Country of origin | United States |
---|---|
Language(s) | English |
Starring | Gertrude Berg and Joseph Greenwald (1935) Berg and Josef Buloff (1953-1954) |
Created by | Gertrude Berg |
Written by | Gertrude Berg |
Directed by | Gertrude Berg |
Produced by | Gertrude Berg |
Original release | April 17, 1935 – March 12, 1954 |
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]
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]
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
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.
Character | Actor |
---|---|
Bessie Glass | Gertrude Berg [1] |
Barney Glass | Joseph Greenwald [3] |
Millie | Arline Blackburn [4] |
Ella | Helene Dumas [4] |
Tiny | Celia Babcock [4] |
The supporting cast included Bertha Walden, Paul Stewart, and Everett Sloane. [3] Billy Artzt and his orchestra provided music. [5]
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
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.
Character | Actor |
---|---|
Sophie Milner | Gertrude Berg [8] |
Barney Glass | Josef Buloff |
Dish washer | Harold Stone [9] |
Waitress | Ann 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]
Berg created an original sketch of House of Glass and performed it on NBC's "first official television broadcast" in 1940. [2] : 111
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".
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.
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.
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.
Gale Page was an American singer and actress.
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.
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.
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.
Edythe Wright was an American singer who performed from 1935 to 1939 with the band led by Tommy Dorsey.
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.
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.
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.
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.