Adelaide Klein

 


Adelaide Klein (July 8, 1900–March 18, 1983) was an actress who performed on radio, television, films, and the stage. She was best known for her dialects as a radio performer. Klein began her radio as a singer in the late 1920s. However, demand for her talents with dialect and as a character actress led her to acting full-time by 1933.

Klein performed in a variety of radio programs, including portraying Hilda, the maid in We, The Abbotts, Dragon Lady in Terry and the Pirates Agatha Meek in Meet Mr. Meek, and a Russian countess in The House on Q Street. She also was heard in Sometime Before Morning. Klein mastered use of 12 dialects in radio performances.

According to Wikipedia;

In the mid-1940s, Klein was active in the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) and served as a delegate for New York at national conferences in 1943 and 1944.. Klein was one of 56 delegates for New York at national conferences in 1943 and 1944, where she worked with others, including Donna Keath, Minerva Pious, Ann Shepherd, Selena Royle, and Hester Sondergaard.

Klein was listed in the blacklisting publication, Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television in 1950.  She continued to perform in theatre, but television roles dried up as a consequence of Klein being labelled a communist.”

Well, no. That’s not true at all. Klein,  a radio vice over actor since the 1920s, had a small  career in TV and film, a career never really too off at all. By 1952, when her career essentially ended, she was 49 years old, ancient by Hollywood standards, and played mostly bit part, going unaccredited in several of her prime time appearances.      

 

 

1964 The Troublemaker (Film)

1963 Marathon '33 (Theater)

1958 Decoy (TV Series)

1958 Jane Eyre (Theater)

1955. Once Upon A Tailor (Theater)

1954 The Immoralist (Theater)

1952 Collector's Item Theater

1951 Two Girls Named Smith (TV Series)

1951-1952  Lights Out (TV Series) She made three appearances in three different episodes   

1951 Somerset Maugham TV Theatre (TV Series) She made three appearances in three different episodes.

 1949-1951 The Clock (TV Series) She appeared in two episodes  

1951 The Enforcer (Film)

1951 Two Girls Named Smith (TV Series)

1950 The Web (TV Series)

1950 Hands of Mystery (TV Series)

1950 The Philco Television Playhouse (TV Series)

1950 The Ford Theatre Hour (TV Series)

1949 Studio One (TV Series) Uncredited in two episodes that she  appeared in.

1949 The Boris Karloff Mystery Playhouse (TV Series)

1949 The Big Story (TV Series)

1949 Suspense (TV Series)

1949 C'-Man (TV Series)

1949 The Guiding Light (Radio)

1948 The Naked City (Film)

1946 Lights Out (Film)

1942 Uncle Harry  (Theater)

1941 Brooklyn USA (Theater)

1936  Double Dummy. (Theater)