She was the youngest of ten children born to Betty and William Phillips, German Jews who emigrated to Chicago in the late years of the nineteenth century. Her father died when Irna was eight years old leaving her to seek solace in reading and fantasy. She began to form an idea of becoming an actress whlle in the Chicago Public School System, and went on to the University of Illinois where she was told by a drama teacher that she did not have the looks to be an actress. Disappointed, Irna taught drama for one year at a college in Fulton, Missouri, after which she taught at a normal school in Dayton, Ohio.
The First Soap Opera
Irna went to WGN, a radio station in Chicago in 1930, where she was requested to write and perform in a family drama. Her effort, "Painted Dreams," was on for ten minutes each day and the story revolved around the widowed ' Mother Monahan," who was quite possibly fashioned after her own mother. In 1932 she left WGN to go to the National Broadcasting Network with a new serial "Today's Children." When she discontinued the show in 1938 it had become the most popular daytime show on radio.
New Soap Operas
In 1937 Irna Phillips had already premiered two more 'soaps' featuring a minister and a doctor...a formula that would be followed for years on daytime radio and TV. They were "The Guiding Light" and "The Road of Life," the former woven around the life of Rev.John Rutledge and the latter featuring Dr.Jim Brent. The Guiding Light is still a favorite with daytime TV audiences seventy years later
Daytime Shows by Irna Phillips
Among her many successes are the following:
- "Woman in White" 1938
- "The Right to Happiness" 1939
- "Lonely Women" 1942, which became "Today's Children" in 1943
- "The Brighter Day" 1948
At her peak Irna was earning $250,000 and had six associate writers for dialogue.
Her personal life was not so successful. She had been involved in several unhappy love affairs and was left stranded by one man because she couldn't have children. At the age of forty-two she adopted Thomas Kirk Phillips and some months later adopted Katherine Louise Phillips.
Irna Phillips, along with Frank and Anne Hummert and Elaine Carrington, were the creators of soap opera, and after Irna died of a heart attack in Chicago in 1973, the others carried on. But Irna Phillips was the pioneering voice of daytime serials and she will be remembered as such.
Source
Notable American Women: The Modern Period Barbara Sucherman and Carol Hurd Green The Belkknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980
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