When a Girl Marries was the second major serial written by Elaine Carrington (the others were Pepper Young's Family and Rosemary). Heard at the same time for an entire decade (5 P.M., 1940s), it climbed steadily to the top of its field. It was the highest rated soap opera for the years 1943-44, 1944-45, and 1946-47, and was pushing the leaders for most other seasons in that time.

It was the story of Joan and Harry Davis, young marrieds from opposite sides of the tracks, who fought for happiness against family inter- ference, social differences, and gossip in the typ- ical little soap opera town of Stanwood. Although the serial generally followed Carring- ton's preference for quiet family action, there were touches of insanity, murder, and other soapy staples over the long run.

It came to be known as "the tender, human story of young married life, dedicated to everyone who has ever been in love.' Harry would rise above his poverty-ridden milltown background to become a successful attorney, but in the beginning he was just another law school graduate. His romance with Joan Field began at a party given by Joan's mother, Stella, to an- nounce Joan's engagement to wealthy young playboy Phil Stanley. Harry arrived, seeking out Joan's father-prominent lawyer Samuel Tilden Field-in the hope of getting a clerkship in the old man's law office.

Little did Harry know that the elder Fields had been divorced for some time, that Sam Field was living in an apartment. Then he met Joan, and the effect was cataclysmic. Joan begged her mother not to announce the engagement, and Phil Stanley took the bad news with growing fury. _{John Dunning}