If Gloria Blondell—born in Manhattan, NY one hundred and five years ago on this date—ever resented living in the shadow of older sister Joan, she rarely displayed any outside bitterness. This is not to say that occasionally being mistaken for the film star (Joan) who appeared in such classic Warner Bros. musicals as Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade didn’t present problems for Gloria…but since both she and her sister hailed from a theatrical tradition that Gloria herself once said dated all the way back to Richard the Lionhearted, there was no shortage of time to stand in front of the floodlights for Miss Blondell—besides, she preferred stage work to films, not to mention she left behind an old-time radio resume of which any actress would be proud.

Gloria first stepped onstage as a nine-month-old member of the vaudeville troupe “The Bouncing Blondells.” Her sister Joan and brother Eddie also performed with their parents—the senior Blondell (Eddie, Jr.), in fact, had an acting career that lasted nearly 80 years. While Joan was making inroads into Hollywood motion pictures in the 1930s, Gloria was establishing herself on stage with a role as a hotel maid in the 1935 New York production of Three Men on a Horse (which would be adapted as a feature film at Warner’s the following year). She followed this with a brief stint in the 1936 play Iron Men, which featured a young Eddie Bracken in the cast.

Gloria Blondell took a stab at motion picture work when she was signed to a contract at sister Joan’s studio Warner Bros. in 1938. Her film debut was in a B-programmer entitled Daredevil Drivers, and she also made appearances in Accidents Will Happen (starring opposite Ronald Reagan) and Four’s a Crowd (with Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHaviland). Gloria also worked briefly at Columbia, appearing in two-reel comedies alongside The Three Stooges (Three Sappy People), Andy Clyde (Home on the Rage) and Charley Chase (The Sap Takes a Wrap). Blondell’s film work was sporadic after that; though it’s interesting to speculate what might have happened had she landed a role she was the first choice for—the part of Blondie Bumstead, in a movie comedy inspired by Chic Young’s popular comic strip. Penny Singleton wound up with the part, and played it in what would be the first of twenty-eight comedies produced at Columbia between 1938 and 1950. Penny would also reprise on radio when a Blondie sitcom premiered over CBS Radio in 1939.

Interestingly, it was radio that would provide the central showcase for Gloria’s acting talents. Her best-remembered radio work is inarguably that of playing the indispensable Jerri Booker, gal Friday to Jack, Doc and Reggie on Carlton E. Morse’s I Love a Mystery from 1939 to 1944. The Jerri character became so important to the series that for a time it was trumpeted in the opening as “the adventures of Jack, Doc and Jerri.” After Mystery, Blondell played another assistant in Gloria Dean on Hollywood Mystery Time (1944-45), a series about a Poverty Row filmmaker named Jim Laughton (played by Carlton Young) who propped up his moviemaking ambitions by solving mysteries in his (and Gloria’s) spare time. Gloria was a favorite performer of radio auteur Arch Oboler, who used her frequently on Lights Out as well as Plays for Americans and Arch Oboler’s Plays. (Fittingly, Gloria would appear—along with fellow radio veteran Hans Conried—in the Arch Oboler-directed film The Twonky in 1953.) Blondell would make the rounds on a number of popular dramatic anthologies including All-Star Western Theatre, Diary of Fate, Family Theatre, Hallmark Playhouse, Hollywood Star Time, The Lux Radio Theatre, Screen Director’s Playhouse, Stars Over Hollywood, and The Theater of Famous Radio Players.

Dig through your old-time radio collection, and you’ve certainly heard Gloria Blondell on such favorites as The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, The Adventures of the Saint, The Casebook of Gregory Hood, Escape, The Green Lama, Jeff Regan, Investigator, Let George Do It, The Man Called X, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Rocky Jordan, Rogue’s Gallery, Voyage of the Scarlet Queen, The Whistler, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Gloria also demonstrated a flair for mirthmaking on sitcoms such as The Great Gildersleeve and Our Miss Brooks, and working alongside comedians like Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Jack Kirkwood, Lum and Abner (Chester Lauck and Norris Goff), and Bob Sweeney & Hal March.

In the 1950s, Gloria continued to be seen in such films as Don’t Bother to Knock and White Lightning, but she was probably better known for supplying the voice of Daisy Duck in the six Walt Disney cartoons that gave Donald’s long-suffering girlfriend a speaking part. Blondell also began to grace small screen shows as The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor and Wanted: Dead or Alive; I Love Lucy fans might remember her as neighbor Grace Foster in the classic outing “The Anniversary Present.” But Gloria’s most notable TV gig was playing Olive “Honeybee” Gillis (a part that Shirley Mitchell had played on radio) on The Life of Riley when the popular William Bendix radio sitcom took a second boob tube try in 1953. Blondell also did voice work on Calvin and the Colonel, the Joe Connelly-Bob Mosher produced animated sitcom that was created by radio’s Amos ‘n’ Andy, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. It must have seemed like Old Home Week for Gloria in that she was given the opportunity to work with many old-time radio veterans like Virginia Gregg, Paul Frees, June Foray and Howard McNear. It would be Blondell’s last professional gig: she retired not long after and enjoyed some well-deserved R&R until her passing in 1986.

Here at Radio Spirits, our Lights Out collections provide a wonderful starting point for those interested in checking out the always solid radio work of Gloria Blondell: Lights Out, Everybody features the classic chiller “Valse Triste” while Later Than You Think showcases the memorable “Murder in the Script Department.” Our birthday girl is also featured in two sets of Let George Do It (including our newest release, Cry Uncle) and The Adventures of the Saint (The Saint is Heard, The Saint Solves the Case). In addition, Ms. Blondell is present and accounted for on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (Sucker’s Road), Escape (The Hunted and the Haunted), The Man from Homicide, Richard Diamond, Private Detective (Dead Men), Voyage of the Scarlet Queen Volume Two, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (Confidential). Settle back for a birthday listen, won’t you?