Family Archive

The Family Upstairs

Harry Delf wrote The Family Upstairs during the early part of the 1920's. It was produced and staged at the Gaiety Theater on 46th and Broadway in the year 1925. The play was a comic exploration of the dynamics of middle class family life in New York City.

He wrote about what he knew, which was not the New York of high society and parties that comes to mind when we envision the roaring Twenties. It wasn't the wealthy and powerful New York of Riverside Drive, Park or Fifth Avenues; nor was it the down and out street New York of Chaplin's little tramp or Keaton's lovable drifter characters. He wrote about the New York of the Bronx, Harlem, West End and the pockets of the city where families of moderate middle class means lived. In 1925 writing about a middle class family was a novel concept to the entertainment world both because it was about the middle class and because it was about the family.

He wrote several plays about this subject matter that all had the word Family in their titles and became known as the "Family Series." Besides The Family Upstairs he wrote Too Much Family, The Family Picnic, The Family Wedding and a few others.

Registry Card

Here is the Call Registry Card for my Aunt Juliet, the impersonator. On it she lists the broad range of nationalities for the characters she could play including her hometown Bronx imitation.

Registry Cards were handed out by performers as promotional and marketing tools. They were a quick and easy, short form resume that she would distribute to booking agents, theater managers or anyone looking to hire a particular type of performer. I would estimate that this card was from around 1933 when Juliet had moved away from the Vaudeville Circuits and was doing mostly musical theater and radio.

Last Spring I showed this card to a friend who is a historian and early entertainment expert whose immediate response upon seeing it was " Wow! I can't believe she was on the Goldbergs" referring to the radio show listed at the bottom of the card. At that time I was unfamiliar with this radio show. That evening when I got home he had sent me the link to the trailer for a new documentary that was set to come out a few months later entitled "Yoo Hoo Mrs.Goldberg" all about the Goldbergs. The movie came out early in the summer I saw it opening night, loved it and am still blown away by this strange and unlikely time lapse coincidence.

  http://www.mollygoldbergfilm.org/home.php