Soap Operas

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

Julie, calling from Carmel, Indiana.

What’s on your mind?

Well, the other day I was remembering the very first soap operas I ever saw my mom watch, and I got to thinking about the origin of that term. I thought, why do they call them soap operas? I’m puzzling about the opera part. I was chatting with a graduate school friend who’s just so clever, and she said, oh, probably maybe because they were paid for by soap companies. And I said, oh, no, that’s too easy. That’s too simple.

And then the other memory I had was of my cousin, one of my male cousins always did the soapbox derby. So I see how my mind works. I’m going from soap to soap. Huh. And so I get the soapbox derby, and there is no explanation anywhere that I could find of how they called it a soapbox. And I didn’t see any connection there at all. So that’s how I got there, and I couldn’t figure that out. I still can’t figure out the opera part.

You’re exactly right that the original soap operas were paid for by companies that were trying to promote household cleaning products.

Is that right?

Yeah, yeah, to a national audience of stay-at-home housewives. Huh, huh. So that was in the 50s when the television first started.

Oh, earlier than that.

Yeah, earlier than that. In the radio days, there was a soap opera called The Guiding Light, long before there was television.

Oh, yeah.

You know, there’s an even older term, horse opera.

Horse opera.

Yeah, that was used in the 1920s to describe a radio show that was a Western.

Oh, that makes sense.

Yeah. And they were called either horse operas or oats operas. And it’s just a joking description because it’s not really a great dramatic work in the grand tradition of European composers. You know, it’s a horse opera. But most Americans will know opera used in something other than, say, the big lady with the Viking horns on belting out a tune in German. Most people will know it from the Grand Old Opry. So opera has a long history in the United States of being used for much smaller productions. They’re just basically any kind of dramatic work, not really the big things like that.

Okay.

Soapbox, of course, it’s because soapboxes were involved in the soapbox derby.

Well, now how?

I mean, they didn’t use them.

Well, there’s a couple ways it could go. You could either make your car out of a piece of a soapbox, or you could actually take your soapbox. This is what the soap comes in when it’s shipped from the factory to the store. Set it on in, put a plank on it, and then you roll your soapbox cars down the plank. So if we’re talking about the small soapbox cars, if you’re talking about the big soapbox cars, you’re making the entire thing out of the soapbox. You’re putting wheels on it, you’re climbing in it, and you’re headed down the hill on a race.

Okay, okay.

So they actually were constructed out of soapbox.

Sure, absolutely. And you’ll find actually in the old boys’ magazines, you’ll find how-tos on how to make things like scooters and soapbox cars. And, of course, those wooden soapboxes that loose laundry soap came in were also used when people wanted to make their opinions known out in public places. You put a soapbox on the ground and stood up on it.

Oh, that’s fascinating.

I didn’t get that.

Oh, yeah, that’s a great connection. People got up on their soapboxes, and we still use that phrase.

That’s right.

We do. So we’ve got three terms here that linger in English long after most of us have forgotten about the thing that they were connected to.

Yeah.

The fact that soap used to be shipped in wooden containers.

Yeah. Well, Julie, I’m glad that we could give you a soapbox to talk about all these things.

Well, I appreciate it. It’s a lot of fun.

All right.

Good, clean fun, right?

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Thank you.

I just didn’t know, and now I know.

I’m just…

All right.

Well, best of luck to you, Julie.

All right.

Okay.

Take care, Julie.

Yeah, thanks so much.

Bye-bye.

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