Backstage Wife
From 1935-1959, the show Backstage Wife was a popular soap opera heard on WGN and later NBC and CBS. It starred Vivien Fridell and Claire Niesen as the main character Mary Noble.
Mary was a girl from Iowa who moved out of her small town to the big city where she became married to a man in the theater. The show was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert who created many soap opera shows of the day are given credit for creating the soap opera genre and transforming the golden age of radio. .
They Larry Noble, the husband of Mary, was an actor in the theater and somewhat of a cad. He tended to be very fickle and Mary had to work to keep his attentions. There was often a contrast between the sweet character of Mary and the many actresses who sometimes had eyes for her husband.
The entire show was surrounded by the fact that Mary suffered in her marriage, but she carried on. She had many friends over the years – and just as many enemies. Every character had his or her own catchphrase to easily identify them.
The show was highly melodramatic and fairly one-dimensional, but the fans loved it. The announcer, Pierre Andre, began each show the same way. He introduced the character of Mary from Iowa who had married an actor in the theater and said it was the “story of what it means to be the wife of a famous star.”
As you can imagine emotions ran high from love to anger to deception to revenge. There were all kinds of dramatic plot twists such as amnesia, jealousy, and affairs. But that just kept listeners tuning in day after day to see how Mary would persevere. Sometimes the show is referred to as Mary Noble, Backstage Wife. but the title was always just Backstage Wife without the addition of the main character’s name.
It may be hard for today’s listeners to take the show too seriously. However, it’s not that unlike today’s soap operas with major chaos and crisis happening every day. You may enjoy listening to how soap operas got their start. Many recordings of the show are still available for the modern day listener.
Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were also unable to take the show seriously and for a while did a very funny parody of the series entitled Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife. I will add some of these for your enjoyment along side Backstage Wife.
Personally I prefer Bob and Ray's version but I can tell you though that Joy for one has enjoyed reliving this series as we listen to it to add to RUSC.
Happy listening my friends,
