Thirty years ago, General Hospital ‘s creative team – at the time, Wendy Riche, executive producer, and head writer Claire Labine – brought the Nurses’ Ball to daytime TV. Hosted by Lucy Coe, played by Lynn Herring , the event brought citizens of Port Charles together as they lent their impressive musical talents to a worthy cause. Other daytime dramas had addressed the issue of AIDS/HIV before, starting with nurse Noreen Donovan (Marilyn McIntyre) on Loving , but General Hospital told an ongoing story with the Nurses’ Ball.
A year after the first Nurses’ Ball in 1994, the show took Robin and Stone’s love story in a powerful direction when Stone ( Michael Sutton ) died from AIDS, and Robin ( Kimberly McCullough ) was diagnosed as HIV-positive. TV Insider chatted with Scott Barton, the show’s former publicist, who had previously worked with Elizabeth Taylor (ex-Helena Cassadine) in 1985 on the Commitment to Life fundraiser for AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), about the Nurses’ Ball, how it came to be, and its enduring legacy. How did the idea for General Hospital to do a fundraiser within the show to help bring awareness and research for AIDS/HIV come about? Scott Barton : I believe it was Claire’s idea [after actor] Neil Tadken had come up with the idea for the Day of Compassion which took place every year [from 1993 to 1999] on June 21 to honor people who were fighting AIDS or were HIV positive.
In a meeting, I went on to suggest that Bobbie [Jacklyn Zema.
