Template:Short description Template:Infobox person

Gloria Monty (August 12, 1921 – March 30, 2006)<ref name="Monty Emmys">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was an American television producer working primarily in the field of daytime drama.

EducationEdit

Born Gloria Montemuro<ref name="Monty Emmys"/> in Allenhurst, New Jersey<ref name="Monty Sisters">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and raised in the West Allenhurst neighborhood of Ocean Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey,<ref>Herget, Alison. "University honors sisters with award", Asbury Park Press, November 3, 2005. Accessed April 19, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The sisters grew up in the West Allenhurst section of Ocean Township and moved to Rumson in 1993, Monty said."</ref> she attended the University of Iowa,<ref name="Monty Sisters"/> New York University,<ref name="Monty Sisters" /> and Columbia University, where she earned her master's degree in drama.<ref name="Monty Emmys"/>

Theatre workEdit

In 1952, she married writer and editor Robert O'Byrne, with whom she had founded a New York theater group, Abbe Theater School.<ref name="Monty Sisters"/> With O'Byrne, Monty directed summer stock productions and led acting and speech workshops at The New School in New York City, where her pupils included Marlon Brando, Demi Moore and Tony Curtis.<ref name="Monty Sisters" />

TV careerEdit

After directing shows such as The First Hundred Years, The Secret Storm (for many years),<ref name="Monty Sisters"/> and Bright Promise,<ref name="Monty NYT" /> she is best known for taking over the ailing ABC Daytime serial General Hospital in 1978 as Executive Producer. Fred Silverman, the head of ABC, gave Monty thirteen weeks to turn the show around, with cancellation threatened if she did not succeed.<ref name="Monty Sisters"/> It subsequently became the top-rated American daytime drama and won several Daytime Emmy Awards.<ref name="Monty NYT">Template:Cite news</ref>

To accomplish this turnaround, she increased the show's pace, and focused main storylines on younger characters to reach out to younger viewers, particularly the pairing of ingenue Laura Spencer (Genie Francis) and troubled criminal Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary,<ref name="Monty NYT"/> whom she knew from his stint on her previous series, Bright Promise). She gave the sets a more contemporary look and feel,<ref name="Monty NYT"/> and employed production techniques once used only in primetime. One major result of the "Monty Revolution" was the faster pace of the show, effectively doubling the number of scenes in each episode. She was known for her rigid work ethic and for being tough with the cast and crew. “She demand[ed] excellence, but she reward[ed] it,” said coordinating producer Jerry Balme.Template:Citation needed

Monty was accused of perpetuating dangerous misconceptions about rape, implicitly exalting violence against women. But Monty viewed the “rape” as a choreographed "seduction.”<ref name="Monty NYT"/> Under her tenure, General Hospital rose to the top spot in the ratings, with Luke and Laura's 1981 wedding being the highest rated episode in daytime history (about 30 million viewers in 13 million households). Monty's Revolution consisted of couples such as Luke/Laura, Frisco/Felicia, and Robert/Holly. She and various head writers also created the Quartermaine family, Bobbie Spencer, Luke Spencer, Lucy Coe, Robert Scorpio, Anna Devane, Robin Scorpio, the Cassadine family, and many other popular characters who would dominate the show in the 1980s and early 1990s.

General Hospital received cover stories in both People, Soap Opera Weekly, and Newsweek,<ref name="Monty Emmys"/> which referred to Luke and Laura as the “Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara of Soapland”. Included in the show's fan base were celebrities Elizabeth Taylor and Sammy Davis Jr., both of whom guest starred on the series. She was also the executive producer of the primetime serial The Hamptons. She employed many former daytime performers for this show. The serial was unusual because it was videotaped rather than being filmed. Monty announced her departure from General Hospital in 1986, working on her final episode as executive producer in January 1987. 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 in 1988 (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 starting to sag significantly. That December, ABC's daytime programming head Jackie Smith successfully hired Monty back as GHTemplate:'s executive producer, and Monty resumed her role on February 13, 1991.<ref name="Monty NYT"/>

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-collar Eckerts, was ushered in, and quickly dominated storyline, while the longrunning Quartermaine family was phased out. Monty also fired a dozen actors, in what the press described as a "bloodbath", including actress Jennifer Guthrie, who played heroine Dawn Winthrop. After Monty appointed her sister, Norma Monty, as head writer, the ratings eroded further.Template:Citation needed

Monty's dismissal became inevitable between the declining ratings and the departure of popular cast members such as Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio) and Finola Hughes (Anna Devane, who Monty fired among much criticism).<ref name="Monty Fired">Template:Cite news</ref> In early 1992, after only a year, Monty was replaced with Wendy Riche.<ref name="Monty Fired"/> She produced several made-for-television movies based on her friend Mary Higgins Clark's novels. She also chaired the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission.Template:Citation needed

HonorsEdit

In 1997, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to Monty.<ref>Template:Usurped</ref>

DeathEdit

She and her sister moved to Rumson, New Jersey, in 1994.<ref name="Monty Sisters"/> Monty died on March 30, 2006, at Rancho Mirage, California, from cancer, aged 84.<ref name="Monty Emmys"/> She was buried at Saint Catharine's Cemetery, Sea Girt, New Jersey.

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

 | name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=0600353|2=^nm}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | nm0600353/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
   | name/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+Gloria+Monty%0A++++++%7C+Gloria+Monty%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
   }}
 }}{{#if: 0600353  {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch: 
 | award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
 }}}} {{#if: Gloria Monty
 | Gloria Monty
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at IMDb{{#if: 0600353{{#property:P345}}
 | Template:EditAtWikidata
 | Template:Main other

}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=0600353|plain=false}}

 | 1 | 3 =  Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
 | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}

Template:S-start Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:S-end Template:Authority control