♥ Ongoing Days 1999 ♥ 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." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Plus...Drake And Deidre's Hawaiian Adventure... Aloha, Hawaii: Paradise doesn't get any better, nor more breathtakingly beautiful than Oahu. Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn, who visited the Hawaiian isle to tape Marlena and John's honeymoon, can attest to that. The three-day shoot was one scenic marvel after another, starting with a visit to the cove where the 1953 classic FROM HERE TO ETERNITY was filmed. "It has a history, a background. It was exciting to be in a place like that, that has so much life around it," Hall says. "There were moments we would be taping and Drake would just say, 'Will you look at that?' I'd go, 'Was that your line, Drake, or are we looking at the ocean now?' It was such a beautiful place." Hall and Hogestyn explored as much of Oahu as they could during their downtime. "I had a day and a morning off," says Hall, who had her husband, Steve Sohmer, and their sons, David and Tully, in tow. "I took the boys to Hanama Bay. It's a volcano whose side has slipped down. So there's a natural little inlet, and it's filled with fish. We walked out into the water on a sandy-bottom reef, and there were fish all around, swarming. We fed them and splashed around. Afterward, we relaxed on the beach and built sand castles." The day's water escapades didn't wear out Sohmer. "That evening we went to dinner, and he got onstage and danced the hula. They give lessons. It was very cute," Hall says, smiling, admitting that she missed her sons' favorite Hawaiian adventure. "My husband took them to Pearl Harbor. You know boys and guns. They were thrilled with that." Hogestyn, who traveled to Oahu solo, found a little time for fun in the sun and surf the morning he was leaving. "I had inquired if there was anybody at our hotel who surfed. It turned out that Tommy, the head bellhop, was a pro, a long boarder," he recounts. "We met at 5:30 in the morning. He brought his board and got me a nine-footer. We went to a place called Makaha Beach. A storm was coming in, so we got some great five-foot breakers. I took the first one all the way in to the shore. After I got back out to Tommy - fifteen minutes later - he said, 'Hey! Why did you go all the way in man? The waves come along every ten seconds.' I said, 'Yeah, but I don't always catch 'em.'" While on his surfing expedition, Hogestyn was finally able to find the souvenir his daughters Whitney and Alexandra wanted: puka shell jewelry. "It was one of those stroke-of-luck things," he says. "I'd been calling all around trying to find someone who made them. When I was on the beach, I heard this guy go, 'Hey, man. My girlfriend loves you.' I ended up taking pictures with him and his friends in front of this huge truck that said Hawaii on it. It was hilarious. I was so surprised that these guys would have been hip to soap operas." "It turned out their girlfriends, who were inside these palm frond huts, sold puka shells," Hogestyn continues. "I ended up buying anklets, which are really cool. My girls just love those. But they weren't crazy about the big puka shell pieces I brought back. They might be 'killer' in Hawaii, but they don't wear them in Malibu." The only other memento Hogestyn brought home was a Micronesian ginger lei for his wife, Victoria. "I had to be really careful with it on the plane," he says. "Fortunately, it made it home okay." Hall, however, can't say the same about the flavored macadamia nuts she attempted to cart home. "We carried them on the airplane with us," she says, admitting that several packages got eaten. "But the ones that actually survived were given to family and friends." Janet Di Lauro, SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, 7/20/99 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ The Gossip East Coast, West Coast Juicy Tales From All Around The Towns Cheap Shot: Drake Hogestyn (John, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) had a too-close-for-comfort encounter with a diver and her stun gun during the show's recent location shoot in Hawaii. (OOPS! This is wrong. Like Drake mentioned further down in this article, the female diver hit John with a hypodermic gun not a stun gun. A stun gun was designed to physically immobilize a person by delivering a nonlethal high-voltage electric shock to their body in an effort to stop them in their tracks. A hypodermic gun was used on John in an effort to put enough drugs in him to keep him unconscious until Gina was ready for him...he was in no way given an electric shock.) It happened while John was being abducted in the deep blue sea. "They brought this woman in because she was a professional diver, not an actress," Drake says, noting that when he swam out to her, "She had a hypodermic gun and let me have it. Well, she really let me have it the first take. She placed the gun in a rather interesting spot." The incident was caught on tape. "That's what is so funny. We used an underwater camera to get a shot of the actual shot in the leg. But when she fired the gun, it didn't hit my leg," Drake says, noting that the jolt to his private parts "made me jump. I was holding the woman around the neck at the time, and I could see her face as she looked down through a mask in the water. All of a sudden she realized what she'd done, pulled the gun out, and hit me in the thigh." Drake wasn't in any pain. In fact, he got a kick out of the incident. "I think it will make the outtake reel." Janet Di Lauro, SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, 7/20/99 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥ Johnny Be Good After thirteen years as DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Superhero, Drake Hogestyn prefers life in front of the camera, but out of the limelight. It's a little tough these days to get Drake Hogestyn (John) to talk about DAYS OF OUR LIVES. It's not that he doesn't like the show: He does. It's just that after thirteen years as the soap's leading man, he's ready to turn the interviews over to the newcomers. But since Hogestyn is one of the friendliest, most likable actors in daytime - not to mention an all-time great storyteller - reporters aren't ready to turn off their microphones quite yet. Nice guy that he is, Hogestyn obliges. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: When you signed a contract thirteen years ago, what did you think? Drake Hogestyn: Well, I didn't know anything about daytime. I was told I would be on for three months, February sweeps to May sweeps. At that time, they weren't sure about the Roman connection. I remember when I went in to screen-test, the casting director said, 'Throw that script away. You're right for it. You're perfect for this one! I finally got you in here and your agent and manager don't want you doing daytime, but you'll listen to me now.' That shows you how little connection I had with my agent and manager. To this very day, my agent won't call me. It's like, 'I haven't heard from you in a couple of years. I saw you on television the other day.' SOAP OPERA DIGEST: Were you happy when The Pawn became Roman? Drake Hogestyn: Deidre (Hall, Marlena) was very instrumental and wanted that character to be Roman. That was a huge selling point. That was the underlying strength, that the audience wanted Roman to come back. I soon found out that the audience was clamoring for Roman and Marlena, and they were ready to take any substitute at that time, to see that love story rekindled. Then I started to get a grasp on what daytime is about, and I started to watch and listen to people talk and watch Deidre. I watched the private moments when she would work just for the audience. I wasn't used to those moments, just to reach those people in Indiana or Idaho, let everyone in on your "little secret." SOAP OPERA DIGEST: Acting never really figured into your long-term plans, did it? Baseball did. Drake Hogestyn: I gave myself four years to make the major leagues and if I didn't, I wasn't going to kill myself in the minors. Well, I didn't even make it four years anyway. Lack of talent, no doubt. My father told me, 'Know when to cut bait.' And I did. I see kids who come out here and have wanted to be actors and actresses forever. That's a hard dream to die. And I can appreciate it now because when I grew up, all I wanted to do was play baseball. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: Was DAYS your lucky break? Drake Hogestyn: I feel a little guilty sometimes because what did I do? I came out here, never having been to California, in the off-season, and the proverbial spin on the ball changed. My body was all torn down from the season, and I needed some rest and rehabilitation and to get away from baseball, get it out of my mind. And I got this job. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: You've worked with many leading ladies over the years, and have clicked with everyone. That kind of chemistry... Drake Hogestyn: I don't know if it's chemistry, but it takes two people. I've been very lucky to work with a lot of talented women who are unique unto themselves. I can think of twenty things that are different from woman to woman, but there's usually three or four major points that stand out, that you can just lock into that gives you a very strong point of view. I just enjoy them so much for who they are. They're very special. I've been very lucky having those women. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: Do you like the direction that John is going in now? Drake Hogestyn: Yeah, it's fun. I think there's a strong focus right now, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. I always do my homework and read the scripts every night. I've been trying to read a little more into what's there and look at different angles. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: Did it surprise you when they started these stories again, revisiting John's past? Drake Hogestyn: It can be a little bit confusing, but there is a big gap, and I think they're going to re-create a little more history. There is a lot of dramatic license. It's hard as an actor, but it goes with writing to make quantum leaps in our own character's beliefs. I have a lot of faith in that story, which is a good thing. Some of the writers are asking me a lot of questions about John Black's past, which is confusing to me too. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: You have the best handle on it. Drake Hogestyn: Yeah, I do. It's nice that they ask me. No specific storyline is related to the question, but more about what happened during a specific time. Mainly I don't have an answer, because it wasn't defined. They would start something and never get there. So those are nice areas to attack right now. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: John is ever-changing because of that murky past. Does that keep the work interesting? Drake Hogestyn: It's very interesting. I'm kind of cut out of a different cloth, though. I enjoy working, and I can find a lot of interest in almost nothing. Really. I find a lot of interest in little things. That's what my wife says. I've always been able to keep myself occupied. I've never needed to have this entourage of friends or to be entertained by anything. So, I find a lot of interest in the stories. I believe that if I were a character that was on the one path, I'd have a lot of good things to do. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: Do you ever wonder how long that enthusiasm can last? Drake Hogestyn: I've been doing that story for thirteen years and yes, you wonder, 'How long can I keep doing it?' You do. First of all, you look at it from a practical standpoint: 'What's a leading man? How long is a leading man's range?' Age-wise, this is a kid's medium. I know that, too. Young men coming in, especially today in primetime, the shows I'm watching, from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER to SEVENTH HEAVEN. It's not gonna surprise me when all of a sudden, they recast Belle and Brady, and they're sixteen. I can see that happening. That's just the logical progression because we're almost ready to have another turnover now. I can feel that. I'm talking about a business standpoint. SOAP OPERA DIGEST: Are you still surprised by the popularity of this character? Drake Hogestyn: Maybe some day I'd like to say 'WOW, I had extraordinary popularity,' but that day hasn't happened. I think it's a DAYS thing. I think somehow, DAYS OF OUR LIVES is tapped into an audience that's unparalleled. Even if they say they won't watch again, they're not going to turn it off. If I walked off the show tomorrow, it wouldn't make a blip on the screen. The show just keeps moving on. I can name fabulous actors who have left our show and the show keeps going on. It's bigger than the sum of its parts. I still get excited getting up and going to work. It hasn't become a long drive yet. I told (my wife) Victoria that whenever that drive to work in the morning gets long, I will know it's time to leave. Born Identity? Hogestyn says that his character was based on Jason Bourne of the Robert Ludlum trilogy: THE BOURNE IDENTITY, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM and THE BOURNE SUPREMACY. "Whenever I get a little confused with the character, I go back to Ludlum," he explains. "That's kind of a safe place for John Black to be - a man who was struggling with his past." That said, here's how it all got started: "The first day that he came into Salem, he was in the rescue mission with Brother Francis and the camera looks up at a Vietnam War Memorial," Hogestyn recalls. "He knocked the dust off and took the first name. It was John Black. John went to get work at the docks and he saw Patch and Bo and started having flashbacks from the subliminal memories that were put in his brain. It was confusing because he didn't know who they were. He went into Shenanigans to get a beer and Marlena was in there. A guy came in to rob the place and John just jumped up and disarmed the kid. He had no idea how he did that; it was more of the training in the past. That's when he met Marlena. She got him a job with hospital security. As they got closer, she busted him on not being John Black and she said, 'Something doesn't jibe here. Oh, my God, you don't know who you are.' That was my audition scene and that kicked off the search for the identity." John later learned that he was Roman Brady, then Forrest Alamain and now, John Black. But who John Black really is remains to be seen. Stephanie Sloane, SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 8/3/99