oh,laura!

[michael c]

today's slideshow features the premier of one of my favorite characters and the start of a storyline that's an all time favorite as well.

the minute laura collins walked into the coffee shop(in a hat and gloves no less!)i was hooked.even before the whole pheonix thing started i found diana millay's attitude and delivery to be so langorous and weird i was fascinated.

i always remember i watched it during the winter and curling up under a blanket when it was cold and dark outside and just being mesmerized by this strange woman and storyline.i enjoyed the 1966 episodes alot but this is when things really got cooking for me.it's beyond catty!

love it!

[Sandor]

Laura was a great character. Is it true that Diana Millay was already pregnant when she began her first stint on DS in '66-67? If so, Ohrbach's (and the directors) did a decent job in camouflaging it. Still, she shouldn't have been smoking that cigarette in that diner scene: good for a Phoenix, bad for an expectant mama.

[Lydia]

Did anybody ever worry about smoking while pregnant back then?

[Gerard]

Pregnant mammas also drank back then, too.  No one ever, it seems, gave any of it a thought.

Gerard

[loril54]

I don't think that people really started think about it till the late 60's. This was after
the Surgine General report.

[Midnite]

The first Surgeon General's report on smoking was in 1964.  By 1966, a warning had already appeared on the side of cigarette packs (Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health) for a year, though it wasn't until the 80s that SG's warning labels specifically addressed the dangers of smoking during pregnancy.

[markyboo]

If you watch that brilliant AMC series, MAD MEN, which is set in the early '60's, you'll realize that it seemed just about everyone used to smoke everywhere back in the '60's. In fact, I was a wee one in the '60's, & I always thought it was odd that my mother didn't smoke (or drink coffee) like all the other adults. On MAD MEN, one of the characters went to visit the doctor & both doctor & patient lit up! And a pregnant character was also smoking. It was indeed accepted in those days to be expecting & smoking!

[Lydia]

I was watching some of the Laura episodes this morning and wondering: How would have the series have developed if Laura had caught on with the audience in as big a way as Barnabas later did?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

today's slideshow features the premier of one of my favorite characters and the start of a storyline that's an all time favorite as well.

And here's the two captures from that slideshow of Laura's momentous first moments:

1966: Ep #123 - A mystery woman enters the coffeeshop, and...

1966: Ep #123 - ...Maggie learns that the woman is 'sort of' back for a visit.

I love Diana Millay on DS. She's unlike any other actress to appear on the show. And her comic timing is impeccable. 

Did anybody ever worry about smoking while pregnant back then?

Pregnant mammas also drank back then, too.  No one ever, it seems, gave any of it a thought.

It's a wonder the people born in that and the two or three previous generations were born as healthy as they were. 

How would have the series have developed if Laura had caught on with the audience in as big a way as Barnabas later did?

Many fans have wondered the same with regard to Quentin had he been introduced before Barnabas...

[Gothick]

Thanks for those snapshots, MB.

Laura fiercely RULES the Collinsport Diner with her chic ensemble ... and that hat!

G.

[MagnusTrask]

I've never seen those images before.   She looks very uncomfortable in that suit, in the first picture, looking as you might look if you were a supernatural creature (not of her time? I haven't seen 1966) and someone just slapped a suit on you in an attempt to have you blend in.

Anyone with tapes of pre-Barnabas stories (or 1969 and the first 20% of 1897), who is getting DVDs, I'd like to ask you not to throw the tapes away, but to let me make a deal with you for them, instead.   

[Gerard]

Pregnant mammas also drank back then, too.  No one ever, it seems, gave any of it a thought.

It's a wonder the people born in that and the two or three previous generations were born as healthy as they were. 

One of my favorite quotes from Roseanne was when her mother stated how she drank wine while she was pregnant.  Roseanne's sister was incredulous, to which Rosanne quipped (paraphrased here):  "Relax, Jackie.  After a few months inside mom, we probably needed a few belts."

Gerard

[Gothick]

Actually, Magnus, Diana's movements as Laura in that scene are really fascinating to watch.  She is very poised and elegant... yet quietly sinister.  Millay obviously had "turn on a dime" acting chops back in the day... she's really very compelling to watch, and her characterization in the original Laura storyline is much more layered and nuanced than in the 1897 version (of which I am still very fond, I hasten to add--since many say it is one of their least favorite parts of 1897).

G.

[MagnusTrask]

Gerard-- I remember from my tapes of the tail end of Laura's period of 1897 that she had an amazing, cold, inhuman presence, as if she were living in some very different other world even as she was also standing there in 1897.

[michael c]

one of the main differences between 1966 laura and 1897 laura is that 1897 is a much broader canvas than 1966 populated by dozens of characters and already bursting with supernatural menace in the form of vampires,witches,werewolves and so on.so laura isn't as big a player.considering everything else going on i'm somewhat surprised that dan curtis even bothered to revive this early character(although i'm very glad he did).

1966 was a much smaller show.she's the main threat and for the most part the rest of the show was still plotted like a traditional soap opera(one of the subplots that ran concurrently was joe and maggie's early courtship).so laura was more of a menacing presence and,as gothick pointed out,a much more subtle and nuanced character who quite owns this storyline.she's a very interesting transitional figure in the history of the show who often gets overshadowed by her male counterparts.