''House of Glass'' is an American

old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

serial drama. It was broadcast on the

Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the ...

from April 17, 1935, until December 25, 1935, and revived on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

from October 23, 1953, until March 12, 1954.

1935 version

Background

Gertrude Berg Gertrude Berg (born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic old-time radio, radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a ...

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

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". The show's introduction invited listeners to enjoy "Bessie Glass and Barney, and the day by day human stories of their little hotel." Berg's father operated a resort hotel in the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...

, which gave her the background for recurring characters in ''House of Glass --'' particularly the head waiter, the bellboy, and the dish washer. 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.

Personnel

Berg had four roles — star, producer, director, and writer — with ''House of Glass'' Characters and the actors who portrayed them are shown in the table below. The supporting cast included Bertha Walden, Paul Stewart, and

Everett Sloane Everett H. Sloane (October 1, 1909 – August 6, 1965) was an American character actor who worked in radio, theatre, films, and television. Early life Sloane was born in Manhattan on October 1, 1909, to Nathaniel I. Sloane and Rose (Gerst ...

. Billy Artzt and his orchestra provided music.

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 The Colgate-Palmolive Company, commonly known as Colgate-Palmolive, is an American multinational corporation, multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in ...

took on sponsorship of ''The Goldbergs,'' leading to a five-year contract worth $1 million to Berg.

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. In this version, Berg played Sophie, a cook, who was secretly engaged to the hotel's proprietor, Mr. Glass. The cast and actors are shown in the table below. The producer was Cherney Berg, son of Gertrude Berg. Gertrude Berg wrote the scripts in longhand, and her husband typed them for the program.

Television

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

References

{{US radio soaps 1935 radio programme debuts 1954 radio programme endings 1930s American radio programs 1950s American radio programs NBC radio programs American radio soap operas