27 Facts About Irna Phillips

Irna Phillips was an American scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent, and actress who pioneered a style of daytime soap opera in the United States geared specifically toward women.

Irna Phillips was a mentor to several other pioneers of the American daytime soap opera, including Agnes Nixon, William J Bell and Ted Corday.

Irna Phillips was one of 10 children born to a German-Jewish family in Chicago.

Irna Phillips's father died when she was 8, leaving her mother alone to raise the children.

Irna Phillips claimed to be a lonely child always given hand-me-down clothes and making up long and involved stories for her dolls to live out.

Irna Phillips wanted to be an actress, but her teachers told her she was too plain to have any real success.

At the age of 42, Irna Phillips adopted a son, Thomas Dirk Irna Phillips.

Irna Phillips wrote every episode of the series in addition being a starring cast member as the characters Mother Moynihan and Sue Morton.

Irna Phillips based Mother Moynihan's struggles on her own mother's obstacles.

The radio business during the 1930s was heavily male-dominated, and as result, it was claimed the audience for Irna Phillips' serials were childlike, unrealistic, vulgar, and distasteful.

Irna Phillips' characters were not something of the ordinary for the stereotypical 1930s women.

In 1932, Irna Phillips urged WGN to sell Painted Dreams to a national network.

However, Irna Phillips was hired to write as well as perform in this first series.

Irna Phillips had then learned to retain all rights and ownership to her newly titled show and the many that followed during her career.

That year, when Irna Phillips's mother died, she demanded that Today's Children be discontinued out of respect.

In 1937, Irna Phillips collaborated with Emmons Carlson on her third radio serial, The Guiding Light, basing it on personal experiences; after giving birth to a stillborn child at age 19, she found spiritual comfort listening to sermons by a preacher of a church centered on the brotherhood of man.

In 1938, Irna Phillips supervised the creation of the tie-in book, The Guiding Light, published by The Guiding Light Co.

In 1949, Irna Phillips created the first serial broadcast on a major television network, These Are My Children, which ran on NBC for one month.

Irna Phillips fired veteran actor John Beal from Another World after only one episode, and actress Fran Sharon after two weeks.

In 1965, Irna Phillips was a story editor for Days of Our Lives and was a story consultant on Peyton Place before co-creating Our Private World, the first primetime series to be spun off from a daytime serial.

Irna Phillips was the unofficial story editor for A World Apart, an ABC soap opera that was created by her daughter, Katherine.

Irna Phillips introduced a number of characters to the show and integrated them with the core Hughes family.

Bob was married to Kim's sister Jennifer, but Irna Phillips had Kim seduce Bob.

Irna Phillips was a fiercely independent entrepreneur who retained ownership rights to all her series, producing through Carl Wester and Company and allowing agencies, sponsors, and networks little control over her soap opera empire.

Irna Phillips created radio and TV soap operas including:.

Irna Phillips was a creative consultant on Peyton Place, and was an unofficial consultant on A World Apart, which was created by her adopted daughter Katherine.

Irna Phillips died in Chicago on December 23,1973, aged 72, from undisclosed causes.