General Hospital (GH) asks, do you remember what you were doing 30 years ago? Chances are you’ll remember watching the very first Nurses’ Ball to take place in Port Charles, New York.
AMP in the post
The Nurses’ Ball is an AIDS/HIV charity that brings together the good people of Port Charles to raise money for a good cause and watch hilarious host Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring) as she changes costumes and sidesteps shenanigans (mostly).
It’s been three decades since the show’s creative team at the time, Wendy Riche, executive producer, and head writer Claire Labine, debuted what would become a regular event.
One year after the Nurses’ Ball debuted in 1994, fans watched the end of Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) and Stone Cates’ love story when Stone (Michael Sutton) died from AIDS, and Robin was diagnosed as HIV-positive. Here is the history of the illustrious and beloved Nurses’ Ball.
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Soaps like All My Children did AIDS stories, but the Nurses’ Ball is unique in that it became a regular event. TV Insider talked with former GH publicist Scott Barton who shared his memories of how the Nurses’ Ball was created.
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He explained that the idea for the show to have a fundraiser to help raise awareness and research for AIDS/HIV “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.”
Barton came up with the idea for Nurse Bobbie Spencer (Jacklyn Zeman) to wear the “(red) ribbon on-air and that maybe a mention of it could be made” and from there the idea exploded. It was also his idea to include Ryan White’s mother, Jeanne, as herself.
Additionally, the show included the late actor Lee Mathis (Jon Hanley) who had advertised in Variety that he needed a gig in order to extend his health care benefits. “The show wrote a part for him, and it really helped him out. It renewed his insurance, gave him some money, and gave him a place to go and have some self-esteem, confidence, and a purpose.”
It didn’t hurt that the cast brought a wide array of talent to the Ball, with Stuart Damon (Alan Quartermaine and Brad Maule (Tony Jones) having Broadway experience.
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Barton spilled some delicious backstage deets as well. For example, the “clothing manufacturer who donated tuxedo shirts for the men” wove “into the fabric of the shirts … itty bitty stopwatches and underneath them [were the words] ‘Stop AIDS.’”
Barton says that he was the one who “insisted” that the show feature Stone’s death and Robin’s diagnosis the following year.
He recalls: “Robin and Stone were having unprotected sex. I felt it you didn’t you’d be completely pulling the rug out from under this whole storyline. If she tests negative, you have just flushed every effort and every Lee Mathis down the drain.”
Barton also “arranged with the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt … to have panels from the quilt” as “the backdrop of the Nurses’ Ball. I don’t know if people are aware of this but whenever the quilt is displayed there’s a whole ritual of how they do it. It’s like an origami in reverse. They installed it in the middle of the night to set it up for the next day’s filming.”
He added that the actors were in awe of the quilt and “admired the quilt, appreciated it and they were wondering what the stories were in each panel. It really added a whole other layer of empathy, compassion, and reality to the entire taping.”
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Despite its popularity, the show hasn’t featured the Ball each and every year after its debut. In 2013 executive producer Frank Valentini, and then-head writer Ron Carlivati, brought the event back to the screen.
Barton said it was a smart move to revive the Ball: “It shows the continuity of a daytime dramatic series. It shows continuity of the characters that’s in keeping with the hospital [backdrop]. It makes sense as a fundraiser.
It’s a great legacy for the show and there is always a need for medical care and the costs of research. And it’s a great opportunity again to allow the actors and characters to show sides of themselves that nobody has seen before.”
Now it’s your turn GH fans, tell us your favorite Nurses’ Ball memory!
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