And she is also responsible for things that we still know as tropes today, like the organ cues. And the idea was to focus on these domestic dramas that would relate to real women's lives. And so she created the daytime soap opera.
You know, this was always the game in the end, was advertising. She was working in Chicago radio and was asked by her boss at the time to create something for women so that they could sell them stuff. SIMON: Irna Phillips, in many ways, the inventor of the American soap opera, wasn't she? You know, she was always up to something to kind of further her career and her ambition. Even during her kind of time off from the show, she would be out promoting the show, promoting her line of house dresses, promoting her cookbook. She is a legend, too, and she deserves it, but Gertrude was there before her even. KEISHIN ARMSTRONG: It's just incredible that everyone doesn't know her name the way that everyone knows Lucille Ball's name. SIMON: Let me try to take each of these remarkable people in turn. If you think of it more like the early Internet, you can kind of understand. That was where the power and the money really was still. And in this case, they were still in radio.
What I like to say is that if you see a lot of women doing something, it is probably because the men have either not gotten there yet, or they've already left. KEISHIN ARMSTRONG: That is exactly correct. Was their success in part enabled because few male executives were willing to take a risk on this new medium of television? JENNIFER KEISHIN ARMSTRONG: Thank you for having me. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong brings this company of four talents back from the black-and-white kinescope of history in her book, "When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story Of The Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered The Way We Watch Today." Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, who's written popular histories about "Seinfeld," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and other cultural touchstones joins us from New York. SIMON: Women were not only the stars in the 1940s and 1950s but creative forces of their own shows and franchises. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: How's the piano, Hazel? (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE HAZEL SCOTT SHOW") UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Hello, Mrs. (SOUNDBITE OF "THE GUIDING LIGHT" OPENING ORGAN) Before Mary Tyler Moore, Oprah and Ellen, there were Gertrude, Betty, Hazel and Irna Phillips' "The Guiding Light."
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