Bess McAllister Flynn (August 1886 - February 28, 1976) was an American actress and a writer of radio soap operas.
Early years
editBorn Bess McAllister in Iowa in August 1886, Flynn was the daughter of a schoolmaster and a teacher. She began teaching in a country school when she was 16, but she resigned three years later to become a member of a traveling stock theater troupe.[1]
Acting
editFlynn acted in stock theater in Canada[2] and in the midwestern United States before she began working on radio.[3] Her husband was also a stock actor, and when they began having children, they left the theater and operated a printing business. The depression ended that income.[4] In 1931 she took her son to Chicago to audition for a radio program.[3] The audition was delayed because of the lack of a woman to read some lines in the script, so Flynn volunteered to do that. She and her son left with roles on the show,[5] with Flynn portraying Tilda on The Gumps.[6] Flynn also portrayed Mother Moynihan on Painted Dreams.[7] Other radio programs on which she acted included Princess Pat Players.[8]
Writing
editFlynn's acting on radio kindled her interest in writing. As she read her lines, she decided to try writing scripts, and in 1935 she began doing so.[1] When a dispute about sponsorship caused Irna Phillips to stop writing Painted Dreams, Flynn became one of the show's new writers.[9] In 1940 she left acting entirely so that she could spend more time writing.[1]
By May 1941, Flynn was producing about 30,000 words weekly as she wrote for 10 radio programs.[3] Programs that she wrote included We Love and Learn, Life Begins (later retitled Martha Webster),[9] Bachelor's Children and We Are Four.[10] She was an advisor for the soap opera We, the Abbotts.[9]
Flynn said that the quality of a writer's work increased with practice: "You must write, and write, and write, every day until gradually your style is improved and your thoughts along with it and suddenly you, will have 'succeeded', for it is an unquestioned fact that improvement and success are the direct result of practice."[2]
Flynn dictated scripts to a secretary, seldom remaining still while she talked. A 1940 newspaper article said:
She acts out the parts, weeps, moans, laughs, cries, harangues, shouts. Dictation makes her restless. Suddenly she will stop to play with her dog or water a plant, or she'll pick up a book, thumb through it then suddenly throw it down to emphasize a speech. Clasping her hands in dejection during a sad scene, she'll abruptiy sit down and start a game of solitaire, still dictating.[11]
After Flynn moved to New York, her new neighbors were concerned about what they considered to be unusual activity in her apartment. When the building superintendent asked her about that activity, she replied, "Tell them that I'm just a radio writer in the pangs of creation and I may need help any minute."[11] At one point a sprained ankle failed to diminish her physical activity while writing. She "hobbled across the floor on crutches" as she dictated.[1]
Flynn said that criticism leveled at soap operas "could have been avoided if certain sponsors and agencies — not all of them by any means — had not underestimated the tastes of their listeners."[12] She said, "Some [soap operas], not many, have good writing and are first-class popular entertainment",[12] She added that many novels had literary quality while they appealed to the masses, noting that a similar situation could exist for serial dramas on radio. To do so, she said, "intelligent fans" would need to "write letters demanding better soap operas."[12] That effort would lead sponsors and agencies to "forget their silly taboos".[12]
Flynn was part of "a vigorous new school of near-realists" in soap opera, a description that encompassed directors, writers, and producers who valued intimacy and sincerity more than thrills in the shows on which they worked.[13] Flynn said that, as she had plots in mind "for the next two years or more", she considered the characters in her shows to be real and avoided getting them involved in devices such as court trials, kidnappings, and murders.[13]
Like other radio writers, Flynn based some content of her scripts on her real-life experiences and her acquaintances. She based Dr. Robert Graham (the leading man in Bachelor's Children) on Dr. Robert Black, her children's pediatrician in Chicago.[14] She occasionally consulted Black when segments of scripts related to medical topics.[15]
Personal life and death
editShe married actor Edward Flynn in Chicago.[1] They had three children, all of whom acted on radio.[16] She died on February 28, 1976.[17]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Senser, Bob (August 22, 1941). "Housewives Stop Activity When Flynns Go on Radio". The Catholic Advance. Kansas, Wichita. p. 8. Retrieved June 19, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Club Members Find Mother Moynihan Is Woman of Rare Force and -Charm". The Dispatch. Illinois, Moline. November 15, 1937. p. 8. Retrieved June 13, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "Testing the Ethereal Theatre: Columbia University Ends First Study of Air 'Script' Drama -- Finds It Playing 'Tremendous Role' in Listeners' Lives". The New York Times. May 18, 1941. p. X 10. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
- ^ Kerr, Adelaide (February 21, 1942). "Busy Besses Cleanup (sic) With Soap Operas". The Wilmington Morning Star. Wide World Features. p. 7. Retrieved June 17, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "All-American Boy Returns to Air". Sioux City Journal. August 30, 1942. p. 26. Retrieved June 17, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Painted Dreams back on W-G-N, MBS tomorrow". Chicago Sunday Tribune. March 24, 1935. p. Part 3 - 6. Retrieved June 13, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "New character is introduced in Painted Dreams". Chicago Tribune. October 22, 1933. p. 38. Retrieved June 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Radio Programs". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. May 13, 1934. p. 45. Retrieved June 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Ellett, Ryan (December 15, 2017). Radio Drama and Comedy Writers, 1928-1962. McFarland. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-4766-6593-1. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
- ^ "2 new serials by Bess Flynn open tomorrow". Chicago Sunday Tribune. September 8, 1935. p. Part 3 - 4. Retrieved June 13, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Script Author Enacts Story While Writing". Harrisburg Telegraph. April 14, 1940. p. 18. Retrieved June 16, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d Gross, Ben (December 16, 1946). "Listening In". Daily News. New York, New York City. p. 3. Retrieved June 17, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Lee, Henry (November 8, 1940). "Soap Opera". The Pittsburgh Press. p. 29. Retrieved June 17, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Radio Writers Use Families, Friends As Models". The Knoxville Journal. October 10, 1943. p. 30. Retrieved June 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Wolters, Larry (July 3, 1938). "Radio writers tell how they choose names". Chicago Tribune. p. Part 3 - page 4. Retrieved June 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Bess Flynn's young son rises to her defense gallantly". Chicago Tribune. October 22, 1933. p. 38. Retrieved June 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Flynn". Chicago Tribune. March 2, 1976. p. 22. Retrieved June 19, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.