Harding Lemay

Harding Lemay (March 16, 1922 – May 26, 2018), also known as Pete Lemay, was an American screenwriter and playwright. He was best known as head writer of the soap opera Another World.[1]

Career

Lemay was head writer of the soap opera Another World,[1] from 1971 to 1979. The series earned a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1976. By 1979, Lemay decided not to continue writing the series for a ninth straight calendar year, and first handed over to a new writer before leaving for good later that year. He also wrote out three of the show's most popular actors: George Reinholt (Steve Frame), Jacqueline Courtney (Alice Matthews Frame), and Virginia Dwyer (Mary Matthews), in 1975.

Lemay co-created Lovers and Friends with Paul Rauch, later retooled and referred to as For Richer, For Poorer. Lemay was also a playwright, whose works have been produced both off-Broadway and on Broadway. He was also a friend and mentor to Douglas Marland, who was his subwriter on Another World and later became one of daytime TV's most prolific writers as head writer for Guiding Light, General Hospital and As the World Turns.

Personal life

Lemay was born on March 16, 1922,[2] near the Mohawk Indian reservation in North Bangor, New York, where his mother grew up. He ran away to New York City at age 17 where he attended the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.[3]

From September 1947 to 1953, he was married to Priscilla Amidon. He married his second wife, Dorothy Shaw on September 19, 1953;[2] she died in 1994. His third wife was Gloria Gardner. Lemay died on May 26, 2018, at the age of 96.[4]

Positions held

Another World

As the World Turns

  • Story consultant

The Doctors

  • Head writer (1981–1982)

Guiding Light

  • Consultant (1995)
  • Writer (1980-1981)

Lovers and Friends/For Richer, For Poorer

  • Co-creator
  • Head writer (1977)

One Life to Live

  • Story consultant (1998–1999)

Awards and nominations

Daytime Emmy Awards

Wins

  • (1975; Best Writing; Another World)
  • (1981; Best Writing; Guiding Light)

Nominations

  • (1977 & 1996; Best Writing; Another World)

Head write tenure

Preceded by
Robert Cenedella
 Head writer of Another World
August 1971 - May 11, 1979 		Succeeded by
Tom King
Preceded by
Aaron Scott & Anne Marie Barlow
 Head writer of The Doctors
(with Stephen Lemay)
1981-1982 		Succeeded by
Elizabeth Levin
Preceded by
Donna Swajeski (de facto)
 Head writer of Another World
September 12, 1988-November 10, 1988 		Succeeded by

Works

  • Inside, Looking Out: A Personal Memoir. New York: Harper's Magazine Press. 1971. ISBN 0061263001.
  • Eight years in Another World. Atheneum. 1981. ISBN 9780689111495.

References

  1. ^ a b Petithean, Thomas D. (2003). "Soap Spin: Changing Female Images in Amerivan Soap Operas". In Inness, Sherrie A. (ed.). Disco divas: women and popular culture in the 1970s. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 122–. ISBN 978-0-8122-1841-1. Retrieved April 5, 2024 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b Johnson, Curt, ed. (1995). "LEMAY, HARDING". Who's who in Writers, Editors & Poets, United States & Canada (5th ed.). December Press. ISBN 978-0-913204-30-6 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Kaye, Phyllis Johnson (1981). "Harding Lemay". National Playwrights Directory. Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-9605160-0-1. Retrieved November 10, 2021 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "HARDING LEMAY Obituary". The New York Times. July 4, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2021 – via Legacy.