See Eileen Fulton in Pennsylvania

PRESS RELEASE

Legendary soap star, cabaret singer and raconteur, Eileen Fulton, will appear at Bob Egan’s – New Hope Cabaret, at the Ramada of New Hope, PA on Sunday afternoon, April 17th at 3:00 PM, in a new show, Blame It On My Youth.

Directed by Diana Basmajian, with Bob Goldstone as Music Director and Tom Hubbard on Bass, Fulton will delight audiences when she adds her signature flair to such classic standards as "Fever," "Blue Moon" and "Stormy Weather," among others. She will also perform a special rendition of "Blame It On My Youth," the famous jazz standard written by Oscar Levant and Edward Heyman.

Fulton will also share memorable stories of growing up as a preacher’s daughter in North Carolina; becoming the vixen of daytime television; her time spent in Hollywood and all of her loves and let go’s — the men who got away — and the men who she survived to tell about.

Most recognized for her role as Lisa Grimaldi on the popular CBS soap As the World Turns, Fulton is also an established recording artist and cabaret performer as well as author of multiple books. She has also performed on stage in such Broadway productions as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf as well as many off-Broadway productions such as The Fantasticks. She has been the recipient of many prestigious awards such as the Lifetime Achievement Award by the TV Academy and was also inducted into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame.

The show has a $25 music charge with a $15 food and drink minimum. The Ramada of New Hope is located at 6426 Lower York Road. (Route 202) New Hope, PA 18938. For reservations or to purchase tickets please call: 215-862-5221 or visit: www.BobEgansnewhope.com

Interview (ATWT): Eileen Fulton Remembers Helen Wagner

The soap world lost an icon on Saturday, May 1. Helen Wagner (pictured, left) — who originated the role of Nancy Hughes on “As the World Turns” in 1956, and even spoke the venerable soap’s first lines — passed away at the age of 91. Her last on-screen appearance was in April for the remarriage of Bob and Kim, as well as the much-lauded return of Julianne Moore to her old stomping grounds in Oakdale.

I caught up recently with Eileen Fulton (pictured, below), who has played Lisa on “ATWT” since 1960, and was a lifelong friend and cast mate of Helen Wagner. Eileen, like many of us, was shellshocked when she heard the news that Helen had passed: “I am just reeling from it.

“I was shocked when I heard the news. She was just on the show a few weeks ago, looking so good and being so sharp and with it.”

Back in the early days of the show, Helen and Eileen shared a dressing room. “Needless to say, it was close quarters. But we liked each other a lot. I had the greatest respect for her. I have never seen anyone in my life who, as the years went on, got more beautiful. She was just amazing to me. I would just stare at her, because her hair was so gorgeous, and just her way was so beautiful. And I have to say, without exception, she had the greatest legs in daytime television.”

Much like her alter ego, Helen had a nurturing air about her. Eileen tells me: “I learned a lot about cooking from her. We used to share recipes. She had a great stew recipe. We shared so much. To see her bring her handwork to the studio — her needlepoint — was so wonderful. She did needlepoint for all of the chairs in her dining room; she did that in character as Nancy.

“The things she did in real life, she put to work in the show. Like her cooking — when fans would send her aprons, she would wear them on the show.”

Eileen laughs to remember a little-known fact about Helen: “She and her husband, Bob, were big football fans. She would get into the biggest arguments with Don McLaughlin and Don Hastings and the other men on the show, and they would have these rip-roaring arguments about what players should do what, and so on. She could certainly stand up to anybody; she knew football.”

What Eileen will remember most about Helen is what fans also loved about her, and about Nancy as well. “I’ll remember her smile, her hair, her kindness to people — and she was really sharp. That was Helen. She was always supportive of people on the show. She was always gracious.”

While Eileen found it hard to encapsulate 50 years of friendship, she is grateful for all the memories she’ll take away. “I’ve had some wonderful scenes with Helen. I think one of the best scenes we had together was when poor Eduardo was killed and Lisa was moping about; she came over and brought a mop and some stuff to clean the blood off the floor. ‘You have to get on with it,’ was her attitude. That was Helen as well. Get over it.”

It will be a while before fans get over the death of “ATWT’s” matriarch, and it will be even tougher for the cast mates she has left behind. “My one regret is that she didn’t hang on a little bit longer to wrap the show up (when it ends in September). That’s the thing that keeps haunting me. As you know, she spoke the first words on ‘ATWT.’ We were all hoping she’d have the last words, too.”

Interview Outtakes, Part 6

Most of the time when I am conducting an interview with a soap star, I have more interview material than space for printing the interview. Here are some blurbs from stars that did not make it to the print version of the interview, but were too good not to publish.

Sharon Case (pictured, Sharon Newman, “The Young and the Restless”): “Right now, whenever I do a scene with Nick, I am aware that the love of my life is standing next to me. We might not be together, but they still have a lot of scenes together, and they share a son together. For me, every time I am in the room with Nick, it is a love scene between Nick and Sharon. We can’t be in the same room together and it not be about love. Even if we are fighting, it is about love. It is always there. I don’t think it is really over; it is just being played continuously in another form.”

Dominic Zaprogna (Dante Falconeri, “General Hospital”): When I read (the script with the scene of Dante falling asleep before he and Lulu could finally make love), I was like: ‘No, he doesn’t fall asleep! Come on! I’ve heard of that happening before, but I didn’t think I was gonna be the one!’ However, that is the same night he leaves the hospital, and I think he’s pretty drugged up. I mean, come on, he could have a heart attack. But I think it could be worth it at this point.”


JoBeth Williams (ex-Brandy Shelloe, “Guiding Light”): “For a long time, I was a workaholic. I felt very uncomfortable if I wasn’t working. Having kids really changed my perspective, as I think it does for many people, particularly women. My husband, who is a director, and I knew that we really didn’t want to be away from our sons. You just have to make choices, and they are choices that are often hard to make. There could be work that you wanted to take, but you can’t because your spouse is away working. Once you have a family, your perspective changes on how to balance work and life.”

Eileen Fulton (Lisa Grimaldi, “As the World Turns”): “I have so many stories I could tell you from the early days of filming the show. I remember we moved to Grand Central Station for our studio at one point. There was an office building there, and we had our studio there. We came on at 1:30, and at 1:35, all the dishes in Nancy’s cabinet started to rattle. There was a train coming into the station that had a square wheel or something, and it went ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom.

“Oakdale is supposed to be out in mid-America, near Chicago. It always varied how near Chicago was: Sometimes it took an overnight train to get there, and sometimes someone could drive it in the half-hour the show was on. At one point, our studio was over on 57th Street near the Hudson River, and the Queen Elizabeth would come in with its horn blaring, unmistakably, and here we are supposedly in the middle of America with big ships coming to port.

“Oh, and I caught the set on fire one time – it was Cherries Jubilee. We had to start timing this thing in the morning. I had to serve this flaming Cherries Jubilee to all of the Hughes men. I had to look around and say: ‘I see we’ve all finished. Shall we go to the garden?’ In rehearsal, we went over and over it, timing all of our bites, so that we were finished eating when my line came. So we kept pouring more and more brandy into the dessert; we were looped by the time we went on the air. Grandpa Hughes ate a flaming spoonful of fire.”

Soap Stars on The Dr. Oz Show

(Dr. Oz, Eileen Fulton, Alison Sweeney and Walt Willey; Photo Credit: ZoCo Productions, LLC/ Jeffrey Neira)

Soap stars invade The Dr. Oz Show today! Check your local listings for time and station.  (See clip below.)

Interview ATWT: Eileen Fulton and the Infamous "Granny Clause," Pt. 2

In her 50 years of playing Lisa Grimaldi on As the World Turns, you can bet Eileen Fulton has seen pretty much everything. From on-air accidents to offset death threats, Eileen has been through it all. But in true Lisa fashion, Eileen, like her alter ego, is a survivor.

Daytime Dial: Doing the show live every day, there must have been some mishaps you had to try to work around.
Eileen Fulton: I remember some horrible things that happened live on the air. Penny and Chris were having a very serious conversation in the kitchen, and Don MacLaughlin went over and opened the refrigerator, and everything fell out. But you were timed down to the second, so you had to keep on. He had cut himself, and Rosemary Prinz was taking care of his hand, wrapping it up in a dishtowel, picking up the stuff, and they still got it all timed. I thought that was amazing.

DD: I know you caught a lot of flak for instilling the “Granny Clause” in your contract. Any regrets about that?
EF: Absolutely none whatsoever. I thought it was clever. That was about 1974. I had gone on vacation, and when I came back, they had grown Tom up, and he was marrying Carol. I said, “I will not be a grandmother.” I was on the phone with Irna Phillips, and she said: “Oh yes you will. This is what happens.” I said: “No, I will not. I am in the middle of a big love affair with Michael Shea. If that happens, you’ll have to kill me off.” And she says, “Well, you have to.” And I said, “Well, I haven’t signed my contract.” They had a fit, but they finally wrote in the clause. Therefore, Carol became sterile — sterile Carol.


And it really did save my career. I remember that Claire, played by Barbara Berjer, was married to the man Lisa was having the affair with. A guardian angel must have been on my shoulder that day we were taping and told me, “Go into the control room.” One of the directors was saying how Claire, who had grandchildren, was about to become a great-grandmother, because one of her grandchildren was going to be a parent. He said: “We can’t have Barbara being a great-grandmother; she’s too young. We’ll have to kill her.” And they hit her with a truck.


It did cause me trouble later on when Tom, played by Greg Marx, married Margo, played by Hillary B. Smith, and Greg wanted to go back to the West Coast. They were like, we’ve just gotten Tom married — he can’t go. And they didn’t know how to handle it. How can they break up Tom and Margo? Back then, they didn’t replace actors so quickly, like they do now. They had Margo get pregnant and lose the baby. She decided to go on duty (as a police officer), and she had a miscarriage. People blamed me — that was ’85 or ’86. I had such horrible, threatening mail. They called me a baby-killer. I had to have a bodyguard.

DD: What was your reaction when your good friend Colleen Zenk Pinter was diagnosed with oral cancer a few years back?
EF: I was devastated, absolutely devastated. She is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known — how she’s handled it, how she’s made it public to warn other people. I think she’s a terrific mom, and to hold down a career — words cannot express my admiration for her.

DD: How would you like to see the show go out when it wraps up in September?
EF: I think they should really wrap up the characters that people most care about, in a good way. I also think it should be done in a glamorous, fun way. I think they’ll do the best they can. Lisa needs to get with one other person, at least. She should marry a nobleman, and then she could be Lady Lisa. She needs a title! I personally want to ride out of town on a golden coach drawn by gorgeous horses.

DD: What are your plans for after the show ends? Will you do your nightclub acts, maybe write another memoir?
EF: I am already doing a big nightclub act in New York at Don’t Tell Mama’s on April 16, 17 and 18 — that’s when our last fan-club luncheon is going to be. I am going to do a tribute to “ATWT” in this show. 

The last memoir I did was in 1990, so I guess I need to do another one. I’ve been thinking about that; in fact, I’ve been encouraged by people to do it. That is definitely something to think about.

Interview (ATWT): Eileen Fulton Celebrates a Half-Century as Lisa, Part 1

Eileen Fulton is the original Diva of Daytime. As Lisa Grimaldi on As the World Turns, she has navigated uncharted territories and forged pathways for actresses who came after her — and she did it all on her terms. I spoke with Eileen recently about the time she spent on this venerable soap — 50 years in May, to be exact.

Daytime Dial: Did you have any idea when you first started on ATWT back in 1960 that you’d be celebrating your 50th anniversary with the show?

Eileen Fulton: Never! Not in a million years. I remember I screamed and hollered and yelled when they wanted me to sign a seven-year contract. I said: “Are you crazy? I’m not going to be here in seven years!” I wouldn’t sign it. They had to get it lower, but I don’t remember what I finally decided on.

DD: How has the soap-opera genre changed and evolved since you began all those years ago?

EF: Pardon the pun, but it was a world of difference. First of all, we were live and we were a half-hour show, and it was in black-and-white. We read the script in the afternoon, rehearsed, fought for our cuts and changes and blocked it. And the next morning, we came in and had a dress rehearsal, got our final notes and went on live. It was like doing a play every day. Sometimes there would only be four of us on the show that day; those were tough days. The stage managers would be offstage just in your peripheral vision, telling you to speed up or to stretch, and I would tell them, don’t do that to me, because I totally forget where I am. We made a deal, they’d do all that to Don Hastings, because he could handle that and I could not. I couldn’t even use a teleprompter; it takes you out of it.

DD: How are you and Lisa similar?

EF: Lisa is extraordinarily impulsive, like Eileen. That’s about the only thing we have in common.

DD: Lisa is THE prototype of the daytime diva, which now every show imitates. How does it feel to be such a trendsetter?

EF: I am very proud of that. I really am. It’s just terrific. The thing that really surprised me is people would come up to me and say, “I named my daughter for you.” I’d think: “How could you name your daughter after my character? She’s such a bitch.” They’d say, “Lisa is a survivor.”

DD: What are some stories from the early days of filming, while you were all finding your footing in this new way of telling stories?

EF: My first day on the set, I was supposed to meet Bob at the sweets shop for a milkshake. Being that I am a Method actress, I was supposed to enjoy it and tell him so. The prop guys were freaking out, because I actually drank it. What it was was shaving cream to really make it stand up tall and look really pretty. But I had to say how delicious it was. That really took some acting!

But the thing that really interested me was how they did it, how they got the effects they were after. For example, I loved it when we had snow, but you just didn’t stand too close to the window, because it would come right through the window, because we didn’t have window panes. The same for the rain; if you got too close, you’d get soaking wet. So later on, they finally put windowpanes in.

Stay tuned next week when Eileen talks about catching flak for instilling the infamous “Granny Clause,” as well as how she’s like to see the show end.