Radio's "Golden Age," the 1930s and 1940s produced numerous successful and profitable daytime serials, called "soap operas" because they were most often sponsored by firms selling laundry products. Among the most popular of these series were those produced by the team of Anne and Frank Hummert. Working through the Blackett-Sample-Hummert advertising agency, the Hummerts produced 46% of the soap operas introduced between 1932 and 1937, and 30% of those created between 1937 and 1942. Chief among their programs were "Ma Perkins,""Young Widder Brown,""Stella Dallas,""Our Gal Sunday," and "The Romance of Helen Trent." The Hummert formula for success was straight forward and easy to follow--characters were human and lovable, their actions were logical, consistent, believable, and painted against a canvas of simple, everyday life. The Hummert soap operas invariably had strong, assertive heroines, and one of two types of strong men--the patriarch or the villain. The heroines were sexually naive, recognized the threat of extra-marital sex, and never permitted themselves an "easy" escape from marriage through divorce. They were, in short, admirable role models for a generation of women who survived the Great Depression and World War II. (FL)