Remembering soap opera restaurants

Yesterday, when National Public Radio’s Morning Edition reported that CBS had canceled As the World Turns, one of the longest-running soap operas in America, the story included an interview with that show’s most famous vamp-villainess, the conniving Lisa, played for nearly half a century by actress Eileen Fulton.

Among other things, Fulton remembered the day that the script required her character — who opened at least one restaurant on the show — to make Cherries Jubilee. During rehearsal, the cherries refused to light, no matter how often Fulton tried, so the prop person tossed a little kerosene into the chafing dish. The cherries exploded into flames and nearly burned down the set. Fulton said that former Kansas Citian Walter Cronkite was on an adjoining set and smelled the smoke.