Anne Howard Bailey
Encyclopedia
Anne Howard Bailey was an award-winning American writer
known particularly for her work as a screenwriter
and opera
librettist.
Born and raised in Memphis
, Bailey attended Rhodes College
where she graduated in 1945 with a Bachelors degree in creative writing. After college she moved to New York City
where she began writing for theatre
and television
. She was a regular contributor to the Armstrong Circle Theatre
and Appointment with Adventure
during the 1950s
and was one of the major writers for National Velvet during the 1960s
. Her most successful work as a screenwriter was working as a Head Writer
on several different soap opera
s during the 1980s, including ABC Daytime's
General Hospital
(1983–1986) and NBC Daytime
's Days of our Lives
(1989–1990). She also created the short-lived 1970s soap opera How to Survive a Marriage
. After being fired from Days of Our Lives in 1990, Al Rabin
was quoted as saying:
For General Hospital Bailey notably created such characters as Anna Devane
, Dr. Tony Jones, and Felicia Jones
. She also was the Head Writer for NBC's Santa Barbara
between 1987-1989 for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award
in her final year with the program. Bailey also wrote for primetime television including work for Bonanza
, Moment of Truth
, Beacon Hill, and 87th Precinct
. She also worked as a story editor for the critically acclaimed mini-series The Adams Chronicles
.
As an opera librettist, Bailey wrote librettos for four works. Her first opera libretto was for Leonard Kastle
's Deseret which was about the life of Brigham Young
. The opera was commissioned for television by the NBC Opera Theatre
and was first broadcast in 1961. This was followed by a second opera for television, Thomas Pasatieri
's The Trial of Mary Lincoln, which was first broadcast on PBS in 1972. For this work Bailey won an Emmy Award
. She collaborated with Pasatieri again for his first full length opera The Penitentes which premiered at the Aspen Music Festival in 1974. Her final libretto was for Kenton Coe's Rachel, an opera about United States President Andrew Jackson
and his wife, Rachel Donelson Robards, which premiered at Knoxville Opera in 1989.
Bailey died of congestive heart failure in Rancho Mirage, California
.
Emmy Awards
Christopher Award
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
known particularly for her work as a screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
librettist.
Born and raised in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, Bailey attended Rhodes College
Rhodes College
Rhodes College is a private, predominantly undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Originally founded by freemasons in 1848, Rhodes became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in 1855. Rhodes enrolls approximately 1,700 students pursuing bachelor's and master's...
where she graduated in 1945 with a Bachelors degree in creative writing. After college she moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where she began writing for theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. She was a regular contributor to the Armstrong Circle Theatre
Armstrong Circle Theatre
Armstrong Circle Theatre is an American anthology drama television series which ran from 1950 to 1957 on NBC, and then until 1963 on CBS. It alternated weekly with The U.S. Steel Hour.-Synopsis:...
and Appointment with Adventure
Appointment with Adventure
Appointment with Adventure is a half-hour adventure/dramatic anthology television series broadcast live on CBS from 1955-1956. The program has no host. It aired at 10 p.m...
during the 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
and was one of the major writers for National Velvet during the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
. Her most successful work as a screenwriter was working as a Head Writer
Head writer
A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits, but in prime time series this function is generally performed by an...
on several different soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s during the 1980s, including ABC Daytime's
ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime is a programming block on the ABC Network which has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows and talk shows.-Schedule:...
General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
(1983–1986) and NBC Daytime
NBC Daytime
NBC Daytime is the schedule for the NBC television network's daytime television programming which consists of morning news program Today and soap opera Days of our Lives...
's Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
(1989–1990). She also created the short-lived 1970s soap opera How to Survive a Marriage
How to Survive a Marriage
How to Survive a Marriage is a soap opera which aired on the NBC television network from January 7, 1974 to April 17, 1975. The serial was created by Anne Howard Bailey, with much input from then-NBC Vice President Lin Bolen...
. After being fired from Days of Our Lives in 1990, Al Rabin
Al Rabin
Al Rabin is a producer of soap operas, specifically known for his work on Days of our Lives. Rabin served in multiple capacities in his sixteen years at Days, first as a director and then as a supervising executive producer to Mrs. Ted Corday, and from 1985 to 1992 as a co-executive producer.Since...
was quoted as saying:
"[Bailey is] a wonderful writer before she got here. She was a wonderful writer here and she will be a wonderful writer in her next project. It's just that the emphasis shifted slightly from romance to adventure. Since we preferred the audience that we had, we will be shifting back."
For General Hospital Bailey notably created such characters as Anna Devane
Anna Devane
Anna Devane is a fictional character on the ABC soap operas General Hospital and All My Children...
, Dr. Tony Jones, and Felicia Jones
Felicia Cummings
Felicia Gail Cummings in Trinidad. She is a former West Indies cricketer who played one women's Test match and 14 One Day Internationals including the 2005 Women's Cricket World Cup in South Africa.-External links:...
. She also was the Head Writer for NBC's Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara (TV series)
Santa Barbara is an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on July 30, 1984, and last aired on January 15, 1993. The show revolved around the eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of Santa Barbara, California...
between 1987-1989 for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
in her final year with the program. Bailey also wrote for primetime television including work for Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, Moment of Truth
Moment of Truth (TV series)
Moment of Truth was a Canadian serial drama television series which aired on CBC Television from 1964 to 1969.-Premise:The series was set in Ontario where clinical psychologist Dr. Robert Wallace not only operated a private practice but taught his subject field at the local university...
, Beacon Hill, and 87th Precinct
87th Precinct (TV series)
87th Precinct is an American crime drama starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, and Ron Harper, which aired on NBC on Monday evenings during the 1961–1962 television season.-Synopsis:...
. She also worked as a story editor for the critically acclaimed mini-series The Adams Chronicles
The Adams Chronicles
The Adams Chronicles is a thirteen-episode miniseries by PBS that aired in 1976 to commemorate the American Bicentennial.-Synopsis:The series chronicles the story of the Adams political family over a 150-year span, including John Adams , his wife Abigail Adams, his son John Quincy Adams The Adams...
.
As an opera librettist, Bailey wrote librettos for four works. Her first opera libretto was for Leonard Kastle
Leonard Kastle
Leonard Gregory Kastle was an opera composer, librettist, and director, though he is best known as the writer/director of The Honeymoon Killers, his only venture into the cinema, for which he did all his own research. He was educated at the Curtis Institute of Music studying under opera composer...
's Deseret which was about the life of Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
. The opera was commissioned for television by the NBC Opera Theatre
NBC Opera Theatre
The NBC Opera Theatre was an American opera company operated by the National Broadcasting Company from 1949 to 1964. The company was established specifically for the purpose of filming both established and new operas for television...
and was first broadcast in 1961. This was followed by a second opera for television, Thomas Pasatieri
Thomas Pasatieri
Thomas Pasatieri is an American opera composer.He began composing at age 10 and, as a teenager, studied with Nadia Boulanger...
's The Trial of Mary Lincoln, which was first broadcast on PBS in 1972. For this work Bailey won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
. She collaborated with Pasatieri again for his first full length opera The Penitentes which premiered at the Aspen Music Festival in 1974. Her final libretto was for Kenton Coe's Rachel, an opera about United States President Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
and his wife, Rachel Donelson Robards, which premiered at Knoxville Opera in 1989.
Bailey died of congestive heart failure in Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal population can exceed 20,000. In between Cathedral City and Palm Desert, it is one of the eight cities of the Coachella...
.
Awards and nominations
Daytime Emmy AwardDaytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
- Won, 1989, Best Writing, Santa Barbara
- Nomination, 1988, Best Writing, Santa Barbara
- Nomination, 1983 & 1984, Best Writing, General Hospital
Emmy Awards
- Won, 1972, The Trial of Mary Lincoln
Christopher Award
- Won, 1955, Armstrong Circle Theatre