The Right to Happiness began as an experiment. Series creator Irna (ERNA) Phillips liked to cross-plot characters from one of her soaps into another. The Right to Happiness began by following the troubled Rose Kransky from The Guiding Light. It became the story of Carolyn Allen, much-married heroine of Chicago radio.

Known as ‘Queen of the Soaps’, Irna Phillips’ creations included The Guiding Light and As The World Turns. In her writing, she focused on the psychological realism of her characters and introduced many of the soap opera motifs – such has cliff-hanger endings.

Ms. Phillips wrote the serial until 1942, when she sold it to Procter & Gamble. P&G moved it to New York, with a new lead: Claudia Morgan.

Ms. Morgan was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1911 to actors Ralph Morgan and Grace Arnold. Actor Frank Morgan was her uncle.

Airing at 3:45PM Eastern Time over NBC, In December of 1947, The Right To Happiness was the most-listened to daytime soap opera on radio, and the only one to post double-digit ratings nationally. Roughly nine million people spent their Christmas Day tuning in.