Irving Vendig (October 11, 1902 – January 7, 1995) was an American

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

writer best known for creating ''

The Edge of Night ''The Edge of Night'' is an American television mystery crime drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that netwo ...

''.

Career

Born in the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

city of Holly Springs, Vendig created ''The Edge of Night'' for Procter and Gamble Productions and CBS Daytime in 1956. He had been a writer on the ''

Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...

'' radio show and when

Erle Stanley Gardner Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of nonfiction b ...

refused to allow the show to become a soap opera, Vendig refashioned the show into ''The Edge of Night'', and brought actor John Larkin, who played Mason on the radio, to the show as series star Mike Karr. The character of Mike's daughter, Laurie Ann Karr, was named for Vendig's daughter Laurie Ann. Vendig was the series' head writer from 1956 until 1960, then co-head writer with James Gentile from 1960 until 1965. Vendig was credited on-air as series' creator until his departure from the daytime drama in 1965. He also created the

NBC Daytime NBC Daytime was the daytime programming block of NBC. It historically featured many soap operas, game shows, and talk shows. Its main competitors were CBS Daytime and ABC Daytime. Game shows were discontinued from NBC Daytime's lineup in 1994 a ...

drama '' Three Steps to Heaven''. He also wrote for the daytime dramas ''

Search for Tomorrow ''Search for Tomorrow'' is an American television soap opera. It began its run on CBS on September 3, 1951, and concluded on NBC, 35 years later, on December 26, 1986. Set in the fictional town of Henderson in an unspecified state, the show fo ...

'' (which he wasn't able to see at his

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

home because the local CBS affiliate didn't carry it), '' Paradise Bay'' and ''

The Clear Horizon ''The Clear Horizon'' is an American soap opera which ran on CBS Daytime from July 11, 1960 to March 10, 1961 and February 26 to June 15, 1962. Manya Starr created the program and was its head writer. Premise ''The Clear Horizon'' (titled ''The ...

''. He created ''

Hidden Faces People often see hidden faces in things. Depending on the circumstances, this is referred to as pareidolia, the perception or recognition of a specific pattern or form in something essentially different. It is thus also a kind of optical illusion ...

'', a short-lived drama for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, which was similar in theme to his more famous ''The Edge of Night'', which starred Stephen Joyce,

Conard Fowkes Conard Fowkes (January 4, 1933 in Washington, D.C. – December 14, 2009 in New York City) was an American actor. He was best known for acting in soap operas, including '' Kitty Foyle'', ''Dark Shadows'', ''The Edge of Night'', '' The Secret Storm ...

, Louise Shaffer,

Tony Lo Bianco Anthony LoBianco (born October 19, 1936) is an Italian-American film, stage, and television actor. Born to first-generation Italian American parents in New York City, Lo Bianco began his career in theater, and appeared in several Broadway prod ...

and future Oscar nominee

Linda Blair Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress and activist. She played Regan MacNeil in the horror film ''The Exorcist'' (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for an Academy Award. The fil ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vendig, Irving 1902 births 1995 deaths American soap opera writers People from Holly Springs, Mississippi Screenwriters from Mississippi 20th-century American screenwriters