User:Spexo/Marge Greene

Marge Greene, born Margaret MacCaffrey (1919-tbd), was a writer and actress active in television from the 1940s to the 1960s. She was creator and co-star of Marge and Jeff, starred in several seasons of Candid Camera, and performed in numerous commercials. She was the first producer of the play Stalag 17, which later moved to Broadway then became a major motion picture.

Early life
Margaret MacCaffrey was born to John and Margaret MacCaffrey in Paisley, Scotland, on November 19, 1919. When she was a child, her family emigrated to the United States on the maiden voyage of the ocean liner Caledonia and settled in Philadelphia. She went to Kensington High School, where she was the president of the drama club, and attended Temple University. She married Stanley Wood Greene, an artist, in 1942.

Stalag 17
Greene was a member of the Plays & Players Theatre group in Philadelphia when a script about World War II was brought in for consideration. Initially voted down unanimously by the board of directors, Greene asked to read the script then advocated for presenting it. The board relented and Greene became producer of the Stalag 17 world premiere on April 7, 1949. The production attracted the attention of director José Ferrer, who brought the show to Broadway in 1951. Soon after, Stalag 17 was made into a major motion picture (1953). At its 2012 centenary, Plays & Players Theatre singled out Stalag 17 as the most notable production in its history.

Television career
Greene's first job in television stemmed from writing a Westinghouse commercial on the spot during a visit to Philadelphia's WPTZ (now KYW) in 1950. She became a versatile writer at the station and often filled acting roles. She was involved in programs such as Nixie the Pixie (a Lee Dexter puppet act), Tots and Tales with Marge Greene, and the short-lived Kovacs on the Corner.

After the success of the CBS hit I Love Lucy, the station was eager to produce a husband-and-wife sitcom. Greene and co-star Fred Bennett pitched "Marge and Fred," a 15-minute scriptless sitcom to run every weeknight. When Bennett opted out of the show after a 15-week run, the station sold the show to the DuMont Television Network.

Greene and program director Leonard Valenta moved to New York and brought in Jess Cain to play the husband in the reboot. The new program, retitled Marge and Jeff, ran from September 1953 to September 1954, continuing in the same vein as Marge and Fred by being "pretty much ad lib." The show enjoyed popularity, but was dropped from the schedule as a cost-cutting move by the failing network.

Greene found plenty of work in commercials, including Fab, Mr. Clean,...

In the early 1960s, she signed on for Candid Camera and worked on the show for several years.

Greene appeared in at least two movies, Made for Each Other (1971) and Hardhat and Legs (1980).