GLADYS HURLBUT

December 9, 1898

Gladys Hurlbut was an actress born in Dresden, a city in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York, although some sources report that she was born in Norwich, Connecticut. She began her acting career on Broadway in 1920 and appeared in seven plays through 1949. As a playwright, she wrote three plays produced on Broadway, the last of which featured Elizabeth Patterson (Lucy’s Mrs. Trumbull) and K.T. Stevens (Lucy’s Mrs. O’Brien). She also collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winner Josh Logan and Tony-winning director George Abbott to write the books of two musicals. 

Hurlbut’s final Broadway play was the 1949 sequel to Life With Father, titled Life With Mother, which failed to equal the phenomenal success of the original. 

In 1951, Hurlbut did her first screen role, playing Mrs. Conger in The Mating Season. In 1953 she made her television debut on “The Chevron Theatre” in “The Worried Man.”  

In 1954 Hurlbut worked with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz playing Mrs. Bolton in The Long, Long Trailer. 

From 1954 to 1956 she played Mrs. Harriet Conroy for three out of four appearances on the NBC sitcom “It’s A Great Life”.  She shared the screen with Francis Bavier, Joseph Kearns, Gail Bonney, and Madge Blake. 

In 1957, she returned to Broadway – but this time as an audience member on “I Love Lucy” in “Lucy’s Night in Town” (ILL S6;E22),

first aired on March 25, 1957 and filmed on February 21, 1957. Hurlbut plays the woman at The Most Happy Fella whose purse Lucy mistakes for Ethel’s. 

Hurlbut returned to Desilu to portray Mayberry moonshiner Clarabelle Morrison (left) in “The Andy Griffith Show” episode “Alcohol and Old Lace”. Charity Grace (right) played her sister Jennifer in a story that foreshadowed the Baldwin Sisters on TV’s “The Waltons” (1972-81). The title of the episode was taken from the title of the 1939 play and 1944 Frank Capra film comedy Arsenic and Old Lace which featured two elderly sisters who poisoned people using arsenic-laced elderberry wine.  

Her final screen role was making three appearances on Desilu’s “The Ann Sothern Show” from 1960 to 1961. She played Mrs. Gray opposite Louis Nye as her husband Delbart. In 1959, Lucille Ball guest-starred on the series as Lucy Ricardo.

Hurlbut was married to Charles DelaVergne. She died on January 25, 1988 in Woodstock, New York, at age 89.