The Significance Of Disney’s Super Soap Weekend

Perched on the back of a 1940s convertible, she grandly waves to her excited fans lined along both sides of Hollywood Boulevard.  Glamorously costumed, perfectly coifed, she epitomizes the movie divas of the 1930s and ‘40s.  This woman, however, is Susan Lucci, the actress who for thirty years has played Erika Kane on American Broadcasting Company’s long running soap opera All My Children.  She rides down Disney-MGM’s reconstructed version of Hollywood Boulevard not with the current popular hunk, but with Mickey Mouse by her side. The parade marks the fourth annual Super Soap Weekend—a weekend that includes crowded autograph signings with two hour waits, concerts showcasing the musical talents of daytime’s actors and actresses, and talk and quiz shows involving those stars.¹  

In 1989, the Disney Company expanded its Orlando area to include a new water park, a downtown nightclub attraction, and a new theme park—Disney-MGM Studios.  The park’s creation was one of many expensive ventures by Disney Chairman Michael Eisner and then CEO Frank Wells (Zibart 51). A little over six years later, Eisner made another substantial investment by purchasing Capital Cities/ABC in August 1995.  With the studio’s purchase, Disney acquired all programs produced within the studios, particularly the ABC soap operas  (Zibart 55).  The linking of the Disney corporation with ABC has allowed a shrinking soap opera market to increase profits through a growing number of revenue opportunities (Tolkoff). Only a year after the purchase of ABC, in 1996, Disney planned the first Super Soap Weekend to be held the same year on October 19 and 20.  Electronic Media described the event as “good, clean fun” (“First-ever” 5), and while it may be fun, Super Soap Weekend costs fans thirty dollars a ticket and often includes the price of a stay at one of the Disney hotels.

The event not only attracts an audience to the park, but also provides soap fans an opportunity to interact with each other and their favorite stars while splurging on soap merchandise.  Booths carry Erica Kane dolls and LaLucci perfume.  The usual MGM merchandise is taken off the carts, and Super Soap t-shirts, soap books, and cups take their place. Fans can even purchase clothing and accessories worn by the characters on their favorite soaps.  This year, the network has carried the profit motive further. By checking out ABC.com, fans can purchase copies of jewelry or costumes worn by favorite characters during particular scenes.

Disney is not alone in gaining profits. The stars have also benefited.  The LaLucci perfume is actually part of a business venture that Susan Lucci herself markets, along with a new line of purses and shoes.  Another popular actress, One Life to Live’s Catherine Hickland  (conniving Lindsey Rappaport), has begun a line of cosmetics.²  The stars are also finding a lucrative market in mall appearances which Phil Dixson, a soap-opera producer in New York, sees ambivalently since these appearances provide extra income, but may take time away from the actors’ or actresses’ work time  (qtd. in Humphries).

The placement of Super Soap Weekend at Disney-MGM Park is eerily analogous to MGM’s studio system during the Depression.  Gorham Kinden reports in Hollywood’s Movie Star System that morals clauses were typical in the 1930s and ’40s contracts, as were requirements for a number of appearances (84).  Louis Mayer’s power is illustrated by stories in the Biography Resource Center reporting that Judy Garland was pressured to take diet pills, while Gene Autry’s contract required a regular radio broadcast that limited his ability to accept movie roles outside of Mayer’s studio (“Louis B. Mayer”).   Mayer threatened to report Clark Gable’s affair with Joan Crawford when Gable asked for a raise; on the other hand, when a drunk Gable killed a pedestrian, Mayer reportedly was able to have a minor MGM executive take the fall  (“Louis B. Mayer”).

A recent event in the soap opera world highlights the similarities between the old studio system and today’s soaps.  When Michael Nadar ( Dimitri on All My Children) was written out of the show, fans rallied around—even staging a one-day “no soap” strike. Excuses were given that Nadar’s storylines had dissolved, but fans would not take this reason as logical, citing other male characters whose main roles were in a stale phase. Web pages were designed to bring back Nadar, and at Super Soap various fans created their own Dimitri shirts, instead of wearing the Disney t-shirts.  The network rehired him, but when Nadar was recently arrested for possession and sale of cocaine, he was fired for breaking his morals clause. This time, fans have not rallied behind their star; instead, his exit is accepted as having a reasonable cause (see note 2).

As we saw the similarities between the Super Soap Weekend stars and Mayer’s treatment of the MGM stars of the 1930s and ’40s, we hypothesized that just as  MGM used the power of contract players to increase revenue, Disney Corporation, through its acquisition and control of ABC, is using the appeal and glamour of soap opera stars to generate further revenue which begins with the thirty dollars needed to walk through the gates.  The stars’ appeal is evident in every aspect of the popular weekend.  First, to get an autograph from Susan Lucci—the obvious grande dame—fans must sign up at the beginning of the day. Workers have issued colored wristbands in former years to indicate fans who are eligible to receive Lucci’s signature. We arrived at 9:00 a.m. on November 3, 2001, and were already too late for an autograph session.  LaLucci (as Regis Philben has tagged her) is by far one of the favorite stars, having indoor private autograph sessions and a separate breakfast with fans.

Getting autographs from other popular stars can also be difficult. Canny fans download the stars’ autograph signing locations, and, when the gates open, many people head straight for the areas where they know their favorite stars will be stationed.  They often start lining up for the next star’s session before the present session is over—for hunks Josh Duhamel and Cameron Mathison the lines can be complete before the stars start signing.  Thus, some fans wait over two hours in line for those precious five seconds and a hug.

While in lines, fans enjoy their time by talking with each other.  Fleeting friendships are formed, usually by one common interest—avid preoccupation with a particular soap star. Lines continue to grow, but they move slowly depending on the actor;  some stars such as General Hospital’s ex-Carly Corinthos, Sarah Brown, took so long signing individual autographs that word spread quickly that waits would be well over two hours and then only half the usual number of people were lucky enough to get autographs.  Other stars sign more quickly, providing quick autographs in order to accommodate more fans. The soap stars also often go out of their way to entertain the people in line.  Cameron Mathison, All My Children’s Ryan Lavary, has been known to rip off his shirt to give the crowd a quick thrill. Other, usually more seasoned, stars will sometimes refuse to leave the autograph station when their allotted time is up. Because of such high interest in his signature, All My Children’s star Michael E. Knight has been known to ignore orders to leave the area and, instead, will sit and sign for an additional two hours.

Other programs sometimes offer an entertaining, while more distant, look at the soap stars and allow the crowd to see their favorite actors and actresses for longer periods of time.  Soap Veteran Walt Wiley has hosted the “Soap Opera Quiz Show” for the past few years. Ascending a Beauty and the Beast stage that has been transformed into a mock Wheel of Fortune set, soap opera stars from each show are paired with fans to compete against each other. The audience sits in one of three sections designated for their favorite soap to offer support for their favorite daytime drama. The winners are those fans and actors who know the most not only about the present, but also the past history of their soap.  While the thrill of winning is real, the chance to watch the actors out of character is the big attraction. Actors might mock the scripts or characterization, and their faults and sense of humor become apparent. When the patriarchal, controlling character of Edward Quatermaine was portrayed in a “guess who I am” question, the actor John Ingle could not identify his own character. His jovial laughter and easy-going attitude toward the mistake allowed General Hospital fans to see the man behind the part.

Another popular event at Super Soaps Weekend is the “Celebrity Talk Show.”  Each session involves several actors or actresses from a particular soap.  In the Super Soap Weekend  2000 show,  we sat in on an interview of several young stars from General Hospital. Catherine  Hickland (from One Life To Live) asked the stars questions about themselves and about their characters. Within the interviews, stars seemed to reflect their own thoughts and behaviors. Actor Jacob Young, General Hospital’s new Lucky Spencer, rode his skateboard across the stage.  Members of the audience also had a chance to ask questions, and one lucky member of the audience got to play a scene with one of the actors!

While a bystander might at first think this a silly event, fans of these soap stars can be every bit as serious as Frank Sinatra’s, Clark Gable’s or Judy Garland’s fans of the past. Note the mall appearances where a thousand fans will show up to see their favorite star.  As Brian Humphries suggests, the appearances, as well as the stars’ other business enterprises help them “close the yawning gap [monetary] with their prime-time cousins.”  As Morris Holbrook, a business professor at Columbia University, states, “The soap stars are like modern day patent-medicine salesmen” (qtd. in Humphries).  This suggests the soaps’ similarity to the MGM  productions that were often seen by critics as “formulaic pap,” producing escapist musicals and melodramas and making poor use of the stars in their system (“Louis B. Mayer”).

While today’s movie stars tend to distance themselves from the public, hiring bodyguards and attending posh events, many of the soap stars seem to enjoy the attention of their fans. The weekend is network sponsored and evidently required of the stars, but most of them seem to welcome the attention. Kassie DePaiva, from One Life to Live, says she gets to “demonstrate her vocal prowess” by singing in the Saturday night concert which features the singing talents of many stars and says that she “relishes the fan feedback” (Eldredge).  Jacklyn Zeman, Bobbie Spencer on General Hospital, says that she and her husband, Glenn, bring along their two daughters and make the trip a family vacation (Eldredge).  When John Ingle signed autographs last year, he shared with fans his enthusiasm and amazement at the event by remarking at the number of people out to meet him and his colleagues.  He freely discussed with his fans how he enjoys playing the nasty character, but assured us that he had to remember to “leave Edward at the Studio” or be in trouble with his wife at home.

Just as some of the studio stars such as John Wayne and Cary Grant seemed to have thrived in the studio system of the 1930s and ‘40s, many soap stars today seem to enjoy the security of the contract (many sign three and five year contracts)—Susan Lucci has now played Erica Kane for thirty years and Jacklyn Zeman has played Bobbie Spencer on General Hospital for twenty-three years (ABC.com). Stars such as Genie Francis and Anthony Geary from General Hospital receive stipulations for summer vacations to work on other projects or spend time with family, requiring writers to develop reasons for the actors’ departures for perhaps a month while major storylines are in the works.  These seasoned actors, though, have developed reputations for their characters that remain embedded in fans’ memories and keep them interested in discovering the recent plots.

While sometimes ridiculous and perhaps too sappy to take seriously, soap operas still persist in drawing audiences on a regular basis. Their fantasy world of romance, action, and—yes, sometimes—chaos, creates a daily outlet to escape from reality. Long storylines allow viewers to miss days on end but still keep up with the basic plot. Soap characters can even become a little too close to home—leading some fans to develop passionate concerns over character portrayal and contracts; Disney acknowledges this strong connection between soap viewers and stars. In fact, the company feeds off of it. Just as Louis B. Mayer knew the importance of keeping his studio stars under contract and tied to the studio, Disney has tightened the strings on its actors with the creation of Super Soap Weekend. The company provides an outlet for the actors to receive exposure, but the company further strengthens the personal connection between actor and fan. When they tune in the week after Super Soaps, fans who have met their favorite stars are even more enthusiastic. Fans who remain passionate about the actors can sometimes prevent the  release of actors from a show, providing welcome security for actors in poor storylines. If Nadar had not violated his morals clause, he would perhaps be in the arms of Susan Lucci today.

Through ABC’s Super Soap Weekend, fans become further committed to their favorite shows; Disney takes the profits from tickets, food, and merchandise; and the company increases its chances of strengthening ratings. In a clever circle, Disney has glamorized and capitalized on its stars. But ratings and business aside, these soap actors and actresses have become part of the new era of adored stars, who shine at the Chinese Theater where they sing and dance, entertaining the crowd and perhaps exercising their egos.  Contract or no contract requirement, Super Soap Weekend is not just business but an opportunity that allows fans and stars to reenact the glamour from another era.

Susan Slavicz

Florida Community College at Jacksonville

Melissa Slavicz

Florida Southern College

Notes

¹ The examples cited from Super Soap Weekend experiences come from  attendance at three of these weekends in the fall of 1999, 2000, and 2001 by the  authors of this essay.

 ² Information concerning “gossip” of soap opera actors and actresses stems from  the preoccupation with soaps shared by both authors.

Works Cited

ABC.com.  9 Sept. 2001 <www.abc.com>.

Eldredge, Richard L.  “Orlando Serves Up Extra Dish of Soap Opera Stars.”  Special Florida Section. The Atlanta Journal Constitution  24 Sept.  2000: k12.  Custom Newspapers.  23 September 2001 <http://ccla.lib.fl.us/ firstsearch>.

“First-ever Super Soap Weekend is Good, Clean Fun.”  Electronic Media  18 Nov. 1996: 5.

Humphries, Brian.  “Soap and Selling: At Retail Stores, Daytime TV Stars Lather Up Sales.”  Christian Science Monitor  25 Jul. 1996: 8.  Academic  Search Elite.  9 Sept. 2001 <http://ccla.lib.fl.us.firstsearch>.

Kindem, Gorham, ed. The American Movie Industry: The Business of Motion Pictures. Carbondale:  Southern Illinois U P, 1982.

“Louis B. Mayer.”  Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement .  Biography  Resource Center.  23 Sept. 2001 <http://ccla.lib.fl.us/firstsearch>.

Tolkoff, Esther.  “Working in Daytime Drama: Don’t Be Kept in the Dark.”  Back Stage   1 Jun. 2001: 24.  EBSCOhost.  2 Jul. 2001 <http://ccla.lib

Zibart, Eve.  Inside Disney: The Incredible Story of Walt Disney and the Man Behind the Mouse.  New York: IDG Books Worldwide, 2000.