Phillips, As Ever, Still In Lather Over SoapsBy Margaret McManus
Toledo Blade
July 5, 1970
NEW YORK - They never give up. Extraordinarily successful women, in whatever their endeavors, hang in there until the day they die. Under the skin, they're all old actresses, or generals, tough and resilient.
Irna Phillips is at it again, or Irna Phillips is at it, however you look. You may not know who the lady is but for the past 40 years she has been a powerful "guiding light," focused behind the scenes, directed on the lives of millions of American women. Irna Phillips invented the soap opera on radio, and took it successfully into television.
She started the whole business with the first radio network serial, Today's Children, and brought it up to date with the first half-hour serial created for television, As the World Turns, on CBS-TV. She even began the use or organ music in the fabric of the program.
ABC-TV recently hired Miss Phillips and her daughter, Katherine, 24, as their big guns in a war to woo the women who have been so contented whiling away their daytime hours over at CBS-TV and NBC-TV. However, first they had to woo Miss Phillips, who was quite contented herself over at CBS, with the show she originated 14 years ago, still one of daytime's highest rated serials.