{{Short description|American radio executive (1890 – 1946)}} {{upscaled images|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL |}} [[File:Bertha Brainard.jpg|thumb|Brainard pictured around 1928]] '''Bertha Brainard''' (June 16, 1890 – June 11, 1946), known to her friends as '''Betty''', was a pioneering [[NBC]] executive responsible for setting trends in network broadcasting.<ref name=bbrain>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110718234641/http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/summary.aspx?m=17 Paley Center for Media: "She Made It": Bertha Brainard]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=g69emWgw2SoC&dq=peterson+%22bertha+brainard%22&pg=PA261 Halper, Donna L. ''Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting'', M. E. Sharpe, 2001.] {{ISBN|0-7656-0581-3}}</ref>

==Life and career== She was born and raised in [[South Orange, New Jersey]], the daughter of Henry Brainard (a former [[journalist]] and publisher) and his wife Ada. After graduating high school, she attended a teacher's college in nearby Montclair, but subsequently decided she did not want to teach. During the war, she drove an ambulance for the Red Cross, and with some encouragement from her brother, she decided to try to find work in the new medium of [[radio]].<ref>Hilmes, Michele. ''Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting'', Wadsworth, 2002, p. 47.</ref> She became a theater critic, and began hosting a program called ''Broadcasting Broadway'' for WJZ in Newark beginning in March 1922.<ref>Scully, Michael. “The Girl Boss of WJZ”, ''McClure's'', vol. 59, #2, August 1927, p.&nbsp;39.</ref> By 1923, she became the station's assistant program director, helping to select the live performers and later doing critiques of the station's announcers. By October 1926, she had moved up to program manager.<ref>Kaiser, Florence V. “Women Take Places as Radio Directors.” ''Washington Post'', December 16, 1928, p. RA3.</ref>

After she became head of programming for NBC in 1928, the network's first woman executive, she began pushing for singer-bandleader [[Rudy Vallée]] to host a variety series by explaining that only a woman could understand the appeal of Vallée's voice.<ref name=rudel>Rudel, Anthony. ''Hello, Everybody: The Dawn of American Radio''. Harcourt, 2008.</ref> [[File:Rudyvallee.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Rudy Vallee]] ''[[The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour]]'' (aka ''The Rudy Vallée Show'', aka ''The Fleischmann Yeast Hour'', aka ''The Fleischmann Hour'') was then launched as a musical variety radio program on NBC from 1929 to 1936, when it became ''The Royal Gelatin Hour'', continuing until 1939.<ref name=bbrain/>

Beginning October 24, 1929, the show quickly became a top-rated program, second only to ''[[Amos 'n' Andy]]''.<ref name=rudel/> Host Vallée appeared along with regulars [[Ole Olsen (comedian)|Ole Olsen]] and [[Chic Johnson]] (1932), followed by Tom Howard and George Shelton (1935). On this show, the American listening audience heard many future stars for the first time, as it introduced such talents as [[Milton Berle]], [[Burns and Allen]], [[Alice Faye]], the [[Mills Brothers]] and [[Kate Smith]]. [[Gloria Swanson]] made her radio debut. Other guests included [[Ray Bolger]], [[Fannie Brice]], [[Ilka Chase]], [[Helen Hayes]] and [[Bert Lahr]].<ref name=bbrain/>

===Radio comedy=== Brainard also introduced satire to radio by commissioning [[Raymond Knight (radio)|Raymond Knight]] to create a comedy show. Knight was writing [[continuity (broadcasting)|continuity]] and commercials for NBC in 1929, when Brainard asked him to devise "something cuckoo" for the Blue Network. He responded with the zany ''[[The Cuckoo Hour]]'' (aka ''The KUKU Hour'') as a showcase for his wacky humor, performing as Ambrose J. Weems.<ref>Dixon, Peter. ''Radio Writing''. New York: The Century Company, 1931.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/emruf2/otr/kuku.html |title=''Station KUKU'': ''The Cuckoo Hour'' transcript (December 23, 1930) |accessdate=2009-10-26 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026214827/http://www.geocities.com/emruf2/otr/kuku.html |archivedate=2009-10-26 }}</ref>

Brainard remained an NBC executive until 1946 when she married advertising executive Curt Peterson, with whom she had worked over the years. Her retirement and marriage were brief, as she died of a heart attack, in [[Huntington, New York]], later that year.<ref name=bbrain/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== *Hilmes, Michele. ''Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting''. Wadsworth, 2002. *Kaiser, Florence V. “Women Take Places as Radio Directors.” ''Washington Post'', December 16, 1928, p. RA3. *Scully, Michael. “The Girl Boss of WJZ.” ''McClure's'', vol. 59, #2, August 1927, pp.&nbsp;39, 122.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brainard, Bertha}} [[Category:American radio executives]] [[Category:1946 deaths]] [[Category:1890 births]]