All My Children
Written by: Agnes Nixon
Produced by: Bud Kloss
After getting Linc to promise not to permit her to be hooked up to a machine if she should lose consciousness and thanking him for being her husband, lover and very best friend, Kitty Tyler drifted off to sleep and to her death.
In the last week of her life, Kitty had scolded Myrtle Lum for putting matters relating to the Boutique to one side in her anxiety to spend all the time she could with Kitty. Kitty went on to say that she was trying to make Myrtle into a real “shop lady” because she intended to give her the Boutique for being the mother she never had. Emboldened by the kindness Kitty had shown her, Myrtle took it on herself to tell Phoebe Tyler about Kitty's condition to spare Kitty and Linc what time was left to them without Phoebe's interference.
Once again, Nick Davis had spent the night with Erica Brent despite his repeated vows to confine their relationship to business. The following morning, smoke from a kitchen fire attracted Mona Kane's attention when she dropped by and she set out to rouse Erica, finding her in bed with Nick. After Nick extinguished the fire, Mona threw down the dress she had altered and brought to Erica and told her daughter and her long time friend Nick that she will leave it to the two of them to clean up. Nick realizes that even if there had been no fire, Mona, whose visit was obviously expected by Erica, could hardly have missed the sight of Nick's jacket and tie draped so conspicuously over the back of the sofa downstairs. He accused Erica of setting him up and when Mona refused to talk with him on the phone, he went to see her at Charles' office. Mona told him she did not know if she could ever forgive him for using Erica, refusing to buy his story that it was a truly adult relationship.
When Phoebe Tyler heard of Kitty's death, she called her brother's house only to learn that Brooke was not with her parents. She accused Benny Sago of conspiring to keep Brooke's whereabouts from her and finally Benny told her that her niece was with Dan Kennicott. Phoebe obtained a phone number from Dr. Joe Martin and telephoned, summoning Brooke back with the news of a death in the family. After Kitty's funeral, Phoebe attempted to get Brooke to toe the line and tried to forbid Dan Kennicott from entering her house but Brooke threatened to tell Dr. Charles Tyler that Phoebe had bought an expensive camera and recording equipment in order to enable Benny to gather evidence compromising to Charles' efforts to secure a divorce. After Phoebe backed down, Brooke bragged to Dan that she had her aunt eating out of her hand and though Dan might call it blackmail it was no worse than what Phoebe was attempting to do to Uncle Charles.
Kitty’s death reminded Mona that life was too short to bear grudges and she and Nick resumed their friendship. Donna Beck, in her turn, allowed Chuck to convince her that they should take their happiness while they could and she agreed to marry Chuck, asking only that they waited until the fall so that she could get her High School Diploma. When Nick learned about Chuck's engagement to Donna, he went to see Tara and Phil, warning them that Donna seemed to be very possessive with regard to little Philip. He told them that they had failed to exercise their rights and responsibilities as parents and offered to pay for a housekeeper until Tara recovered it if would enable Tara and Phil to push to get little Philip back under their roof. He urged them to do something quickly unless they wanted to see their son "brought up by a hooker."
Without telling Tara, Phil went to see Chuck. When Chuck refused to pressure little Philip into returning to the Brent home and reminded Phil that the custody arrangement whereby Tara and Phil were permitted to raise the boy was only a verbal agreement, Philip threatened a court fight with no holds barred, claiming that Donna was unfit by virtue of her past to bring up the boy. Phil refused to enter into a proposed alliance with Phoebe Tyler to prevent Chuck's marriage to Donna but when he heard that Phoebe had learned - from Erica Kane - that Donna had been visited by Estelle LaTour, an active, working prostitute, just off Locust Street in Center City, he thanked her saying she had given him just the information he was looking for.
When Myrtle Lum thanked Frank Grant for a floral arrangement sent as a tribute to Kitty in the name of Dr. and Mrs. Grant, Frank angrily confronted Nancy and accused her of trying to pull a fast one. Nancy laughed at him and when he grabbed her, she slapped him. He kissed her and they wound up making love. Nancy told Frank she still loved him but Frank insisted nothing was changed, saying he was sorry that it happened. Nancy was insulted at his apology and cried hysterically when he left.
The following day, Frank learned that action on his divorce had been postponed indefinitely as the judge who was to handle the case had suffered a stroke and there was no way to tell when the case could be rescheduled. He took his anger out on Caroline Murray, insisting that he should have been told that Paul Martin, his attorney, was trying to reach him. - Caroline was unable to locate Frank when Paul called, not knowing that he was with Nancy at the time. - Jeff Martin guessed from some remarks Frank had made that he made love to Nancy the night before and warned Frank that he had to consider the possibility that Nancy might be pregnant.
Frank called Nancy and insisted on seeing her, leaving Nancy to fanticize that Frank wanted to return to her. When Nancy realized that Frank was afraid she could be pregnant, she taunted him saying he was worried that she might slap him with a paternity suit and ruin his little set up with Caroline. She told him she could take care of herself and ordered him to get out.
After talking with Little Philip and learning that Phoebe had told the boy that Donna was a "real bad" person, and faced with Phil's threat to start court action, Chuck talked Donna into agreeing to marry him right away. He got her word that she would say nothing to anyone, even Caroline Murray, her roommate. The following day he told Donna that he had found an apartment that had to be seen immediately and after they arranged to take the place, he and Donna took off in Chuck's car to find a Justice of the Peace.
Dr. Joe Martin had to tell Philip that he was unable to talk Chuck out of considering having Donna, as his wife, raise little Philip and went on to tell Phil that his talking with Chuck might even have made matters worse. Joe told Phil that all Chuck's resentment over the past few years of the sacrifices he had made had come to a head and Chuck felt that he had done enough and it was time he started thinking of himself for a change.
Philip urged Joe not to tell Tara about Chuck's outburst as he and Joe hoped that Chuck would reconsider between then and October, the date they believed Donna and Chuck would be married. Philip had been about to cancel a trip to Kentucky for a police training program but changed his mind in the hope that there was no real urgency and if he did not push to get Paul Martin started on the court action. Chuck would get his resentment under control.
Dan Kennicott had left town for a trip home to his family's farm. He made an unsuccessful attempt to talk Brooke into accompanying him on the trip but was only mildly disturbed by Brooke's statement that though she would miss him, she wasn't going to promise to stay at home and pine away in his absence. She did tell him that he had nothing to worry about where Benny Sago was concerned but when Benny invited her to accompany him to a Rock Concert she all but agreed to go when Phoebe called Benny to say she had to cancel his night off in order to have him help serve a dinner party in honor of Tom Cudahy and she expected Brooke to attend along with Chuck.
Phoebe was unable to locate Chuck all through the day of the scheduled dinner, learning only that he had signed himself out for the day and had his relief cover for him at the hospital. While trying to trace Chuck, Phoebe went to Charles' office and referred to certain pictures she had in her possession as evidence of adultery on Mona and Charles' part. When Mona told her she would be laughed out of court, Phoebe mentioned Charles' pajamas and Mona realized that Phoebe was responsible for the theft. Mona said only that the pajamas were brought into her home for someone else, but Phoebe told her to "keep it for the judge."
When Erica learned of Phoebe's threats and the name Mark Dalton - Erica's half-brother, who wore the pajamas when he stayed overnight with Mona after having injured his foot -, she went into a tailspin, begging her mother not to allow Phoebe to involve her in a court case whereby Erica, as her daughter, would be publically humiliated. Mona was shocked at her daughter's selfish attitude and told her she was not the only person in her life. Mona went on to tell Erica that if she was so concerned for her reputation, she suggested that Erica live her life a great deal more discretely than she had done in the past.
Nick got a rise out of Tom Cudahy by going to see him at the Goal Post and accusing him of playing dirty pool by hiring his hostess Erica away from him without consulting him first. Tom told Nick it was a free country and Erica came to him saying she wanted to make a change and he saw nothing unethical in his conduct. Nick characterized Erica as a rash, impetuous young woman who would be better off staying at the Chateau, and asked Tom to think about what he had said before taking her on. Tom's answer was that Erica was a big girl and he had already taken her on but he would think about what Nick had said.
Tom phoned Erica at the Chateau and asked to talk with her about what they had discussed - Erica's coming to work for him - but said that he couldn’t make it immediately as he was having dinner at Phoebe Tyler's that evening. Nick was present and noted to his amusement that Erica was worried about her new job and what Tom might hear from Phoebe Tyler.
At the Tyler mansion, Phoebe apologized to Tom for the lack of a foursome at dinner and Tom mentioned that he had seen Chuck earlier in the day at a Real Estate agent's with his fiancee. He said that the two were up on Cloud Nine and told him they had just that minute rented an apartment.
Chuck calmed Donna’s last minute jitters and they went into the magistrate's office only to learn their marriage license required a twenty-four hour waiting period to be valid. So they returned to the apartment they had rented and Chuck left on Donna's insistence that he prepare little Philip for the new living arrangements which would begin the following day. After Chuck left, Phoebe arrived, having obtained the address from the realtor.
A phone call from her husband making it clear that he wanted out of their marriage made Ellen Shepherd realize that she was being unrealistic in hoping to hang on to him after he had walked out on her and their daughter Devon to live with a younger woman and she sent for Paul Martin telling him she would give him her power of attorney to arrange a quickie divorce. Mark Dalton agreed to take Devon on as a music student but made it increasingly clear that he was attracted to Ellen. She insisted that they were both lonely and vulnerable and admitted that she was embarrassed to be seen with him as he was so much younger and she was afraid of making a fool of herself.
Ellen Shepherd was looking for a job and Paul Martin had promised to speak to Myrtle Lum about a place at the Boutique. When Nigel Farnsworth called on Myrtle with some complimentary tickets for his play as he had promised, he learned of Kitty's death. When Myrtle told him she couldn’t bring herself to work at the Boutique Kitty left to her in her will and was thinking of leaving Pine Valley, Nigel asked her to "come away with him" — to Scranton.
When Paul learned that Myrtle was thinking of selling the Boutique, he suggested to Ellen that she buy it with her father's backing.
SEPTEMBER 1977
On a visit to San Francisco, Christina Karras learned that her former fiancé had run into his ex-wife, Edna Thornton at a free clinic and he told her that Edna was working on Geary Street in a diner. Chris called David and told him that she followed his suggestion that she look up Hadley because she was certain that she had no lingering romantic feelings for him. She told David that she would return to Pine Valley as soon as she looked up another friend whose address she had just gotten that day. When Christina saw Edna, she learned that the man Edna left David to marry was then dead. Christina told Edna that David was working at Pine Valley Hospital and as she left, Edna walked over a little girl who asked whom the lady she spoke to was. Edna told the child it was “Santa Claus” and said they were going to find her daddy.
When Christina got back to Pine Valley, she accepted David’s proposal of marriage. David gave Christina an engagement ring and told her that he had been invited to a symposium in Japan. He suggested that she go with him and they make it a honeymoon trip. Christina said that she wanted to resume her practice as a pediatrician and would like to be well re-established before they were married, but more than that she wanted an old fashioned wedding. David was very understanding and they planned the wedding for Thanksgiving.
After David had left for Japan, Edna showed up at the hospital and Christina refused to tell her where David lived but learned sometime after that Jeff Martin had given Edna directions to David's cabin. Christina hurried out to the cabin to find Edna unpacking. When Chris said that she had no right to be there in David's absence, Edna claimed she was still married to David.
Myrtle Lum had left town with Nigel Fargate who was winding up his tour and his career in show business with a promise to Linc that he and Myrtle would be married. Linc gave the couple his blessing and made arrangements for Ellen Shephard to take over the Boutique.
Ellen had admitted to Mark Dalton that she was in love with him but because of the difference in their ages, Ellen was twelve years Mark's senior and the resentment shown to her by her daughter Devon, insisted that they had to be circumspect privately and publicly. Devon had told her mother of a letter from her father claiming that Ellen's lack of understanding drove him to his affair with a younger woman and his abandonment of Devon. After seeing her mother and Mark's affectionate kiss, Devon cancelled her arrangement to take piano lessons from Mark. - Mark was unable to tell Ellen that his sympathetic understanding of Devon's attitude was due to the parallel between Devon's and his own half-sister Erica's need for a scapegoat for their feelings of rejection.
Mark tried once more to get Erica to accept him as part of her family but Erica was moved to rage and then tore when Mark visited her at work. The Goalpost's owner, Tom Cudahy, walked in to find Mark comforting Erica and refused to credit Mark's and Erica's insistence that there was nothing between them. Erica learned from Mona Kane that Mark's wealthy step-father did not know of Mark's illegitimacy and threatened to see that he learned of it, no matter what the consequences, if Mark did not promise to keep his distance.
Nick David was annoyed when he viewed a television program Erica had arranged for the opening day at The Goalpost during the course of which she not too subtly put down The Chateau. However, he was furious when he learned that his best bartender, Bruno, had been pirated away by Erica.
Donna Beck and Chuck Tyler had been married and Chuck arranged for Brooke English to take little Philip over to their apartment to be there when they returned. Chuck learned that Tara had had a miscarriage and had not sent for Philip, feeling that his return would only make him miss out on a police training program and would not help. When Tara sent for Chuck, not knowing that he and Donna were already married, she begged him to promise to give little Philip back when she was well. She had a relapse and Chuck was told that she had Septicemia.
Phil was finally sent for and as Nick drove him back to Pine Valley, Phil learned that Tara lost the baby and that Chuck and Donna are married. When Phil got to the hospital, he realized that Tara was delirious and had been talking with Chuck as if she and Chuck were still married and Philip had been killed in Vietnam. During a shouting match in Dr. Tyler's office, Nick had to step in and separate Phil and Chuck. Phil went to Donna's apartment to look in on little Philip. That day was the first scheduled day of school and when Donna learned about it from Dan Kennicott, she tried to take the boy to enroll but he refused to go. After telling Donna she would not allow the boy to have his own way, Chuck spoke to him but Donna overheard the boy say he wished Donna was gone and his mother was there with them. Phil suspected that little Philip had been giving Donna a hard time but she denied it. Phil told her that Tara was hallucinating, believing she was married to Chuck and the boy was still nursery school age. He wrote himself up to threatening a custody suit.
When Chuck returned to Pine Valley Hospital, it was to see Tara suffer a sharp pain in her chest, the first signal of a pulmonary embolism. Phil had been told that Tara had weathered the crisis when her fever broke and no one was able to locate him when it appeared that Tara is dying.
Jeff Martin was with a very distraught Chuck when Tara spoke, insisting that her late mother was in the room with her and had come to comfort her and take her with her. Meanwhile Philip had come very close to telling Donna, at her apartment, that little Philip was his illegitimate son but remembered his promise, though he expressed surprise that Chuck had not told Donna about his threat to go to court to seek custody of the boy. He told Donna that he had nothing against her or her marriage but he meant to go through with his threat, naming Donna as unfit to raise the boy if that was the only way. After Phil left, Chuck phoned Donna, looking for him, and told her that Tara was dying.
The medication which had been administered to dissolve the blood clot finally began to work and Donna watched Chuck come alive the following morning as he realized that Tara would live. Tara woke to see Chuck and thanked him for being with her, saying she could never let Phil go to court because she couldn't bring herself to subject little Philip to that. She asked Chuck to try to persuade little Philip to come back to live with her, saying it would be what the boy wanted if Chuck could make him understand. Chuck said she was right all along, that she should never have been denied her own son and that he would bring the boy back.
Benny Sago was visiting with Donna when she got a call from the school nurse who told her that little Philip was complaining of a stomach ache but she was convinced that he was merely trying to get out of school. Once Donna spoke with the boy, however, she gave him her word that she would pick him up. After she hung up, Benny told her that the kid was trying to pull a fast one as he had been allowed to do at Phoebe Tyler's and the best thing she could do was to call the school back and tell the nurse she would not be there. When she called, the nurse told her that little Philip was having an asthma attack and she left to get him.
When Chuck came home, the boy was watching television and Chuck told Donna that the asthma was psychosomatic in origin. He also told her of his decision to return custody to Tara and Phil. Donna was upset, claiming that it was her fault for being a lousy mother and then Chuck was taking the boy away from her. Chuck finally convinced Donna that he married her because he loved her and they would plan to have a child of their own.
David Thornton’s plane set down early from his return trip and Christina was out of her office when he called, so she had no opportunity to warn him of Edna's presence in his cabin. When Edna told him that the Mexican divorce she obtained was not worth the paper it was written on and he might as well relax and enjoy it, he told her to save it; that if that was true he would get a divorce that was legal. Just then little Dottie came in and Edna introduced her as his daughter. David refused to believe Edna and ordered her out of the cabin, but she persuaded him that they couldn’t leave so late at night and told him that the little girl was very ill. David said she did not appear sick to him but they could stay the night. He left to see Chris and together they went to Linc Tyler for his advice.
Later that evening, David returned to the cabin to seek out a copy of the divorce decree which was sent to him while he was in Vietnam, and found that Edna had changed the lock on the door, claiming she had no extra key because it was too expensive. Edna had been charging her food in the nearby store, claiming to be the doctor's wife. She said it would be a cold day in Hell when she left as she had finally got what she was after. When Linc read over the document David brought back, he told him that it was not legal and that for the present he was still married to Edna.
Mark and Ellen had quarreled over Ellen's decision not to see him anymore. - Ellen at first tried to reason with her daughter Devon and refused to give in to what Mark characterized as blackmail – Devon's threat to move back to St. Louis with her father - but when Paul Martin brought the news that Ellen's divorce was final and Devon’s father, Adrian, intended to remarry immediately, Devon was convinced that she had been betrayed by Ellen's having kept from her that her father had intended to obtain a quickie divorce. Mark said that he, himself, could have demanded plenty from his mother and that Devon was acting exactly like Erica Kane, a reference that completely escaped Ellen. However when he insisted he would talk to Devon himself, Ellen told him if he tried, she would never forgive him. When Paul entered to take Ellen to dinner and left for a moment to see to his car, Mark told Ellen angrily that she could go where she damn' well pleased and he hoped she would be as miserable as she deserved to be. The following day, Devon apologized to Paul Martin for her rudeness to him and said she was sure her father didn’t know what he was doing right at the moment. Happy that Ellen had told her that she would not he seeing Mark, Devon insisted that she was sure her father would come back then. When Ellen pointed out the illogic of what she was saying, she dropoped it saying that Mark was just too young for her mother. Ellen told Devon she was probably right about that and she guessed that they wouldn't have made a very permanent two-some.
While Caroline Murray had been out of town caring for her mother who had a stroke, Frank had become very fond of a little patient, Roberta Jones, whose social caseworker turned out to be Nancy. Caroline was sensitive to their association in the child's case but Frank assured her it was just a coincidence. That evening Jeff brought Nancy to dinner at The Goalpost and Erica pretended to be very upset that the only table she had was one adjoining Frank and Caroline's. Nancy inquired about the state of Caroline's mother's health, saying her illness must have been sudden because Caroline didn't mention it the night she came to visit Nancy.
When Frank went to Caroline's apartment after dinner, he insisted on knowing what Nancy's crack was all about and learned that Caroline had asked Nancy if she was still in love with Frank. Caroline said she tried to tell Frank she had visited Nancy but was unable to reach him at the time. - Caroline did not know that Frank returned to Nancy's apartment on that very evening and made love to his estranged wife. –
When Tara called Donna and Chuck's apartment and asked to speak to her son, Donna lied to her, saying the boy had just left for school. Chuck heard the end of this conversation and learning the details, told Donna she had no business doing that. He had little Philip call Tara, saying it was a misunderstanding, but the boy made matters even worse by happily telling his mother that Donna had informed him he could live with her and Chuck if he wanted to. So Chuck hurried right over to the hospital to explain to Tara that he hadn't even had a chance to talk to the boy yet.
After Chuck left, Donna called Estelle and begged her to meet with her. Estelle learned that Donna was determined to get pregnant immediately to try to save her marriage. Estelle tried to talk Donna into giving her marriage a chance on its own, but, to herself, Estelle wondered how she was ever going to be able to tell Donna "the truth."
Linc went to the cabin and offered Edna on David's behalf, three years of alimony payments if she would consent to an immediate divorce, pointing out that no judge would find in her favor when she deserted her husband while he was in Vietnam; that she could lose everything. Edna reminded him of her little girl and maintained she could prove the child was David's, citing the fact that her daughter was an epileptic and epilepsy ran in David's family.
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