Small Town Soap Stars

 

A new installment that was quite a treat to research. The '400', Lee Score, Soap Operas, John F. Kennedy, Durango Colorado and the First National Bank! Connect the dots and Menomonie's touch with television history in my latest installment. Special thanks to Kris Score Dorobiala for pointing me to this obscure historical reference and the ragged trail it led me on.

John David Haggart:

Soap Operas are a form of entertainment born out of the promising chance to ‘touch’ the dramatic and exciting lives outside the black and white world we had created. It was the theater without having to leave the home. Soap Operas made the drudgery of daily housework wash away like a Speed Queen on steroids. Before you realized it, the mundane house chores of the day were finished, and the radio crackled the emptiness of another episode gone by.

The nighttime radio shows mostly featured adventure and comedy shows geared toward family audiences with something for each member of the family to grasp onto. The young adventurer, the future wife, the working husband in need of tender care after the workday was done. The reinforcement of the caricature of the day. The “Soaps” as they became to be known, focused in on the female mind and the day-to-day tasks of the housewife. The women stuck inside the home daily performing the mundane but necessary tasks needed to raise a family and keep a house. Dusting, cleaning, laundry, meals, all to be followed with the cleaning, the laundry, the meals, and dishes.

The family gathered around the warming glow of the radio while Mom finished the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Daytime was different, Mom was alone with the voices on the other side of the airwaves, ready to be transported away to the fantastic world of the writer who could reach her heart and fantasy. One of the earliest writers with that talent was John David Haggart, born in 1906, Durango, Colorado. John started out early in his career acting on Broadway in New York where he fine-tuned his writing skills authoring several plays.

During the 1930’s and 40’s, John Haggart wrote several theatrical plays before he slipped into the radio market. His credits include, ‘Mackerel Skies’ 1934, ‘Reno’ 1937, ‘Salt of the Earth’ 1944, ‘Three Rivers’ 1955 and ‘The Whistling Swan’ 1961. His broadcasting niche was in creating and writing soap operas, most notably, one titled, ‘The Brighter Day’ (Falling Leaves) which was introduced on radio in 1948. The television show ran for 8 years in total and on radio from 1948 until it moved to television in 1954, running its final episode in 1962. In 1947, John Haggart worked for the Dumont Television Network writing a daytime drama titled ‘A Woman to Remember’. That gem bumped along for about two years with its last episodes running two months in 1949.

While John wrote the script with his partners on ‘The Brighter Day’, he began writing another daytime drama ‘Family Doctor’ which was to debut on NBC in 1950 but was cancelled. Doctor based soaps were to later become some of the longest running and most watched soaps on television. The success of ‘The Brighter Day’ carried John through most of his career in soaps. The script was unique in that it carried a ‘soap within a soap’ story line. The concept allowed him the latitude to add some fantasy of his own to the production. That ‘twist’ carried John through most of his career in writing and surprisingly, it all started in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

John David Haggart was born the third child of John and Nettie (Jackson) Haggart. The young western town of Durango was growing and certain to be a hub of commerce for the western slopes of Colorado. His father was a noted physician from Canada and John David’s two older siblings followed suit. Dr. Gilbert Edmund Haggart, the eldest child, attended Harvard Medical school in 1919. Gilbert examined John Fitzgerald Kennedy early on and diagnosed his back injuries. Gilbert remained on the east coast with an illustrious career and died in 1970. Dr. William Waugh Haggart, the second child, earned his medical doctorate at Sanford University in 1922 and served with a noted career in Denver Colorado until his death in 1955.

John D. Haggart chose another path and being the youngest child, was more likely to be under the care and attention of his mother. Lounette (Nettie) E. Jackson was born in Illinois 1868 and met John Haggart in Durango where they were married in 1893. In 1916, the Haggart family had visitors from Menomonie, Wisconsin. In 1906, Frank C. Jackson moved to Menomonie from Superior, Wisconsin after taking a position as Cashier of the First National Bank. Ten years later, his wife and her sister took a trip west for an extended visit with Mr. Jackson’s niece, Nettie Haggart. In 1918, Nettie and son John reciprocated, traveling to Menomonie, for a few months visit. This would be John’s first taste of the interesting town and the sights around Menomonie which apparently made a lasting impression.

‘The Brighter Day’ was originally set in the fictitious town of Three Rivers then moved to Columbus (a college town) following a flood and finally to New Hope, (Menomonie) Wisconsin. John co-wrote with three other noted authors, Irna Phillips, Orin Torrov and Doris Frankel and John wrote nearly the entire life of the program. For the curious out there, it was sponsored by Procter and Gamble (Dreft and Cheer). As noted earlier, the unique character of the soap opera, ‘The Brighter Day’ being a soap within a soap allowed John Haggart to experiment with varying characters and introduce sub plots that his fertile mind developed during his early years. One of these from his travels and stay in Menomonie as a young boy of twelve.

In the Dunn County News, Feb 15, 1956, an article by Dr. Thomas Fleming (Stout) tells of his adventure with Lee Score escorting the noted soap opera writer, John Haggart around the area. The trip started in Menomonie when Mr. Haggart arrived on the ‘400’ and was picked up by Lee Score. After spending a few days touring and meeting Menomonie folk, the expedition moved to Eau Claire looking for ‘low dives’ (as fodder for the soap of course), then on to the airport for Haggart’s departure. Dr. Fleming accompanied them and suddenly remembered a dentist appointment in Menomonie! After a hasty farewell, he and Lee Score sped pell mell to Menomonie. Arriving precisely on time, Dr. Fleming dashed in, announced his arrival only to be told he was a week early.

From the newspaper, I can confirm at least a couple of trips that John Haggart made to Menomonie after contacting Lee Score of the Chamber of Commerce. John Haggart was able to revisit a town that had obviously made an impression on him at age twelve. On his trip back to those memories, he met Lee Score, a tireless, proud, and devoted promoter of our community. That was all John Haggart needed to confirm that he had dreamed a reality. Several locals were featured on the soap, characters; Dorothy Score (Mrs. Lee Score), Axel Bark (Axel Bark) and Max Canfield (loosely patterned after the Dunn County News Editor). Mr. Haggart also roomed at the Menomin Motel which was run by Mr. Ed Phalen and so met another of Menomonie’s finest.

Mr. John David Haggart maintained a relationship with Lee Score and to that, I will leave it for his daughters to remark. They have memories I hope to have helped give some foundation to. Good memories grow with increased knowledge about those who touched our lives. Seldom have I found such a prominent family as the Haggart family with so little told of their lives. Humble and brilliant minds, people who made differences in so many lives and yet so quietly lay aside in history. There is more to the story, there is fringe and snippets, collections in brief notes here and there, but I leave those to be found by curious minds. John Haggart died in Los Angeles, California August 2nd, 1981.

Thank you, Kris Score Dorobiala, for introducing me to, and inciting my search. I hope you found it as enjoyable as did I. With that, I will close with the opening words to the Soap Opera written by John David Haggart:

“Our years are as the falling leaves. We live, we love, we dream, and then we go on. But somehow, we keep hoping that our dreams come true on that Brighter Day.”