions - some actors who are laid back; others who demand attention; still others who rarely know their lines to those who make everyone else's life a disaster.   There is even the behind the scene attempts to seduce co-stars - thankfully, though, Zimmermann keeps his main character faithful to his real-life wife, for which I was happy to see.

 

One of the interesting tidbits I enjoyed in the book was how fans of Prince's on-screen character, Harlan Cross, could not see to separate the actor from his role.  Even his own mother was questioning his motives on the show, and Prince eventually gives up trying to convince her that he is not the character.  I have heard actors talk about these types of scenarios before (at General Hospital fan fests, several actors have talked about being berated by fans for the actions of their characters, as if they were the actual character), so reading about it in this book was not really much of a surprise. It makes me wonder if Zimmermann faced this same problem with his role on Guiding Light.  

 

Then there is the change in writers, which brings about major changes in the show - and for Prince, this results in his bad-boy doctor being redeemed and turned into a caring man searching for a real relationship, rather than breaking up all those around him.  Prince is not happy about the shift, but since it is his job, he must work with it.  Oh, and I loved the way the production had to accommodate Prince when he accidentally fractures his ankle - so they have to create work-arounds for all of his scenes.  The operating table is lowered so he can film the scene sitting down (but the cameras are angled to make it appear everyone is standing), and a body double is used when "Harlan" has to break down a door and rush into a room.  I can't tell you how many times I've seen actors in soaps with casts or crutches because they have injured themselves in real life, so the writers have to write that injury into the show somehow.  So, again, reading about this scenario feels like par for the course for a soap opera.

 

From what I have been able to gather online, the book apparently has a number of parallels with the Guiding Light, when it comes to characters and situations.  Having never watched that show, I cannot confirm such likenesses; however, I can say that much of what takes place behind the scenes in this story lines up with many stories I have heard from soap opera actors over the years.  I think it great that Zimmermann took his experiences and turned it into a comical story for fans to read.

 

One final observation is the opening paragraph to Chapter Eight.  Zimmermann discusses how soap opera writers have fun with time - "moulding it and stretching it and playing with it as if it were so much silly putty" (p. 156).  An entire season can pass by in just a few days, or weeks can be stretched out into months.  And yet, despite this stretching and contracting of time, all of the holidays still manage to show up at the correct time!  My friends and I have all made this observation about soap operas for years!  Passions, which ran on NBC from 1999 to 2007, was very bad about this.  One day on that show would sometimes last more than a month!  Thus, it was definitely appropriate for Zimmermann to make mention of this in the book, since any real soap fan would recognize this as a reality of daytime television!

 

Interestingly, the copyright page actually gives credit to the cover artist (which so few books from this era ever did!).  Lou Marchetti was well-known for his cover art for paperback books, but he also provided art for movie posters and magazines, such as Galaxy and Reader's Digest.  The cover gives us a scene with Prince and a fellow actress on what appears to be a crimson bedspread, with plenty of cameras and lights surrounding them.  More information can be found about Marchetti at the website run by his daughter, Louise (The Life and Art of Lou Marchetti).

 

While not exactly "brilliantly hilarious" as advertised on the cover, I would say the book does have some laughs and is a pretty good read - especially for anyone who enjoys soap operas!

 

RATING: 8 ankle-crunching slides into home plate out of 10 for a somewhat satirical look into what goes on behind the scenes of your favorite daytime drama! 

Pleasures of Peyton Place - the third Peyton Place novel by Roger Fuller

It was definitely time to take a return trip to Grace Metalious' fictional town of Peyton Place.  After two books written by the creator of the series, and then two books written by Roger Fuller, who continued the stories of the citizens of Peyton Place, it feels like the small New England town has been fleshed out, and the expanding cast in this sequel series creates a true soap opera realm for Fuller to play in.  First, we had Jay and Eileen's tragic story (Again Peyton Place), and then we read about the difficulty the Welles' family faced because of their sinful past (Carnival in Peyton Place).  Now, readers are introduced to yet another family who has moved to Peyton Place - a family with some twisted morals who are about to come face-to-face with the consequences of their actions ... or in one person's case, inaction.

Pleasures of Peyton Place brings famed artist Joe Fiske and his family to the small community.  Fuller takes his time to thoroughly introduce the readers to each member of the Fiske family and give readers some insight as to why each character is the way he or she is.  Gus and Berte are the twins, the youngest children.  The two are opposites, with Berte describing herself as the "Gorilla Girl" (p. 40) because she was tall and had inherited her father's bone structure.  Gus, on the other hands, was "short and slight, with such delicate features, small hands and feet and long lashes..." (p. 41).  Yet, Fuller makes sure to let readers know that Berte is still feminine and attracts boys, while Gus never had anything "swishy" about him (p. 41).  I suppose Fuller did not want any of his readers to think Berte or Gus was anything but heterosexual.  Tom is the first born, a wild child who seems to only act out of rebellion, having been tossed out of one school after another because of the trouble he causes.  Then there's Scotty Fiske, Joe's beautiful wife.  She is the perfect artist's wife, who will do anything to make sure her husband's genius is catered to, even if that is at the cost of her children and her own marriage!  Of course, there's Joe Fiske himself - a self-made man, who rose up from nothing to make a name for himself with art that never fails to sell at unbelievably high prices.  He can do no wrong, so he has no guilt when it comes to sleeping around with women that he meets, believing it is just something that geniuses do.  After all, he justifies, they are just dalliances that never last, and his true love is only for his wife. Until he comes to Peyton Place...

Now, Fuller does not focus solely on the newcomers.  He also introduces readers to Harvey Peddrick, the bank manager at Citizens National Bank.  Harvey is a hardworking man who is dedicated to his job and his wife, Edith.  Edith is his second wife, who he met while on a business trip in Tampa, Florida a few years before.  His first wife had died, and so he and his son, Robert, had been on their own - until that fateful day when Edith joined Harvey on a bench looking out over the beach in Florida.  Although somewhat younger than Harvey, Edith is satisfied with her marriage.  She is not in love with him, but she loves him and loves how he cares for her and gives her a steady, secure life.  There is nothing exciting about their hum-drum existence.  Until the day her car slides into a ditch in front of the Fiske's new home ... and Joe Fiske happens to be on hand, ready to assist ...

It doesn't take a genius to figure out where this story is headed.  Joe, who normally does not paint women, suddenly finds himself inspired by Edith.  Edith is not really interested in posing, but her husband is thrilled at the idea of a famous painter using his wife as a muse.  Thus, the two are thrown together, and as one can expect, they begin a torrid love affair.  The only problem is, they actually fall in love, leaving them in a quandry as to her husband and his wife and family.  Well, circumstances conspire to bring their affair to the light of the citizens of Peyton Place (after all, it is a small town, and everyone talks!), and before you know it, all parties involved must face the truth and figure out what to do about it.  Along the way, Fuller provides side stories involving Berte's attempts to fit in at the high school and Gus's battle for a spot of the school baseball team. We also read about Tom's efforts to bed the local ladies and find a spot that will satisfy his rebellious desires - booze, sex, and drugs.  And find a place, he does, just outside the county line...

This book is definitely more focused on the standard romantic entangles of the characters than the previous two books by Fuller, but there is still some tragedy that strikes.  One of the characters does not make it out alive, and love definitely does not conquer all in this story.  Fuller provides readers with a bit of a moral reckoning for both Joe and Edith by the end of the book, as a gentle reminder to readers that "love" is not always what it seems, and one should be careful about looking outside of marriage for it.  Lust is easily mistaken for love in the heat of the moment, and in this story, Joe and Edith find out the hard way exactly what that costs.

This book was published back in 1968, and back then, many of the mass-market paperback novels came with ad inserts, often for cigarettes, but also for other books or magazines.  In this instance, however, there was an ad insert promoting the "Famous Writers School" out of Westport, Connecticut.  "Do you have writing talent?" the insert asks.  "Find out by taking this Aptitude Test created by 12 famous authors," the ad boastfully promotes.  Supposedly the test was crafted by authors such as Faith Baldwin, Rod Serling, Max Shulman, and others. Readers could fill out the card, detach it, and mail it in for a free aptitude test that they could take without any obligation.  Heck, even the card had pre-paid postage on it.  So what did these readers have to lose?  There is even a small blurb that tells you "Why writing can be a godsend for woman."  Because, apparently, a writing career can provide women with "money, recognition, and freedom to work when and where you choose."  I find it interesting that they focus their blurb on women, presumably because the publisher assumed only women would be reading novels about Peyton Place.  I wonder how many men saw this and were turned off by the fact that ad was geared towards women and not just readers in general.  

In any event, this third Peyton Place novel in the sequel series provides a standard soap opera tale, and Fuller shied away from the explicitness of his previous novels.  Sure, there are some steamy scenes, but they are toned down considerably, and readers only get the opening kisses and the after glow to read about. Even the tragic death of one of the characters occurs completely "off-screen," and the readers, along with the Fiskes and Peddricks find out about it after-the-fact.  And before you get too concerned, some of the regulars of Peyton Place do make appearances in the book - Michael Rossi and his wife, Connie; Dr. Swain; and the good ol' Sheriff, who is always looking to stamp down on those no-good teenagers that are bound to cause trouble at some point.  Oh, and I musn't forget the Coolie Smith, who is Joe Fiske's right-hand man, who takes care of everything for him - his schedule, his family, his house.  In fact, Coolie is the glue that holds the Fiske family together and takes care of all of the problems that arise. 

RATING:  7 damaged blocks and drive shafts out of 10 for showing how the pleasures of this life can ultimately lead to nothing but pain and heartache!

Carnival in Peyton Place - the second Peyton Place novel by Roger Fuller

Okay, it's time to return to that small New England town that has more drama going on within its city limits than every soap opera on TV put together!  This is the second book in author Roger Fuller's continuing stories of the townsfolk of Peyton Place. These stories give readers a chance to see some of the other people in Peyton Place, outside of the main characters from Grace Metalious's original two novels.  As with the first of Fuller's books, there are a few of the original characters who are mentioned or make a quick appearance, but this is not their story.  Also, as with Fuller's first story, this one is not really a sequel to Metalious's books, but rather, a story that runs concurrent with the events from those books.  And so, with this second book, we get a look at a new family who has some secrets of their own...

 

Carnival in Peyton Place is the story of the Welles family.  Unlike the Romeo/Juliet story of the Bramble and Welsh children from the prior book, this story takes a close look at four of the five members of the Welles family.  Lew Welles is the father, driven by a mad desire to be successful and a better man in the community than anyone, including Leslie Harrington.  Kathy Welles is his wife, who lost her arm years prior in a carnival fun house accident (more on that later).  Jim Welles is the only son, who has decided to follow his calling to be a minister.  Dina Welles is the oldest daughter, who has managed for years to keep every boy at bay and never once letting them get to even "first base."  And then there is Roberta, the youngest daughter and youngest of the three children, who, by the end of the story, is the only one in the family not keeping secrets.  It seems this one Labor Day weekend, when the carnival has come to town, all of the Welles' secrets are about to explode...

Let's start with Kathy Welles, shall we?  Formerly Kathy Ellsworth, we last saw her in the original Peyton Place novel by Grace Metalious.  She was friends with Allison MacKenzie, and she suffers a terrible trauma when a fun house accident results in the loss of one of her arms.  Of course, Leslie Harrington manages to win the lawsuit, paying out a miserly $2,500 to the young girl, despite her life being forever changed.  With this book, Fuller goes into considerable more detail as to what led to the incident, including Kathy first pregnancy, her doubts about whether Lew truly loves her, and her post-accident ability to rationalize anything to avoid dealing with the possibility that her own boyfriend may have been the one who pushed her that night at the carnival!  It's easy to sympathize with Kathy, as throughout the story, she proves herself capable of not only taking care of herself (despite having only one arm), but of also taking care of everyone around her.  You begin to realize, though, that she is overcompensating, and that she is not as oblivious to her husband philandering as others might think.

Which leads us to Lew Welles.  Lew is a man on a mission.  Coming from a poor background, Lew proved himself quite the pharmaceutical salesman, quickly working his way up in the company until he made a name for himself.  He fell in love with Kathy Ellsworth, but he did not want to start a family until much later in life - until fate intervenes, and Kathy ends up pregnant at 16, despite their use of protection (which, interestingly enough, is carefully talked around without actually saying it).  After her carnival accident, she loses the baby, but Lew feels guilty, so he marries her over her parents' objections.  Their life seems good at first, but Lew is drafted into the war, and everything changes.  He finds his desire for a "whole" woman leads him to cheat on his wife again and again, even after he returns home and they have children.  His latest affair - with the woman who plays the organ at their church! - may be his undoing, as it is not the secret he thinks it is.

And poor Jim Welles.  He has wondered through high school and college, unsure of what to do with his life.  At odds with his father over his political and social beliefs, Jim eventually believes he has been called to become a minister, and so he settles down and begins studying hard to do God's work.  But even that does not seem to satisfy his father.  On the night before the carnival opens, Jim makes his way down to the carnies, where the pre-opening night shenanigans include gambling, drinking, and some ladies who are more than willing to offer services that would never be permitted during the day!  Jim partakes of the taste of sin, only to stagger home full of regret and shame.  How can he be a minister if he falls prey to a sinful life so easily?  Is he truly called to be a minister, or is this simply another in his long list of failures that he calls a life?  Perhaps a confrontation with his father is what he needs to truly find himself once and for all.

Last, but by far not least, we come to Dina Welles.  A brilliant student at school.  Always courteous and well-mannered, and a symbol of virtue and propriety, never once letting any boy take advantage of her the way they do other girls her age.  In fact, she is called frigid, and the boys find her a challenge, hoping to be the "one" that opens her up (in more ways than one!).  But what none of them knows - in fact, only one person other than she knows - is that she has a horrific reason for being the way she is.  You see, her Uncle George ... the man she looked up to most in the world ... the man she admired and sought to please more than her own father ... the man that took her under his wing and taught her how to fish ... he also is the one that took her virginity by the most vile act a man can commit upon a woman, and that was when she was only fourteen-years old!  She has held that secret for years, and when her Uncle George kills himself (accidentally, the townsfolk believe, but Dina knows otherwise), will she finally be free of this cursed memory that has kept her from finding and experiencing love?

Labor Day arrives, the carnival opens, and all the walls in the Welles household come tumbling down.  While the book starts off at a slow pace, feeding the reader background information on each of the characters piece-meal by switching back and forth between the "present" and the past, it does gradually pick up speed, and by the final act, the story becomes a real page-turner that can't be put down.  Despite their flaws, Fuller creates characters that you come to not only care about, but that you can sympathize with and, to some degree, understand their actions.  That final confrontation between Lew and his son, Jim, is worth the read just by itself.  I honestly thought Fuller was leading in one direction with Jim, and he even hints at it, but perhaps because of the time period this was written, he could not go down that path (the same path I thought Metalious was taking with poor Norman in that first Peyton Place novel). 

I am definitely enjoying this series and how Fuller is building upon the characters and situations that saw little to no time in Metalious' two books.  Now that we've seen the Bramble, Welsh, and Welles families, I am anxious to see what families will face drama in the next book in this series...

RATING:  7 bottles of liver and iron tonic out of 10 for creating fresh drama for the denizens of Peyton Place to face.

Again Peyton Place - the first Peyton Place novel by Roger Fuller

It was just a fictional town.  A small, New England town.  But author Grace Metalious opened up the eyes of the world to what life in a small town could really be like with her first Peyton Place novel back in 1956.  A story filled with murder, suicide, rape, incest, and small town piety that was a shocking tale for its time.  A movie of the same name hit the big screens the very next year, and it surprisingly stayed true to the book.  Two years after that, Metalious returned to that little fictional town to continue the story of Allison MacKenzie and the repercussions of her book about her hometown in Return to Peyton Place.  Somewhat shorter and not quite as shocking, that book was made into a film two years after its publication.  That same year, a completely different version of Peyton Place made its way into homes across America in a nighttime soap opera.  Definitely toned down for the small screen, the characters were the same, but the relationships, backgrounds, and stories had changed.  Then,six years after the second film and the TV show debuted, a new series of books hit the shelves, written by Roger Fuller.

Again Peyton Place is the first book of a series based on the two novels by Metalious.  One might think it would pick up after the ending of Return to Peyton Place; however, this series is not exactly a "sequel." Rather, these books tell the stories of other characters who live in Peyton Place and who, in some instances, interact with the characters from the original books.  This first book tells the story of Jamey ("Jay") Bramble, a rough and tumble young man from Shacktown (the poor part of Peyton Place on the wrong side of the tracks - the part of the city that the good, upstanding citizens of Peyton Place want to pretend does not exist, wherein live people that those caring, Christian citizens of Peyton Place want to keep away from their families) and Eileen Welsh, a somewhat innocent young girl whose family has just moved into the upper class neighborhood of Peyton Place.  Two characters who live two completely different and separate lives, but whose fates are intertwined and whose stories definitely lead to what the back cover of this book calls a "shattering climax" (which, quite frankly, is the appropriate choice of words, considering what goes on in this book!).

To a certain extent, Fuller's story is a take-off of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  A young boy and a young girl who fall in love, but whose families are determined to do anything to keep them apart.  And whose story has a tragic ending.  Jay has not had an easy life growing up in Shacktown.  His father is dead and his mother is a drunk.  His sister is basically a whore, and Jay has learned how to use his sister's "talents" to extort and/or steal money from the men she beds.  Neither he nor his sister have been to school in years, and they have succumbed to the fact that they will have to lie, cheat, and steal just to survive for the rest of their lives. And Jay, being especially large for his age (in literally every way), has found he can make money the same way his sister does. Until Michael Rossi (you remember him?  the new principal at Peyton Place's school, and the new husband for Constance MacKenzie) takes young Jay under his wing and brings him back to school to give him a chance to succeed.

Meanwhile, Eileen is not thrilled to be living in Peyton Place.  She was quite happy with her old home and old school and old friends.  But it doesn't take long fore the beautiful, red-headed Irish girl to make new friends and become the enter of attention at her new school.  So, when Jay Bramble suddenly shows up in her class, things begin to heat up.  Eileen's mother does not want Jay in that school, and she rallies a number of Peyton Place's more prominent citizens to join her crusade to get rid of Jay.  When that doesn't happen, she goes after Mike Rossi for bringing the boy into the school with her daughter.  When that fails, she enlists the help of her husband's boss - Leslie Harrington (you remember him?  the old man who runs the town mill and likes to think he runs the whole town - the same man who owns the property in Shacktown and manages to keep the people there living in filth and poverty).

But, despite the odds, Jay and Eileen end up together, and Eileen brings out a side of Jay that no one else can believe.  A Jay that smiles.  A Jay that tells jokes.  A Jay that is shy and reluctant to even kiss Eileen.  Jay is doing great at football in school.  He is studying hard to improve his grades so he can get into college.  He is working harder than ever at the print shop, so much so that his boss is amazed.  Everything seems to be going his way at last, and Rossi couldn't be prouder to have proved the judgmental townsfolk of Peyton Place wrong.  Until Jay's past comes back to haunt him.  One stupid mistake, and Jay finds himself nearly beaten to death, Eileen nearly raped, and a town vindicated in their animosity towards anyone who comes from Shacktown.  If anyone was expecting a happy ending to this tale, well, they are in for a huge disappointment.

What I liked about this book is that Fuller manages to integrate these new characters into the lives of the already existing characters seamlessly.  And, as indicated above, he does not pick up after the end of Metalious' second book; rather, this story starts before Selina Cross' trial from the original Peyton Place, and spans a number of years - through the trial, through Allison MacKenzie's publication of her first novel, and beyond.  His writing of Michael Rossi and Constance MacKenzie is pretty spot on, with their fun bantering - and he keeps Dr. Matt Swain consistent, as a man who cares not only for the welfare of his patients, but also for the underprivileged kids in the Shacktown community.  Fuller definitely knows how to build the drama and how to write characters that you grow to love or hate, and the fact that I was completely ticked off by what happens to poor Jay at the end of the story is a testament to Fuller's writing ability.

That being said, there are a few things about the book I did not like.  First, I did not like what happened to poor Jay at the end!  (Yes, I know I just said in the preceding paragraph that what happens is a testament to Fuller's writing, but that doesn't mean I was happy about the ending!)  I don't mean that it didn't make for a great story, or even that it was unrealistic - in fact, what happens is probably what would happen in real life.  But I was truly hoping to see a story of full redemption, to see a Shacktown boy rise above his circumstances and show those small-minded people of Peyton Place how wrong they are.  But that didn't happen.  Second, I did not like how graphic Fuller was when it came to the sex scenes (and let me tell you, there are a LOT more sex scenes in this one book than in both of Metalious' novels combined!).   While not fully explicit, Fuller does go beyond subtlety in his descriptions, and there is a lot of this book that focuses on sex - with Jay's brother, with Jay himself, with some of the other characters, and even with Eileen.  Considering this book was published in 1967, I'm rather surprised he was able to get away with as much as he did.  I think a lot of the scenes could have been implied rather than bluntly stated, but perhaps that was the shock value Fuller was intending for his readers.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the story, and I think Fuller did a fine job of keeping to Metaloius' original concept for Peyton Place and is characters.  I'm definitely looking forward to reading the rest of Fuller's books in this series.

RATING:  8 bottles of applejack liquor out of 10 for a saucy, sexy, scathing return to the small-town that has more scandals than anyone can imagine!

Return to Peyton Place - the Sensational Sequel to the Explosive Novel of a New England Town

Three years after the publication of Peyton Place, and two years after it was made into a feature film, author Grace Metalious returned to her fictional New England town and its startling cast of characters and sensational stories in a sequel that was aptly titled Return to Peyton Place.  Metalious picks up the story two years after the ending of the original, and readers were likely shocked to discover that there were still more secrets, more lies, and more controversial stories to be told about Allison MacKenzie, Selena Cross, Betty Anderson, Jennifer Carter, and the rest of the denizens of quiet, little Peyton Place...

Return to Peyton Place picks up with Allison still waiting to see if her first novel, Samuel's Castle, is going to be picked up by a publisher.  Ted Carter is having to break the news to Selena Cross that he has married another woman while at law school.  David Noyes is patiently waiting for his chance with Allison.  Roberta Carter is trying to figure out what is causing the changes in her son's personality.  And the whole town of Peyton Place is settling in for another winter, thinking that all of the horrific events of the past are just that - in the past.  Little do they realize that come Spring, all of that and more are about to resurface in the public eye in the most sensationalized way imaginable, painting the town - and all of its citizens, in the public spotlight and definitely NOT in a good way.  For, you see, Allison's novel finds its publishers - and its publisher will do everything and anything to make sure it is a bestseller, including hiring a marketing man who can turn anything to gold with his magic touch ... including the brilliant idea of sending some preview copies of the books to the citizens of Peyton Place to get their thoughts on the novel written by one of their own...

Metalious does not hold back with this sequel, that's for sure.  While the first book had to be scandalous for its time, dealing with incest, abortions, blackmail, adultery, rape, murder, and just about every other soap opera story that is taken for granted in today's storytelling, this book delves more into the sexual nature of the characters, giving readers more detailed (but not pornographic, thankfully) descriptions of the torrid love affairs of Allison MacKenzie and Selena Cross.  While Allison seems to have found the one lover that satisfies her in every way, poor Selena cannot seem to let go of what happened in the first book, and she can't let herself fall for the one man who would truly be good for her.  And poor Ted Carter.  Not only does he fail to realize his new wife is using him, he is painfully unaware that his mother is listening from the next room, shocked by the lascivious nature of her daughter-in-law and the sinful things she forces her husband to go - and, of course, there's the fact that Jennifer Carter knows that Roberta Carter is in the next room, and so she is purposefully putting on a show just to drive her mother-in-law crazy!

This, of course, is on top of the murder plot as one of the characters maps out a plan to get rid of her perceived nemesis, only to have the tables turned and wind up a victim of her own machinations!  And the blackmailing of a grandfather who only wants to see his dead son's only child - Betty Anderson knows exactly what her son is worth to her father-in-law, and she intends to milk him for every dime she can get!  And poor Michael Rossi - when Samuel's Castle is published, he faces the wrath of the town all because he married Allison's mother, and he loses his job at the school and finds that no one in town, or even in the surrounding towns, will hire him now.  And speaking of Samuel's Castle, what happens when Hollywood buys the rights to turn the book into a film, and Allison is asked to come out as a consultant?  Well, she quickly learns that all of the success she now has may not be worth the price tag that comes with it.

And above all else - what will happen when Constance MacKenzie Rossi learns that her daughter is following in her footsteps and has dived right into a relationship with a married man?

I'm a little disappointed that we don't get more of Norman Page in this sequel.  I really liked his character in the first book, and while we do get a small taste of him in the first part, the remaining three parts of the book are completely devoid of Norman and his mother.  

There are a couple of items that caught my eye while reading.  One is the name of a character who was an ex-husband of an actress Allison meets while in Hollywood.  She says his name is "John Gresham" (p. 192), and it immediately made me think of John Grisham, who has authored so many legal-related thrillers in the last decade or two.  Obviously, this book was written well before he became an author, but the similarity did make me smile.  The other thing was a speech given by Doc Matthew Swain at a school board meeting where the board has voted to fire Michael Rossi.  The words he had to say are truly prophetic:

We've joined the rest of the country with a vengeance.  We're setting back the clocks and imitating the witch hunters who are a shame on the pages of our history.  We who prided ourselves above all else on our individualism are now demanding that everyone conform.  Be like us, think like us - or into exile you go.  (p. 115).

It is uncanny just how much our country is doing exactly this today.  It seems we need Doc Swain to take the microphone and speak out to the citizens of our country today!

I watched the Peyton Place film after reading the first book, and now that I've finished the sequel, I'm going to sit down and watch the film version of Return to Peyton Place, which hit the big screens in 1961, two years after the book was published.  I'm aware that this movie has an entirely different cast, so I'll be curious to see how that works and whether the film mirrors the book as much as the first film did for the original novel.

Sadly, Metalious wrote no more stories about the characters in this little New England town, so I suppose the only chance I'll have to see more of Allison, Constance, Mike, Selena, and the rest of the gang will be to hunt down the box sets of the television version of Peyton Place and see what stories they hold...

RATING:  7 glasses of champagne out of 10 for reminding readers that even the smallest of towns can hide some pretty dark and horrific secrets!

Short Lived Comic Series #26 - Soap Opera Romances (Charlton Comics)

While Charlton's other "Soap Opera" title only lasted three issues, this other "Soap Opera" comic book actually made it to give issues before it was cancelled.  And just as Soap Opera Love was a reprint title, so is Soap Opera Romances.  While Soap Opera Love reprinted stories from Charlton's earlier Just Married title, Soap Opera Romances reprinted tales of Nurse Betsy Crane, who had her own title some years prior.  Soap Opera Romances was actually the earlier of the two Soap titles, as it began its run in 1982, with its first issue boasting a July 1982 cover date.  It ran bi-monthly for five issues, ending with the March 1983 issue, which was just one month after Soap Opera Love premiered in February 1983.  Confused yet?  Well, it's obvious the comic world was not really open to romance titles in the early '80s, but I have to give Charlton kudos for least giving it a try.

 

Soap Opera Romances was headlined by Nurse Betsy Crane, a career nurse who seemed to have considerable difficulty when it came to romance.  Nurse Crane first appeared back in 1961 in My Teen Diary #11, and apparently was so popular, the next issue of that title was re-named Nurse Betsy Crane!  That book continued under her name from issue 12 all the way through issue 27 before it was cancelled in 1964.  She made a few appearances after that and then disappeared into comic book limbo until nearly 20 years later when Charlton tried to revive her stories and character with this book.

Because these are stories reprinted from the 1960s, they sadly do not provide the credits for writers and artists.  Some online searches revealed that Charles Nicholas provided pencils for some of the stories, and comic greats Dick Giordano and Vince Colletta provided some of the inking.  As far as the writing goes, that's a mystery.  Which is a shame, because the stories are not really all that bad (well, let me re-phrase that - the Nurse Betsy Crane stories are not that bad - some of the short stores and one-page tales are a bit over-the-top and cliche).  Yes, the stories feature standard romance comics fare, and they are fairly simple and straight-forward; but it's their simplicity that makes them enjoyable.

"Once in a great while ... there appears on the screen of life ... a person so exceptional ... so captivating ... so exciting ... that you can never forget her ... this is ...  NURSE BETSY CRANE"  This cover blurb on the first issue was obviously meant to draw readers in, advertising the main character of this series as an exciting, captivating person who could not possibly be forgotten.  And, perhaps, that is how the powers-that-be at Charlton felt, since this was a character that previously had her own series two decades prior.  Obviously someone at Charlton still remembered her, and with these reprints, hoped that they could bring the character back to life - or, simply cash on by reprinting old stories and not having to pay for new stories and art.  Whatever the reason, it obviously didn't work, as the cancellation after only five issues proves.

The first issue featured a 20-page lead story titled "Scratch of Death."  As many of the comic stories did back in the '60s, it opens with a splash page of danger - in this case, Nurse Diane Malvern bringing her boyfriend to Nurse Betsy Crane, holding him up as he seems about to collapse!  The next page flashes back to give readers the story leading up to that moment - an effective storytelling technique of capturing the readers' attention before providing the backstory that may not be as exciting as that moment.  In this case, we learn the story of how Diane met widower Jeff Wilson and his young daughter - and we see how Jeff gradually turns rude and downright mean, even to Diane, which seems quite out of character.  Of course, Nurse Crane is the one who realizes what is going on - Jeff has hydrophobia, which Diane recognizes as a symptom of rabies!  Nurse Betsy Crane saves the day, and Jeff and Diane walk into the sunset to live happily ever after.  This first issue also features a three-page promotion for nursing as a career, describing in text and pictures just how wonderful a career in nursing is for a woman (which goes to show just how outdated this reprint was, since by the1980s, men was entering the nursing career as well!).  The issue closes out with a one-page story titled "Lady in Distress," the art and story for which are so "totally" '60s, it makes the story comical.

Issue two features two, ten-page Nurse Crane stories:  "Rebound" and "Fight for Sight."  The first story finds Betsy falling for a doctor who is heartbroken when the woman he loves marries another.  Doctor and Nurse take off for Mussar for a tour of duty to help the natives in that far country, where he begins to fall for Betsy and even asks her to marry him! But Betsy is the one heartbroken when the doctor learns his former love's husband has died, and she is free to return to him.  "It's not easy to give up someone you love," Betsy thinks at the end of the tale, "but I have my life to live .. and now I must find a new love!"  The second tale finds Betsy working hard to help a nurse who only wants perfection in a man to see just how fortunate she is to have the love of a man who may be losing his eyesight - if only she could overcome her desire for perfection!  The stories are both very cliche, but definitely fit for the soap opera theme of the comic.  In this issue, we also get a three-page story about a married couple's first fight, as well as a one-page tale titled "destination Paradise" - which was actually rather cute, as it seems a bit stereotypical in the first couple of panels as a man and woman meet on a cruise ship and fall in love at first sight - but as the final panel reveals - it's a re-enactment of the couple's first meeting that they continue to celebrate every year.  I think in this one page there is more "romance" than any other story in the series!

The third issue definitely has my favorite cover (and probably my favorite story from this series).  With this issue, we return to the longer lead-in story, with Nurse Betsy Crane starring in a 20-page tale called "The Dark Closet."  The cover hearkens back to the old Gothic tales, with the shadowy figure coming in on Betsy, as she tries to help a man who is clearly troubled.  Even the cover blurb - "What was the secret of the Old Lange Mansion?  What terror lay hidden in The Dark Closet?" - is reminiscent of the Gothic comics of the past.  The story features Betsy heading up to the Lange mansion on a stormy night, alongside a young doctor (none of these stories have the same supporting cast - there are always different doctors and nurses with whom Betsy works), to provide medical attention to Mrs. Lange.  I found this melodrama at the beginning rather humorous, as the woman was merely having an asthma attack - and as one with asthma, I know what an attack can feel like, but I've never had one so severe that I needed a doctor and his nurse to come out to my house!  (Of course, the revelation about Mrs. Lange's illness at the end of the story explains the overly dramatic nature of Mrs. Lange.)  Nurse Betsy Crane remains at the house in case Mrs. Lange needs further help, and she quickly realizes something odd is going on between the woman and her son.  She eventually discovers that Mrs. Lange is faking all of these illnesses to keep her son at home and away from a woman he loves and wants to marry.  Betsy, as usual, opens everyone's eyes to the situation, and the son finally has the opportunity to chase after the love of his life.  The three-page tale in this issue is a bit weird - a flirtatious woman flirts with the wrong man; but even after he punches her boyfriend, she still walks off with him - and when she reunites with her boyfriend, instead of dumping her, he merely asks her to flirt with men his size so he has a fair chance to beat them up!  Definitely not a lesson you would want to teach young people about dating!  Even the one-page story is bizarre - "Happy Birthday" sees a women kissing the birthday boy - and when the date she came with tries to intervene, she brushes him off and returns to kissing the birthday boy!  Not sure what these writers were thinking, but the morals of these characters are definitely lacking!

Issue four has a rather interesting cover - instead of a single scene, it actually utilizes three panels from the story, dialogue and all!  Now, granted, it is a rather dramatic scene, with Nurse Betsy Crane and a military man trying to fight their way through a dangerous flooded area to rescue a man (lifted straight from page 15 of the story) - but it leaves me wondering if perhaps Charlton simply didn't have a cover for this issue in time for publication, so simply used the inside panels as a quick way of getting the issue out.  "Medals are for Heroes" is the 20 page story this time around, wherein Betsy and two other nurses head off to Harpersville to help out at an emergency center set up for the flood victims in the area.  Betsy, though, finds the problem is not with the victims or even the flood - rather, it is with Corporal Kalin, who spends more time distracting the nurses than anything else.  When she gets stuck with Corporal Kalin on a trip into town to help a young girl and search for her grandfather, Betsy learns there is more to Kalin than she first thought - and she ultimately helps him overcome a fear that has been causing him to act so recklessly.  This issue does not have the standard three-page and one-page tales; rather, it closes out with a four-page story titled "The End of Love."  With a title like that, one would expect a rather depressing tale (which it seems to be in the first three pages); however, the conclusion gives readers a great reminder that an ending of one story may only just be the beginning of a brand new one...

The fifth and final issue of this short-lived series has a story that is probably the closest to a soap opera storyline of any in this series.  "Memories of the Past" finds Nurse Betsy Crane acting uncharacteristically - because when she comes face-to-face with Dr. Gil Roberts, a man from her past, she doesn't know how to react!  Dr. Roberts is brought into the hospital where Betsy works with a life-threatening condition, and when Besty see him, her memories of him are triggered - and readers are treated to flashbacks of their whirlwind romance and how that relationship ended when they each had to chase after the careers of their dreams.  Now, with Dr. Roberts back in her life, Betsy isn't sure what to do.  The one thing she can do (and does!) is locate donors with his rare blood type so that he can undergo surgery to save his life.  Once he recovers, Betsy talks with him, and they both come to realize that despite their past love, they have both grown up and moved on, and that they both found happiness in their careers - which is a good thing for that hospital, because as the head nurse thinks in that last panel, "I don't know what I'd do without that girl..."  We see a return of the three-page and one-page back-up tales in this issue - the three-pager is nothing spectacular, with a girl from the States falling for a Londoner, who reveals in the end he is heading for the States and they can have a relationship there.  It's the one-pager, "Never Again," that features a great little moral - don't be too quick to judge someone's actions, because it might not be what you suspect!  

And with that, Charlton's first (second?) soap opera title reaches its conclusion.  At least this title, unlike Soap Opera Love, featured one-off tales and did not have an ongoing tale that was left unfinished (well, technically not unfinished, since I could go back and find the original comics from which those stories were taken and read the rest of the stories).  Nurse Betsy Crane kind of reminds me of Cherry Ames, a children's series (1943-68), which featured a nurse that job-hopped from one nursing position to another.  I'm not sure about the original Nurse Betsy Crane comics, but based on these few stories, it seems Betsy follows in that same tradition.  

It's a shame these titles didn't take off.  I can only guess that Soap Opera Love and Soap Opera Romance where an attempt to cash-in on the popularity of soap operas in the early to mid '80s (what with General Hospital, Santa Barbara, All My Children, and the others).  I'm not sure how many soap opera fans were actually reading comics in those days, and with all the super hero comics hitting the shelves at that time, as well as the rise of independent publishers and direct-market comics, these two titles really didn't stand much of a chance.  I would love to find out who authored these stories, just to see if we could get any insight as to whether the writer was just churning out stories for a paycheck, or if he (or she!) was writing stories he actually enjoyed writing.  I guess at this point (more than half a century later!) we will never know.

RATING:  7 infected scratches out of 10 for at least attempting to revive the romance genre in a time when superheroes had cornered the market!