IRNA PHILLIPS

Irna Phillips was a pioneer of the American daytime soap opera genre.   Prior to being seen on television, the soap opera genre was originally created on radio.  Irna Phillips was integral in that process, creating producing and writing several radio shows including The Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, The Edge of Night and Another World to name a few.  Her style was geared specifically towards attracting female radio audiences. 

Phillips worked as a schoolteacher in Dayton, Ohio, but her real desire was to be an actress.  She performed several acting roles for radio productions at WGN in Chicago before leaving her career as a teacher to pursue her dream.

Phillips would become known as “Queen of the Soaps, introducing such techniques as the organ music bridge to give a smooth flow between scenes and the cliff-hanger ending to each episode.

When these serials came on television, Phillips was a major player creating the first serial broadcast on a major television network.

In the 1940’s, Phillips wrote two million words a year and dictated her script ideas and wording six to eight hours a day.  She was a fiercely independent entrepreneur who retained ownership rights to all her series. 

In 2025, Irna Phillips received a Legends Induction into the Radio Hall of Fame.