"Valiant Journey" & Romantic Misadventure
_________________________ 

HILARY (as Daphne): "Oh Philip, Philip, Philip don't tell me anything.
Just. . . just. . . "

Daphne Danvers of "Valiant Journey" seems to be more representative
of radio-soap heroines than Elizabeth Marlowe -- she's single.  And if
she *is* typical of her kind, her walk with Professor Phillip might lead
her back to the lodge -- but never to the altar.

In fact, married couples on radio soaps seemed to be far outnumbered
by, in Thurber's words, "the young women, single, widowed, or divorced,
whose purpose in life seems to be to avoid marriage by straight-arming
their suitors year after year on one pretext or another."  Probably the
grand champion was the title character of "The Romance of Helen Trent" 
(CBS, 1933-60), of whom Dunning wrote:

"No fewer than 28 serious suitors pursued her, to no avail.  Something
inevitably happened -- she jilted them, they jilted her, one died of a
heart attack just before the wedding; some came in deceit and were
later unmasked; some were murdered; one plowed his airplane into a
cliff.  She was mesmerized by a unscrupulous hypnotist, charmed by
a homicidal physician; she was shot, poisoned, jailed for murder, and
pushed toward her death at the edge of a cliff.  She remained a marvel
of exquisite womanhood...as 'Life' noted, she always enjoyed perfect
health of mind and body 'except when recovering from murder attempts.'"
(Dunning, p. 585).

A valiant journey, indeed.
 

Comments or corrections? Please write to mikewats@aol.com

PRINCIPAL SOURCES 
John Dunning, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (1998)
James Thurber, "Soapland," reprinted in The Beast in Me and Other
   Animals (1949)
 

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