Radio: Everybody Loves Linda

Last week one of NBC’s soap operas had a crisis. The hero of I Love Linda Dale, Dr. Bruce Porter, had turned out to be no good. Not quite certain were Scripteuse Elizabeth Todd & Collaborator Richard Morenus as to how Dr. Porter became an evil fellow. “He just got out of hand,” was Miss Todd’s explanation.

Dr. Porter’s transition from virtue to villainy took place in the course of seven weeks. To begin with, he was the kindly chum of Linda Dale, whose husband, a wealthy mill owner, had skipped out on her. Taking Linda to the movies, plying her with goodies, the doctor made such an impression on the young matron that she decided to get an Enoch Arden divorce. Then Husband Eric Dale popped out of nowhere, eager once more for Linda. Upset and unnerved, Linda rejected his advances, proceeded to New York to brood.

Up to this time Dr. Porter was as fine a man as you would want to meet. But after following Linda to New York, he perversely fell in love with a foreign correspondent’s wife whose face was ravaged as the result of a chemical explosion, but it became necessary for Linda to leap into a river in despair. Then the doctor had a nervous breakdown. Unable to figure out any way to get the doctor back on the right track the authors at this point decided to send him home to mother. Meanwhile Linda was rescued by an Irish bargeman whose sister was a shoplifter. Since the Irishman seemed due to have next call on Linda’s affections, the authors figured that I Love Linda Dale would hardly be inclusive enough to cover the goings on. while We Love Linda Dale would sound a bit unseemly. So last week they agreed on just Linda Dale.