♥ Ongoing Days 1989 ♥ Note on soap magazine publication dates and content of articles/interviews regarding multiple soap stars: Many of the monthly or every other month (and sometimes quarterly) magazines back in the 1980's would be on the newsstands a long time before the date on the actual magazine. We've noticed, for instance, that DAYTIME TV magazine did an interview with Drake in late 1986 about his upcoming wedding, which was scheduled for December 1986, yet the interview didn't appear until the July 1987 issue several months later. Therefore, it might be a bit confusing to read about his "upcoming" wedding in an interview dated July 1987 when you happen to know he was married in December 1986. We've tried to date the articles to match the date on the magazine, regardless of when the events talked about took place. Hopefully it will make sense as you go along! We've also edited some of the articles/interviews to just include John's storyline, since this is a Drake/John website. We've left out comments and sections about other actors or storylines unless they're involved with John's storyline. This too should be very apparent and clear when we've done that so it makes sense and you don't have to skim through a long article to find the "John parts." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I Won't Let My Wife And Kids Watch DAYS!" DAYTIME DIGEST: Congratulations on your new baby daughter, Alexandra, Drake. Were you in the delivery room with your wife for the birth? Drake Hogestyn: Oh yeah. I was there. Victoria woke me up at about 1:30 in the morning. I said, 'What are you waking me up for? I have forty pages of dialogue and I don't know a word. I need my rest!' And she said, 'The baby won't wait.' So I got the video camera fired up. I taped Victoria on the phone talking to her doctor, getting into the car, getting out of the car, getting hooked up to the fetal monitor. I wasn't actually going to tape the birth, but the nurse gave me a sign to go ahead if I wanted. It was just beautiful. (OOPS! This is wrong. LOL, Drake has said that Victoria woke him up at 1:00 AM in one place, 1:30 AM elsewhere, and 3:00 AM in another article! Since he was sound asleep, he can't be expected to know just what time it was.) DAYTIME DIGEST: The tape will come in handy when you have to explain the birds and the bees to your three-and-a-half-year-old. Drake Hogestyn: That was part of it. In fact, about three nights before Victoria gave birth, we were watching an interesting PBS special on the creation of life. Little Whitney was watching it and holding onto Mommy's tummy the whole time. She was quite aware of what was going on. Children are really something special to watch. While I was taping the birth of Alexandra, I thought the camera was malfunctioning because all of a sudden it fogged up. Then I realized that I was crying. DAYTIME DIGEST: Your wife has other children from an earlier marriage, does she not? Drake Hogestyn: Yes, Rachael is nine and Ben is seven. DAYTIME DIGEST: Ben must feel outnumbered by all the girls. Drake Hogestyn: Yeah, when we talked about it, he wanted a brother. But Whitney was very excited. She kept saying, 'I want a baby dirl.' But it's alright because I get to spend a lot of time with Ben. When we get our moments to get away, I throw him into the Jeep and we go off by ourselves and do all that boy's stuff. DAYTIME DIGEST: Do you let your kids watch DAYS OF OUR LIVES? Drake Hogestyn: No. We don't watch the show at home. It really wouldn't serve any purpose. I don't want to flaunt a relationship like Roman and Diana's in front of my wife. It's just not a thing I want to do. It would also confuse the children; they don't need to see that. DAYTIME DIGEST: What do you watch with your family? Do you rent movies? Drake Hogestyn: Yes, we watch films. I'm trying to bring the kids up in a good environment. But I know that I can't conceal the world from them forever. But they listen to their parents. They know what is expected of them; they have their chores to do. We are a very conservative household; however, the children are encouraged to be free to express themselves. DAYTIME DIGEST: What is the secret of your happy marriage? Drake Hogestyn: I have always loved Victoria, from the moment I first saw her. I love her because she is my best friend. She understands me and she's pretty to look at. I love the whole package, her attitude, her demeanor, and the fact that she exerts a calming influence. Nothing gets to her. She doesn't get too high or too low. She is very steady and that is perfect for me in the business I am in. It really grounds me. She lives in the present. DAYTIME DIGEST: Do you enjoy meeting with the DAYS fans? Drake Hogestyn: Oh yes. It is really important to me. I like to get their firsthand reactions. I do have mixed emotions about the really young kids watching all of the racy stuff that happens on soaps. Sometimes, I ask the kids, 'Does your mother let you watch those kissing parts?' And the mother says, 'Oh, we tape them and we watch them back two or three times.' We do have a responsibility to all of the viewers out there. I sometimes wonder about putting it all out there for everyone to see. DAYTIME DIGEST: Do you think that the espionage and adventure is the cause of DAYS' popularity? Drake Hogestyn: No, I don't. Those things are just an excuse to get the couples together. The family circles and real-life problems of the characters at home; that is what the show is really about. I agree with some of the fans that Roman is often too intense. At first, he was always on edge. I complained, and they said, 'Yeah, but he's a cop!' So I said, 'What about the times when he goes home and shuts the door? He is not an on-duty cop all the time!' Even the toughest guy in the world has his vulnerable moments. Everybody does. So they have given Roman some more human shadings. I like that, I'm comfortable with it. After all, it can't be easy to write an hour show every day! DAYTIME DIGEST: EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT DAYS OF OUR LIVES, 1989 Edition ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ DAYS OF OUR LIVES Kayla...Kimberly...And Now Roman! This "Brady" Baby Makes Three... It's Drake And Vicky Hogestyn's Turn As The DAYS "Baby Boom" Winds Down! "Don't be surprised if Victoria and I are making an announcement soon!" That's what Drake Hogestyn (Roman Brady, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) told me back in January, when we discussed the possibility of he and his wife having another baby. (The pair already have a daughter, Whitney, who's three.) "We've done a lot of talking about having other kids. Stay tuned..." Drake added coyly. Lo and behold, four short months later the Hogestyn's were indeed making that very announcement. News leaked out that they were expecting this past May. And the time was right once again to talk to the proud papa-to-be. "Victoria and I are both excited about this baby," Drake smiles when he talks about the news. His enthusiasm is overwhelming. He has a special "expectant father" glow in his eyes. "We're very excited," he says. It was right after Easter Sunday - on April Fool's Day, in fact - that Victoria delivered the news to her husband. "I'll never forget that morning," recalls Drake. "It was about five thirty, when Victoria walked out of the bathroom and jumped onto the bed. She was holding a vial from one of those home pregnancy tests, and it was blue. That brought back memories of my chemistry days in school," he laughs. "Victoria was standing over me saying, 'Look! Look! It's blue!' I looked at her and said, 'Home pregnancy test? Right! It's Easter egg dye.' I was sure she was goofing with me. I told her to let me get back to sleep. So, I rolled over. But she kept insisting that it was for real, and finally, she convinced me." To celebrate the baby-on-the-way, Victoria and Drake "headed to the beach, kicked back, and started planning our new diet together," Drake says. "Everything Victoria eats, I eat. We're both going to eat healthy. I've even cut out the glass of wine that I usually like to have with my dinner. If Victoria can't have wine, then neither will I. We're going to go through this pregnancy together. Hey, if I could carry this baby for Victoria I would. My aim is to make this as easy as possible for her." Since he already has a beautiful little girl, is Drake hoping for a boy this time around? "A son would be nice," he admits. "I could pass down my athletic genes to him. But all we really want is a healthy baby. I'm actually totally ambivalent to whether it's a son or a daughter. I remember when Victoria was carrying Whitney. The doctors were sure she was a boy. The way Victoria was carrying…the sound of the baby's heartbeat. Everybody told us to buy blue. But hey, there was no boy. When I saw Whitney for the first time, it was like, 'Oh my gosh! It's a girl!' But after having a daughter it's kind of hard to imagine it any other way at all. Everything they say about a little girl wrapping her daddy around her little finger is absolutely true!" "Whitney's very aware of the fact that she's going to have a brother or sister," Drake explains. "She's been to the doctor with us. She's heard the baby's heartbeat. We let her watch all the blood tests. We thought that was important. She needs to see that needles don't really hurt. That mommy can take them and daddy, too. Whitney's excited about this. She loves feeling the baby in mommy's tummy." Daddy's pretty excited, too. He's counting the days to the big event (mid-December) and wouldn't miss being in the delivery room for anything. "You bet I'll be there," says Drake. "Since I've been on this show - two-and-a-half years - I've never taken one vacation. Every time I put in for one, I get denied. The timing's never right. But I'm definitely taking some time off in December, so that I can be with Victoria." "I still remember the day that Whitney was born like it was yesterday," he continues. "I observed the whole thing and took a million mental photographs in my mind. I can relive that experience any time I want in my mind." "The ironic thing is that Whitney was born in the very same hospital that both Victoria and I were born in. It was back in our hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. But the conditions of that hospital were not the best," Drake says in a very serious tone. "It was rather barbaric in a sense. There was no diffused lighting…no music…It was strictly an operating room with bright lights, a flat board, and stirrups for the patient's feet. I was greatly upset by those conditions. Then, to make matters worse, the o.b. (obstetrician) who'd gone through the whole nine months with us was on vacation. Some guy we didn't even know delivered our baby. When I voiced my opinion about the conditions of the hospital, he made some offhanded crack like, 'Oh, you must be from California.' I said, 'That's right, pal. Absolutely! And things are done a lot differently there.'" This time around, the Hogestyn's are hoping for a much more pleasant delivery room experience. "We have a new doctor out here now, and we're very satisfied with him. We like him a lot," says Drake. "And I'll be in the delivery room again. I'd like to video tape the whole delivery, if Victoria will let me. She's not too up on the idea right now. I'll do whatever she feels is best." "We didn't have a video camera when Whitney was born. So, I didn't get to tape that, but we took a lot of pictures throughout Victoria's pregnancy. I took shots of her standing sideways, so we could see the progression as her tummy grew. And I marked the wall month to month, as she got bigger and bigger," he laughs. It's pretty clear that Drake takes this business of fatherhood very seriously. It's a feeling, he notes, that can't be compared with any other in the world. "Coming home from work every night and having Whitney run into my arms saying 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy...' is the greatest feeling in the world," he insists. Drake just happens to be the third "Brady" in a row on DAYS OF OUR LIVES to be awaiting the birth of a child. First Mary Beth Evans (Kayla) gave birth to a son in October of 1987. Then, Patsy Pease Jeffers (Kimberly) had a boy of her own in January of 1988. With his two television sisters having both had sons, does he think fate might have the same plan in store for him? "I don't know," he laughs. "But it certainly does look like we're running in a cycle of boys. It would be interesting wouldn't it? I'd have somebody to play a little catch with and maybe even sign-up for little league baseball, too." Janet Di Lauro, SOAP OPERA STARS, 1/89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Status Chart Of Off-Screen Happenings Baby Boom: Drake Hogestyn's (Roman, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) wife, Victoria had a baby on December 9. (She weighed in at eight pounds, six ounces). When the infant was only thirty-six hours old, Hogestyn arrived in black tie with a champagne and filet mignon dinner for his wife, and then turned on some music so he could be the first to dance with his daughter, Alexandra Lane. SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 2/21/89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Update Update Hollywood Update Some stars took advantage of their shows going dark over the year-ending holidays and took extended vacations... Drake Hogestyn (Roman Brady, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) and his wife, Victoria, stayed home with their growing family. The couple celebrated the birth of their second child, a second daughter, born December 9, whom they named Alexandra Lane. They didn't know the sex of the baby in advance of the birth, and didn't want to know it. But when the brown-haired, blue-eyed baby was delivered, the happy father exclaimed, "Oh, good - another supermodel!" SOAP OPERA UPDATE, 3/13/89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ RoundUp SOAP OPERA DIGEST: What comments do your children make regarding your soap character? Drake Hogestyn (Roman Brady, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) Drake Hogestyn: My stepdaughter, Rachael, who is nine, says, 'I think it's neat that Dad's an actor. I watch the show sometimes and I watch Roman Brady, who's funnier than Dad and a little better looking - but Dad is smarter. My friends wish that their fathers got to do such neat stuff.' And my stepson, Ben, who is seven, says, 'We think it's rude when people ask for autographs when we're eating lunch.' SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 5/16/89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Stars' Private Prom Photos... Special Section - Prom Night: High school...those awkward teenage years of worrying about grades, friends, and getting asked to that all important event - the prom. We had a handful of actors provide us with pictures of that memorable evening, and to tell us what their dates are doing now. To find out why GUIDING LIGHT'S Kassie Wesley (Chelsea) chose not to be escorted by her boyfriend; why GENERAL HOSPITAL'S Lynn Herring (Lucy) was so nervous about showing up; or why DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Drake Hogestyn (Roman) gave us a photo from his wife's shindig (instead of his own), read on. We have the scoop on these - as well as other soap stars' - proms... DAYS OF OUR LIVES Drake Hogestyn (Roman Brady) High School: South Side High School, Fort Wayne, Indiana. (OOPS! This is wrong. This should be North Side High School, Fort Wayne Indiana. Victoria went to South Side High School, Drake didn't.) Graduation: Drake graduated in May of 1972; Victoria's prom was in 1974. (OOPS! This is wrong. Drake graduated in May of 1971 not May of 1972.) Prom Date: Victoria Post Drake married his high school sweetheart - Victoria Post. However, he did not take her to his senior prom. Since that is still a sore subject with Mrs. Hogestyn, we decided to bend the rules a little and show a photo from her senior prom (since Drake was her date). At the time, his name was Donald Drake Hogestyn. Victoria is still his wife and the mother of four children... (Picture Description: The vibrant and gorgeous couple in this picture in SOAP OPERA DIGEST is our very own Drake and his one true love and soulmate, his beautiful wife, Victoria! It is forbidden to scan the material from SOAP OPERA DIGEST, so we'll instead draw a picture for you regarding how adorable this picture is. Drake is standing next to Victoria in what appears to be her living room. He is dressed to the nines in a maroon sports coat with a snazzy off-snow shirt and off-snow trousers. To add a burst of color, Drake has adorned his shirt with a pale-yellow cummerbund and a perfectly matched maroon bow tie. Even as a teenager, Drake had a massive amount of class and style! The love of his life is wearing a beautiful pale turquoise dress, and tucked in her hand is one long-stemmed yellow rose - just like the yellow rose that Drake has pinned to the pocket of his sports coat. LOL, if you're a frequent reader of our website, you'll know that the yellow rose has a symbolic meaning to Drake and Victoria's love story. He always presented her with a yellow rose before he took her out for a night on the town. Not only is Drake the most gorgeous guy on the face of the planet, but he is also the most romantic!) SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 6/27/89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Daddy DAYS' Drake Hogestyn Reveals: "I Couldn't Hold Back The Tears As Our Baby Was Being Born!" I Cried As My Baby Was Born: "She doesn't look like E.T. anymore," says proud papa Drake Hogestyn of his new daughter, Alexandra. "I am prejudiced, but she is a very pretty baby." Alexandra Lane made her debut on December 9 at 6:04 AM. She weighed a hefty eight pounds, six ounces and was twenty inches long. Drake (Roman, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) spent the entire time by his wife Victoria's side. "Victoria woke me up at one in the morning and said 'I think it is here.' I told her it couldn't be because I had thirty-five pages of dialogue to learn. I spent an hour trying to talk her out of it. Finally she said, 'Stop it. It's not going to work.' I called the doctor and he told us to come to the hospital. We got there about four and the baby came at 6:04. I didn't know my dialogue and I had a six o'clock call. Victoria was going through contractions and I had the script on her stomach. I was holding her hand and turning the pages. She was breaking my hand...squeezing it so hard," says Drake of that incredible morning. When Drake wasn't busy comforting Victoria or learning his lines, he kept his eye on the viewfinder of his video camera. "I filmed the birth. I had the camera going from the moment Victoria woke up and said it was time. I set the camera up on an angle to take a profile shot and get the ambiance of what was happening. At the last second, Victoria let go of my hand and went into her own Zen. There was some beautiful footage. After I saw the tapes I thought 'God, I should be a director.' Even Victoria said she couldn't believe how pretty it was. It's not what you think of a childbirth. It was quiet and beautiful. Right when the doctor said the head was out, I did a slow pan to Victoria to see what she was doing. I saw this enlightenment on her face and I came back down to watch the baby do a barrel roll right into the doctor's arms. The doctor knew the names we had picked out and he said 'It's Alex!' I thought my camera was malfunctioning because it got all fuzzy. Then I realized I was getting wet in the eye. I was crying as my baby was being born," admits Drake. The devoted dad stayed with his wife until nine, then it was off to work. "They put me at the end of camera block, but then the first dress rehearsal and tape. My scenes were real light, romantic comedy. It was real fun stuff. We were going through this bet. It was the day that Roman and Diana went down to get a marriage license and they said we couldn't because Marlena wasn't declared dead. I came in and did a sexy striptease trying to get Diana to succumb. The whole day was very light. We had a real good time and of course my energy was up. I came in with a Polaroid of Alex in my arm and me in the medical garb. I showed it to one of the stagehands and they put it up on the monitor whenever we had a five. The day was great and I went to see Victoria afterwards. I was so wiped out and exhausted." Even in his tired state, Drake still was his romantic self, a trait he's proud of. "The first night the hospital presents you with a little meal in the room. I came in wearing a tuxedo with a wine bucket and a little AM/FM radio under my arm. I kept thinking this is something that Roman Brady on DAYS would do. It's an eerie feeling. Every time I do stuff like that I feel like I am ripping off the soap. Even though I was always like that before, I can't shake the feeling. Victoria never knew what to expect. It was something that we always shared." When Victoria was pregnant with Whitney, their first daughter who'll turn four on July 20th, Drake used to sing to her and play the blues harp. "I used to sing the Beach Boys 'Little Surfer Girl' to Whitney. To this day she believes I wrote the song. Whenever it's on the radio she yells for me. When Victoria was pregnant with Alex I talked to her all the time too. I played lullabies on the harp. I would always lean down and say 'Hello baby. Hello pretty baby.'" Once Alexandra got home, her brother and sisters couldn't wait to cuddle and help take care of her. Victoria has two children from a previous marriage, Rachael, who's nine, and Ben, who's seven. Whitney took to her new sister quite well. "She thinks Alex is her baby doll," laughs Drake. "I heard a lot about the fact that Whitney's always been the baby...daddy's baby. You have to make the conscious effort to give quality time to everyone. I'll take Rachael to the store to get the newspaper or I'll take Ben somewhere." Drake has a wonderful relationship with the children. In fact, Ben paid him the highest compliment a father could get. "I'm conservative. I don't let them get away with anything. Hopefully I'm instilling the right morals in them. The kids have their chores and they must do them. They get grounded and they are learning to lie just like kids. They fail to realize that I was the greatest liar and the greatest kid there ever was. I tested everybody. My dad would say 'Wait until you have kids.' Last week Ben said to me 'I think that you are the coolest dad that anybody could ever have!' He sees other dads with kind of a different type of relationship. The parents are older. They waited longer in life to have children. I can relate to my kids real well. Maybe I am still just a kid myself." Anne Marie Allocca, DAYTIME TV, 8/89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Trade Secrets The Woes of Drake's Toes: During his days as a pro baseball player, Drake Hogestyn (Roman/DOOL) suffered a severe foot injury which cost him the use of the big toe on his right foot. Now, although it may not seem to be such a big thing, to a ball player it can hinder balance, as well as coordination. So after heavy reconstructive surgery, he came out with a bionic big toe. SOAP OPERA UPDATE, 9/11/89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ "I Used To Be A Nobody!" Actors Who Now Get Star Treatment In Their Home Towns... Going Home... How actors feel when they return to the places where they grew up... Whether lured by family, friends, memories, or the chance to see favorite landmarks, daytime actors agree that the road home from the major entertainment hubs is often traveled as a ritual of belonging; a chance to relocate their sense of place and pre-star self. Says DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Drake Hogestyn (Roman), "When I go back to Fort Wayne, I see my old buddies. They shake their heads at me, say they still can't believe what I'm doing, and then say, 'Hey, let's go have a beer.' And, as always, we do..." SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 10/17/89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Candidly Speaking... A Personal Opinion Written By DAYS' Roman, Drake Hogestyn Drake Hogestyn: In response to recent feedback that Roman hasn't been getting a lot of airtime since Diana left, all I can say is that there's a certain soap opera formula that goes into that. If everybody remembers, I went through the same thing when Deidre left. A three-to-four-month mourning period, as they say. And even though Roman was never married to Diana, we had become a fairly popular couple. Obviously I would like to be working more. I'm pretty much what I consider a bridge character right now, just meandering through other people's storylines and popping up here and there. I don't know exactly what the writers have planned for Roman and Yvette. As far as I'm concerned, Roman is a very confident, practicing heterosexual. And healthy sexual relationships are a definite must for this guy. I think Roman is a little bit thrown by Yvette because of her current interest in Kiriakis. He's probably keeping her a little bit at arm's length. However, I almost feel that this might be what I would consider a relationship of convenience. She's with an adversary of mine and maybe she's showing a little shine to me, and this a way that I can get back at Victor and at the same time have some fun with this French beauty. (OOPS! This is wrong. Typo alert! This sentence makes no sense. In our opinion it should be "and this is a way that I can get back at Victor" not "and this a way that I can get back at Victor.") But any romance that might develop between Roman and Yvette could not, at this point, compare with the power of his relationships with either Marlena or Diana. The possibility of either woman coming back into his life is always there. I think Marlena would probably have the upper hand over Diana if there were a choice that had to be made (like there almost was a few storylines back). I was really anxious to see if Deidre (Hall) was going to come back. All indications that I had - especially one script that I picked up when Diana walked into Roman's replica living room on an island with Stefano, the tag scene was she turned around and said 'My God, it is you!' And the last line of the script was 'And it is Marlena!' - was that Deidre was coming back. I heard she was going to tape it and I got all excited. And two o'clock came around and she didn't show up. 'Okay. Not to worry. We'll just shoot the tag tomorrow when she's in and just carry on.' And tomorrow never came. That was basically the end of the storyline right there. They wrapped that up so fast. Gone. There were some other things about Roman that I had wanted to resolve at that point and we never really finished that up either. There's talk of a Roman/Adrienne romance in the near future. My initial reaction would be negative. Wally Kurth (Justin) and Judi Evans (Adrienne) are what I consider major characters on the show, and I don't know if they need another established character to come between them if that's supposed to happen. It might be different. It could be a challenge. But I don't know how the Roman Brady fans would accept that; I don't know how the Justin and Adrienne Kiriakis fans would accept that. But if a Roman/Adrienne romance does develop, possibly into marriage, do you realize that Steve Johnson would be Roman's brother-in-law twice! To be honest, one of the latest pleasures for me has been watching Christie Clark (Carrie) grow as an actress, in essence growing up before my eyes. As a matter of fact, I'm keeping most of these scripts, because when my daughters get to be that age, I'll have a library full of things to do and words of wisdom. But if one of my daughters were to behave the way Carrie's been behaving on the show, I'd probably lock her in a room and never let her out. At least that's what my initial response would be. But I guess you've got to let them test their wings a little bit and you've got to give them the freedom to make their own decisions. And hopefully if it doesn't kill them, it will make them stronger. What doesn't kill me is doing DAYS. I love it. I've always been a creature of steady work. I was like that in college, when I played baseball and while I was working toward a dental career. I've always liked to work hard. I don't have any problem waking up at 4:30 in the morning to come in to work. I'd like to say that I think I, Drake, would play things a little bit different that Roman does as a cop. I think I'd be able to tell a criminal a little faster than Roman can. The Salem Police Department doesn't get a whole lot of respect. Basically I think the formula on this show is for most people to solve their own crimes. What Abe and Roman do is recruit civilians to do cop work. I don't know if anyone else does that. And a lot of times, we'll bust in after the smoke clears, everybody's laying there shot up and we'll say 'Freeze! Salem P.D.' What can I say? I have no creative control. What I do like to control is my fan club. It's nice to hear that a lot of fans think that the Drake Hogestyn Fan Club is one of the best! I try to add a personal touch. This last week, in particular, I have written out over one-hundred-fifty personal thank-you notes to different fan club members, trying to get caught up basically on gifts and nice letters and things like that. That personal touch goes a long way, but after all, these people are the ones who have supported me for three-and-a-half years now. I also turn out one of those fan club buttons, but I could never figure what you do with a button. When I'm doing personal appearances - and I do quite a few of those - if the fans come to see me and they wear the button (which means they're in current good standing with the fan club), I find time to bring them back stage. I've made a lot of friends and they seem to like that. I know that I do. SOAP OPERA UPDATE, 12/4/89