Sponsored by the Proctor and Gamble, Irma Phillips' The Guiding Light was the longest-running radio soap opera of all time. It started as a 15-minute radio show from 1937 to 1947, and was then adopted as television drama in 1956. For some time, it was simultaneously heard on radio and watched on television. The television series lasted up to 2009.
The story was said to be based on Phillips' life experiences. When she was aged 19, she gave birth to unfortunately a still-born baby, after which she found comfort by listening to the sermons of a preacher named Preston Bradley. Those sermons formed the basis of " The Guiding Light ," which she created 27 years later. She also published them through her best selling book. The "Right to Happiness" was a spin-off series generated from " The Guiding Light ."
