The+Success+of+Soaps

The soap opera enjoyed its greatest success in the 1930s and 1940s. According to //Variety// statistics, the network daytime schedule in 1936 consisted of 55.3 percent of serial dramas (Hilmes 151). The soap opera grew from four programs in 1932, to ten in 1934, and 28 in 1936. By the end of the decade 61 soap operas were being broadcast nationwide (Summers 35, 48, 65, 81). The growth of the soap opera proved that daytime radio had unprecedented listener loyalty and could be extremely profitable for sponsors whose products appealed to the listener. For sponsors, network daytime policies and women’s serial dramas presented a windfall of profits. Soap operas flourished during the 1930s because manufacturers of household products “experimented with an untried form of entertainment” (Cantor and Pingree 32). For women, these soap operas created a specifically female culture and community of listeners.


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