GENERAL HOSPITAL PRODUCER GLORIA MONTY ITALIAN FAMILY PHOTOS MONTEMURO DOCS +WWI for Sale

GENERAL HOSPITAL PRODUCER GLORIA MONTY ITALIAN FAMILY PHOTOS MONTEMURO DOCS +WWI For Sale

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GENERAL HOSPITAL PRODUCER GLORIA MONTY ITALIAN FAMILY PHOTOS MONTEMURO DOCS +WWI:
$459.99

[PHOTO ALBUMS, ITALIAN AMERICAN HERITAGE, GENERAL HOSPITAL]

Offered here is THEORIGINAL FAMILY ALBUM OFGENERAL HOSPITAL EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GLORIA MONTY.(Born Gloria Montemuro).

Monty is best known as the long time Executive Producer of iconic daytime soap opera 'General Hospital' which she saved from the ash heap in 1978 and ran successfully until stepping down in 1987.

This album / scrapbook (of sorts) consists of her entire family history in America beginning with her earliest ancestors immigrating from Italy in the late 19th century, until well into the the late 20th century. The album has 21 leaves of photos mounted mostly on both sides with photos ranging from 19th c cabinet cards to early albumen & gelatin photos. We counted 194 individual photos the majority of which are prior to 1945 or so. Most seem 20's - 30's. Based on the level of knowledge, it would appear that either Gloria or her sister assembled this album themselves.

An important and nicely documented Italian family history from an esteemed woman producer of one of the iconic TV programs of all time. Certainly of interest to anyone sharing the Italian family name(s) or anyone who's a fan of General Hospital and desires a closer connection to Monty and her earliest roots in America.

In addition to the fine early photos, there are documents:

- Copy of a deed to a house in NJ belonging to Joseph & Concetta Montemuro

- Joseph Montemurro's original 'Certificate of Naturalization' from 1915

- Joseph Montemurro's original double sided 'Enlistment Record' into the US Army in 1918 (and Honorable Discharge in 1919)

- Concatha Mango's (Joseph's wife; Gloria's mother) birth certificate.

- blue line copy of the property survey of their Allenhurst, NJ home dated 1953 (from a survey done in 1925)

- An original Italian birth certificate for ??? from 1919 from a city Valsinni ??.

The family names mentioned or annotated by the photos and documents are :

Montemurro (or Montemuro)

Lentini

Tortorelli

Calabrese

Mango

Tartarello

__________________

Gloria Monty (August 12, 1921 – March 30, 2006) was an American television producerworking primarily in the field of daytime drama.

Born Gloria Montemuro in Allenhurst, New Jersey, she attendedthe University of Iowa, New York University, and Columbia University, where sheearned her master's degree in drama.

Theatre work

In 1952, shemarried writer and editor Robert O'Byrne, with whom she had founded a New Yorktheater group, Abbe Theater School. With O'Byrne, Monty directed summer stockproductions and led acting and speech workshops at The New School in New YorkCity, where her pupils included Marlon Brando, Demi Moore and Tony Curtis

After directingshows such as The First Hundred Years, The Secret Storm (for many years), andBright Promise, she is best known for taking over the ailing ABC Daytime serialGeneral Hospital in 1978 as Executive Producer. Fred Silverman, the head of ABC, gaveMonty thirteen weeks to turn the show around, with cancellation threatened ifshe did not succeed. It subsequently became the top-rated American daytimedrama and won several Daytime Emmy Awards.

To accomplishthis turnaround, she increased the show's pace, and focused main storylines onyounger characters to reach out to younger viewers, particularly the pairing ofingenue Laura Spencer (Genie Francis) and troubled criminal Luke Spencer(Anthony Geary, whom she knew from his stint on her previous series, BrightPromise). She gave the sets a more contemporary look and feel, and employedproduction techniques once used only in primetime. One major result of the"Monty Revolution" was the faster pace of the show, effectivelydoubling the number of scenes in each episode. She was known for her rigid workethic and for being tough with the cast and crew. “She demand[ed] excellence,but she reward[ed] it,” said coordinating producer Jerry Balme.

Monty wasaccused of perpetuating dangerous misconceptions about rape, implicitlyexalting violence against women. But Monty viewed the “rape” as a choreographed"seduction.” Under her tenure, General Hospital rose to the top spot inthe ratings, with Luke and Laura's 1981 wedding being the highest rated episodein daytime history (about 30 million viewers in 13 million households). Monty'sRevolution consisted of couples such as Luke/Laura, Frisco/Felicia, andRobert/Holly. She and various head writers also created the Quartermainefamily, Bobbie Spencer, Luke Spencer, Lucy Coe, Robert Scorpio, Anna Devane,Robin Scorpio, the Cassadine family, and many other popular characters whowould dominate the show in the 1980s and early 1990s.

General Hospitalreceived cover stories in both People, Soap Opera Weekly, and Newsweek, whichreferred to Luke and Laura as the “Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara ofSoapland”. Included in the show's fan base were celebrities Elizabeth Taylorand Sammy Davis Jr., both of whom guest starred on the series. She was also theexecutive producer of the primetime serial The Hamptons. She employed manyformer daytime performers for this show. The serial was unusual because it wasvideotaped rather than being filmed. Monty announced her departure from GeneralHospital in 1986, working on her final episode as executive producer in January1987. Her next two successors, H. Wesley Kenney (1987–1989) and Joseph Hardy(1989–1991), were both lauded by viewers, but GH fell out of first place in1988 (with the ratings top spot being taken over by The Young and the Restless,the show that Kenney was hired from). By 1990, the show's ratings were startingto sag significantly. That December, ABC's daytime programming head JackieSmith successfully hired Monty back as GH's executive producer, and Montyresumed her role on February 13, 1991.

In early 1991,Monty lured Anthony Geary back to daytime, but not as the popular Luke Spencer.Instead, Monty went along with Geary's demand to play a brand new character,Bill Eckert, Luke's lookalike cousin. An entire new family, the blue-collarEckerts, was ushered in, and quickly dominated storyline, while the longrunningQuartermaine family was phased out. Monty also fired a dozen actors, in whatthe press described as a "bloodbath", including actress JenniferGuthrie, who played heroine Dawn Winthrop. After Monty appointed her sister,Norma Monty, as head writer, the ratings eroded further.

Monty'sdismissal became inevitable between the declining ratings and the departure ofpopular cast members such as Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio) and Finola Hughes(Anna Devane, who Monty fired among much criticism). In early 1992, after onlya year, Monty was replaced with Wendy Riche. She produced severalmade-for-television movies based on her friend Mary Higgins Clark's novels. Shealso chaired the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission.

Monty died onMarch 30, 2006 at Rancho Mirage, California from cancer, aged 84. She wasburied at Saint Catharine's Cemetery, Sea Girt, New Jersey.

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