Joyce Becker, who created the incredibly successful Soap Opera Festivals, will join me live in The Locher Room to look back at the over 2,000 festivals she hosted with 800 of your favorite daytime television stars.

Joyce launched Soap Opera Festivals on February 20, 1977, at a hotel luncheon in New Haven, CT with the Jacquie Courtney who played Pat Kendell on One Life to Live, Marie Masters who played Susan Stewart on As the World Turns, Michael Levin who played Jack Fenelli on Ryan's Hope and the legendary Ruth Warrick who played Phoebe Tyler on All My Children. Joyce and her husband Allan Sugarman would come to host many daytime actors at their home from day one and befriend many of those 800 who appeared at their festivals.

Joyce wanted to be an actress, but her mother had other plans. Her mom wanted her to be a teacher. She became the editor of her high school newspaper and did an interview with a young singer from the Bronx by the name of Bobby Darin. Bobby basically became a member of my family and he, in turn, introduced her to a young singer by the name of Connie Francis who hired her as her secretary. During Joyce's three years working with Connie, she met a lot of people in the music industry which led her to Hollywood to do one of the first interviews with Elvis Presley when he came out of the army. She became a reporter for magazines in Europe, and in the States. Her interview with a soap opera actress was for a magazine called All Day TV in 1973 who was Eileen Fulton (Lisa on As the World Turns). This interview was the beginning of Joyce's soap opera career.

Joyce asked the producer NBC's The Doctors if he would give her a small part on the show so that she could write a story for the magazine. The producer gave her a small part as Nurse Rae and she was the nurse to Dr. Bellini portrayed Gerald Gordon. What she didn’t know was that one day would turn into two days during a very important storyline. Even though Joyce's mom didn’t want her to be an actress, she did become one for those two days. Come hang out with Joyce and I to hear her incredible stories from Soap Opera Festivals.

Original Airdate: 3/3/2022