Portia Faces Life (The Inner Flame)

1 9 5 4 – 1 9 5 5 (USA)
15 minute episodes

Based to a certain degree on the radio series of the same name, which ran in 1940/41 on CBS and 1951/52 on NBC, Portia Faces Life came to television with a new cast and somewhat altered storyline.

Portia was an attorney and mother who struggled to divide her time between the demands of work and the necessities of a home and family – husband Walter, who was the editor of the local newspaper (The Parkerstown Herald), and children Shirley and Dickie.

By March 1955, the TV show had been retitled The Inner Flame and Walter had been charged with murder.

Matriarch Amelia Blake (the mother of Portia’s previous husband and grandmother of Dorie and Rollie), wanted him to resign as editor before she invested her badly needed money in the paper (she had bought out Bill Baker’s interest in the Herald following his death).

Amelia also wanted Dorie to live with her, causing further heartache.

Amelia was an aunt to a murder victim whose wife was in love with Walter. Amelia promised to pay Walter’s legal fees if that woman left town and also told Portia to get Dickei (her son from a previous marriage) out of town.

By July, the show itself had left town.

Portia Manning
Frances Reid (1)
Fran Carlon (2)
Walter Manning
Donald Woods (1)
Karl Swenson (2)
Shirley Manning
Renne Jarrett (1)
Ginger McManus (2)
Dickie Blake
Charles Taylor
Carl Manning
Patrick O’Neal
Bea
Joan Chambers
Dorie Blake
Jean Gillespie
Roland Tenryck “Rollie” Blake
William Redfieki

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