House of Glass (radio program)

Last updated
House of Glass
House of glass 1935.JPG
Publicity photo of the cast of The House of Glass. Cast: standing, rear-Arline Blackburn, Paul Stewart, Bertha Walden, Everett Sloane, Joseph Greenwald. Center-Gertrude Berg. Seated-Celia Babcock, Helene Dumas.
Country of originUnited States
Language(s)English
Starring Gertrude Berg and Joseph Greenwald (1935)
Berg and Josef Buloff (1953-1954)
Created byGertrude Berg
Written byGertrude Berg
Directed byGertrude Berg
Produced byGertrude Berg
Original releaseApril 17, 1935 (1935-04-17) 
March 12, 1954 (1954-03-12)

House of Glass is an American old-time radio serial drama. It was broadcast on the Blue Network from April 17, 1935, until December 25, 1935, and revived on NBC from October 23, 1953, until March 12, 1954. [1]

Contents

1935 version

Background

Gertrude Berg created House of Glass soon after her previous show, The Goldbergs , was canceled by NBC. [1] Berg had two objectives with House of Glass — "to show Pepsodent [the former show's sponsor] that she could survive without their money" and "to distance herself from Molly Goldberg. [2]

Format

House of Glass centered around Bessie Glass, a Jewish owner of a hotel, and a variety of eccentric guests who stayed there. A preview newspaper article described Glass as "a shrewish, blustering termigant". [3] The show's introduction invited listeners to enjoy "Bessie Glass and Barney, and the day by day human stories of their little hotel." [2]

Berg's father operated a resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains, [4] which gave her the background for recurring characters in House of Glass -- particularly the head waiter, the bellboy, and the dish washer. [2] :69 She kept the program's characters realistic by frequently mingling with people in Jewish neighborhoods, as she had done for The Goldbergs. Her primary methods of doing so were shopping and chatting with residents on the Lower East Side of New York City and attending meetings of a women's club in that neighborhood. She used a pseudonym and changed her accent so that people would not recognize her. [2] :68

Personnel

Berg had four roles — star, producer, director, and writer — with House of Glass [2] :65 Characters and the actors who portrayed them are shown in the table below.

CharacterActor
Bessie GlassGertrude Berg [1]
Barney Glass Joseph Greenwald [3]
MillieArline Blackburn [4]
EllaHelene Dumas [4]
TinyCelia Babcock [4]

The supporting cast included Bertha Walden, Paul Stewart, and Everett Sloane. [3] Billy Artzt and his orchestra provided music. [5]

Demise

Just as the end of The Goldbergs led to creation of House of Glass, the latter program ended when the former was revived. In 1936, Colgate-Palmolive took on sponsorship of The Goldbergs, leading to a five-year contract worth $1 million to Berg. [2] :64

1953-1954 version

In 1953, NBC brought House of Glass back to radio soon after the televised version of The Goldbergs went off the air. [6] In this version, Berg played Sophie, a cook, who was secretly engaged to the hotel's proprietor, Mr. Glass. [7] The cast and actors are shown in the table below.

CharacterActor
Sophie MilnerGertrude Berg [8]
Barney GlassJosef Buloff
Dish washer Harold Stone [9]
WaitressAnn Thomas [8]

The producer was Cherney Berg, son of Gertrude Berg. [10] Gertrude Berg wrote the scripts in longhand, and her husband typed them for the program. [11]

Television

Berg created an original sketch of House of Glass and performed it on NBC's "first official television broadcast" in 1940. [2] :111

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ma Rainey</span> American blues singer (1886–1939)

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was an American blues singer and influential early-blues recording artist. Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers. Rainey was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a "moaning" style of singing. Her qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues".

<i>The Goldbergs</i> (broadcast series) American radio and television comedy-drama program

The Goldbergs is a comedy-drama broadcast from 1929 to 1946 on American radio, and from 1949 to 1956 on American television. It was adapted into a 1948 play, Me and Molly; a 1950 film The Goldbergs, and a 1973 Broadway musical, Molly. It also briefly spun off a comic strip from June 8, 1944, to December 21, 1945, with art by Irwin Hasen, a comic book artist who worked on various DC Comics titles and would later do the Dondi comic strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gertrude Berg</span> American actress, screenwriter and producer

Gertrude Berg was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a long-running hit when she premiered her serial comedy-drama The Rise of the Goldbergs (1929), later known as The Goldbergs. Her career achievements included winning a Tony Award and an Emmy Award, both for Best Lead Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KGAN</span> CBS affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

KGAN is a television station licensed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States, serving Eastern Iowa as an affiliate of CBS and Fox. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to Dabl affiliate KFXA under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Second Generation of Iowa, Ltd. The two stations share studios at Broadcast Park on Old Marion Road Northeast in Cedar Rapids; KGAN's transmitter is located in Rowley, near the junction of Buchanan, Benton and Linn counties.

WCSH is a television station in Portland, Maine, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Congress Square in Downtown Portland, and its transmitter is located on Winn Mountain in Sebago. Together with WLBZ in Bangor, which simulcasts most of WCSH's local newscasts, it is known as News Center Maine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gale Page</span> American actress (1913–1983)

Gale Page was an American singer and actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KSBW</span> TV station in Salinas, California

KSBW is a television station licensed to Salinas, California, United States, serving the Monterey Bay area as an affiliate of NBC and ABC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios on John Street in downtown Salinas, and its transmitter is located on Fremont Peak in the Gabilan Mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Goodwin</span> American radio announcer and actor (1910–1958)

William Nettles Goodwin, was an American radio announcer and actor. He was for many years the announcer and a recurring character of the Burns and Allen radio program, and subsequently The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show on television from 1950–1951. Upon his departure, he was replaced by Harry von Zell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KYOU-TV</span> Fox/NBC/CW affiliate in Ottumwa, Iowa

KYOU-TV is a television station licensed to Ottumwa, Iowa, United States, serving Ottumwa and Kirksville, Missouri, as an affiliate of Fox, NBC and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Gray Television and maintains studios on West 2nd Street in Downtown Ottumwa; its transmitter is located one mile (1.6 km) east of Richland, Iowa. A translator, K30MG-D, offers additional coverage in the Kirksville area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edythe Wright</span> American singer

Edythe Wright was an American singer who performed from 1935 to 1939 with the band led by Tommy Dorsey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duane Thompson</span> American actress

Duane Thompson was an American film actress during Hollywood's silent film era. When Talkies pushed silent films into the background, she worked in stock theater for a time before moving to radio drama. She was married twice, to comedian Buddy Wattles and to radio producer William T. Johnson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gertrude Michael</span> American actress

Lillian Gertrude Michael, sometimes nicknamed Beck Michael, was an American film, stage and television actress.

Me and Molly is a three-act play with eight scenes by Gertrude Berg, based on Berg's long-running radio drama The Goldbergs. It has a large cast, one setting, and moderate pacing. It is a domestic situation comedy, bordering on soap opera, as Jake Goldberg tries to start his own business while his family adjusts to life in a new apartment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Jane Rhodes</span> American actress

Betty Jane Rhodes was an American actress and singer, most active in film during the late 1930s and the World War II era. She was also known as Jane Rhodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Templeton Fox</span> American actress (1913–1993)

Templeton Fox was an American actress best known for her work in old-time radio.

Hilltop House is an American old-time radio soap opera. It debuted on November 1, 1937, was replaced by a spinoff, then was re-launched twice, with its final episode coming on July 30, 1957.

On Stage is an American radio show also known as On Stage with Cathy and Elliott Lewis and Cathy and Elliott Lewis on Stage. It was an anthology program that aired on CBS for two seasons from 1953 to 1954.

Screen & Radio Weekly was a nationally syndicated Sunday tabloid-newspaper-supplement published by the Detroit Free Press from 1934 to 1940 that covered film, radio, and fashion – and included a short story.

Joseph Greenwald was an American actor who died on stage after having a heart attack.

American Inventory was a thirty-minute weekly filmed educational series that first aired as a summer replacement Sunday nights during 1951 on NBC. It was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with NBC donating the broadcast time and facilities. The series incorporated panel discussions, lectures from experts, film of activities and events taking place out of the studio, and occasional in-studio dramatic scenes. It was an ambitious project, the first educational series produced and broadcast by a network.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 333. ISBN   978-0-19-507678-3 . Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Smith, Glenn D. (2007). "Something on My Own": Gertrude Berg and American Broadcasting, 1929-1956. Syracuse University Press. pp. 44–45. ISBN   9780815608875 . Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Ransom, Jo (April 17, 1935). "Radio Dial-Log". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. New York, Brooklyn. p. 30. Retrieved May 23, 2018 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  4. 1 2 3 4 Siegel, Norman (October 20, 1935). "The Lady Who Lives in a 'House of Glass'". The Ogden Standard Examiner. Utah, Ogden. Every Week Magazine. p. 28. Retrieved May 19, 2018 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  5. "Gertrude Berg on Radio Again". The Des Moines Register. Iowa, Des Moines. April 21, 1935. p. 35. Retrieved May 19, 2018 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  6. "The Goldbergs May Be Off Air for Present". The Star Press. Indiana, Muncie. United Press. November 22, 1953. p. 19. Retrieved May 23, 2018 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  7. "Gertrude Berg Starts 25th Year". The Tampa Tribune. Florida, Tampa. December 6, 1953. p. 19-C.
  8. 1 2 Gaver, Jack (December 27, 1953). "Molly Works Under New Name". Detroit Free Press. Michigan, Detroit. United Press. p. TV-7.
  9. Stafford, M. Oakley (November 23, 1953). "Informing You". Hartford Courant. Connecticut, Hartford. p. 12. Retrieved May 23, 2018 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  10. Steinhauser, Si (November 23, 1953). "Another Crosby -- A Girl Too -- Acquires Fame". The Pittsburgh Press. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. p. 47. Retrieved May 23, 2018 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  11. "What's News in Radio and TV". Dayton Daily News. Ohio, Dayton. December 19, 1953. p. 17. Retrieved May 23, 2018 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg