Divorce Hearing

DIVORCE HEARING... presented in the belief that "divorce is America's greatest danger to the home and the community... and that understanding is the greatest weapon against divorce." Filmed in Los Angeles, Divorce Hearing entered nationwide television syndication in the fall of 1958. Unlike similar "reality" shows of its era, episodes featured actual couples whose marriages were in danger of falling apart. Divorce Hearing was also one of the earliest productions of the prolific David L. Wolper, best remembered for such award-winning TV miniseries as Roots (1977) and The Thorn Birds (1983).

Host Dr. Paul Popenoe began his career as the leading supporter of eugenics in America, authoring the textbook Applied Eugenics in 1918. When eugenics fell out of favor in the United States after World War II, Popenoe turned his attention to marriage counseling. He founded the American Institute of Family Relations and started the popular advice column "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" in the Ladies' Home Journal. Popenoe was also a regular guest on Art Linkletter's People Are Funny program, using a UNIVAC computer to successfully match male and female guests in a precursor to computer dating services. Popenoe's popularity was so great that he moved his practice to Hollywood Boulevard and began treating celebrity patients, including the eight-times divorced Lana Turner. Despite this, Popenoe never actually finished his college education, having only received an honorary doctorate from Occidental College in 1929.