In 1999, just before the show celebrated 35 years on the air, NBC announced the cancellation of Another World and the premiere of a new soap called Passions taking its place by July. Longtime stars from the show gathered with fans one last time at a fan club luncheon featuring stars like Linda Dano (Felicia Gallant), Victoria Wyndham (Rachel Cory), and the late Charles Keating (Carl Hutchins).
On May 4, which would have been 60 years since AW premiered, Dano will once again meet and greet fans, along with a host of other stars who will attend the Another World 60th Anniversary Celebration in Tarrytown, NY.
The event is the brainchild of Karen McKenny, who runs a 5,000-member Facebook fan group called Another World Memories. After the group ballooned in size during the pandemic when people were looking for common interests to talk about, McKenny wanted to give people something to look forward to and came up with the idea to host an event for fans and stars alike.
"I just happened to realize that the 60th anniversary fell on a Saturday and thought, that's perfect timing," McKenny told Soap Central.
After she chose a date to get AW fans and stars together again, the real leg work began -- finding and contacting actors who had played some of Bay City's most memorable characters. She started by tracking people down on social media and went from there, asking stars she found if they had kept in touch with their friends and former colleagues.
"For others, I had to do some research of phone numbers, mailing addresses, where to send paper invitations, but most people I was able to reach electronically," she said. "Everyone was very enthusiastic [and] surprised a bit that there was still such a fan base after it had been off the air for so long. [They were] surprised and excited, and very very gracious."
In the end, she managed to get stars from the 1960s through the 1990s on board with her idea. "Every decade will be represented," McKenny said.
The roster of stars attending reads like a who's who of Bay City and includes Judith Barcroft Washam (Lenore Moore), Jordan Charney (Sam Lucas), Gail Brown (Clarice Ewing), Susan Keith (Cecile DePoulignac), Linda Dano (Felicia Gallant), Anna Stuart (Donna Love), Julie Osburn (Kathleen McKinnon), Kale Browne (Michael Hudson), Anna Holbrook (Sharlene Frame), Alice Barrett (Frankie Frame), Laurence Lau (Jamie Frame), Cali Timmins (Paulina Cory), Diego Serrano (Tomas Rivera), Joseph Barbara (Joe Carlino), Marcia McCabe (Bunny Eberhardt), and Lisa Peluso (Lila Roberts).
The May 4 event will take place at the Tarrytown House Estate on the Hudson in Tarrytown, NY, from 11:30-4:30. Before the event, you can bid for AW items in a silent online charity auction to benefit Upstage Lung Cancer of Massachusetts, the American Federation for Suicide Prevention, and the Lancaster, PA, chapter of the National Cervical Cancer Coalition. You can find the auction here https://www.32auctions.com/AWcelebration2024. You can also click here to register for the event until April 30 or email McKenny at [email protected].
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