It’s a hot, sweaty job–sitting in the baking sun at an amusement park with four daytime hunks–but someone’s got to do it. And as hostess of 200 such events each year, Joyce Becker is the woman for the job.
“I’m the Jewish mother to daytime stars. They all need one,” declares Becker, who has been promoting celebrity tours for 19 years with her husband Allan Sugarman.
Besides her official duties–booking appearances and sherpherding her charges to malls and state fairs–Becker finds herself lending a sympathetic ear to her clients.
“Walt Willey called me when his wife was delivering a baby. Kim Zimmer had her husband call me from the birthing room,” she exclaims. “When Jane Elliot’s house was ravaged by the earthquake, she came to our house. Susan Lucci lit a candle at my daughter’s bat mitzvah. I love to go outlet shopping with Don Diamont.”
On Saturday Becker and Sugarman come to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee with four of ABC’s hottest heart throbs in tow: Winsor Harmon (Del) and Keith Hamilton Cobb (Noah) from “All My Children,” “General Hospital’s” Steve Burton (A.J.) and Christopher Douglas (Dylan) of “One Life To Live.”
This is not a Rolling Stones-style tour. “The stars make no demands. We don’t have pages of rider (with special requests) on our contracts. We don’t do Perrier,” says Becker. “We’re grateful if we get a Coca-Cola. Our most recent perk was in Hershey, Penn., where we each received one Hersehey bar, one Mr. Goodbar, one Crackle.”
Despite the no-frills treatment, soap celebrities are eager to play along when they get a call from Becker. “No one’s ever turned us down,” she says, and that includes Deidre Hall, Eileen Fulton, Drake Hogestyn and Ian Buchanan.
Money, of course, is one major reason soap stars are willing to spend their weekends at small town malls, stores and nightclubs. “It’s extra spending money,” explains Becker. “An actress who likes to collect Oriental rugs uses the money to buy a rug. Others put it aside for college for the kids.”
For the people who watch these characters daily and believe they know them intimately, the experience of shaking hands with their favorite stars is nearly extra-terrestrial, says Becker.
In fact, it was a comment from an Arkansas farmer’s wife that inspired Becker, then a reporter, and Sugarman, a photographer, to start Soap Opera Festivals. “This woman, who’d won a trip to the set of a soap opera show, told me `The soap operas are my window to the world. I can go home and die happy. I finally got to meet my family.’ “
“She said, `My friends would pay you to come to their small towns with soap stars,”‘ Becker recalls. “I thought, pay us? Pay us to do what?” At the time, personal appearances by soap actors was taboo.
“Legend has it that Irna Phillips did not want her actors to go out and be seen out of character. We opened up the fourth wall,” says Sugarman.
Routinely, the line between celebrity and character is often blurred. In the case of Ruth Warrick (the meddling Phoebe) or Eileen Fulton (the conniving Lisa), fans will offer, “Listen, I know this is you. But you’re still a bitch!”
Becker recalls the mall in Dallas, “When this lady went to kiss Nick Benedict, did I know she was going to go into labor?” And this on a trip to Madison: “A psychiatrist called us to confirm whether we were bringing Deidre Hall to town. His patient, a woman with agoraphobia, had not strayed more than a few blocks from home for 12 years but said she would leave her house to meet Dr. Evans.”
And soap actors, especially veteran performers, enjoy greeting their public. “We don’t use wet noodles,” says Sugarman. “We will go to the studio and meet the actors and speak to them at length. We tell them, this is not art. If you can’t give your all, it’ll break the hearts of the fans.”
– Riding off into the sunset is “All My Children’s” Sarah Michelle Gellar. Two weeks after winning her Emmy award as outstanding younger actress, 17-year-old Gellar decided not to renew her contract. Also heeding the exit sign is castmate Winsor Harmon. Neither role will be re-cast and the actors’ last airdate is July 3, when their characters will decide to leave Pine Valley together to find a bungalow in Florida.
– Gina Tognoni, Kelly “One Life To Live” will co-host “ABC’s Independence Day Concert” with David Hasselhoff.
