That's when Ted left the now, five-year-old, Chuckie to die in a freak boxing accident. Meta then left her house and then the Bauers in a daze and ended up in front of Ted's house and shot him dead. In 1950, on the radio version at one point listeners got the chance to choose whether or not to find Meta guilty of murdering her ex-husband Ted White. Ray, on Charlotte's urging, who defended Meta despite the previous custody battle, must have been convincing because the radio audience had Meta acquitted due to temporary insanity. Ray and Charlotte Brandon and Dr. Ross Boling and Dr. Mary Leland faded into obscurity shortly after this, with the only mention of the Brandon's being with Bill and Bert bought their house in the Hollywood Hills. Meta and Trudy later became best friends, with Trudy later marrying the well-off Clyde Palmer and they moved to New York City. The conflicts between the Bauer clan and Bill's headstrong wife Bert were an integral part of the plot in the television show's first decade. Although Bert and her sister-in-law Meta eventually became very close, initially there was a considerable amount of hostility between them. An additional plot-line in this period focused on Bill Bauer's alcoholism and his career difficulties, which were exacerbated by Bert's materialistic nature: she wanted to live much more extravagantly than Bill's salary allowed. Enter to all of this, in 1951, were two people who were going to cause this marriage much turmoil for the next four years of Bill and Bert's marriage. After Ted White's death, Bill had to seek employment with another advertising agency and worked with show business manager, Sid Harper, who was trying to get a singer named Gloria LaRue to sign with him and sought Bill's help. What neither one of the men knew was that Gloria was also an alcoholic and she and Bill started an affair. Gloria nearly had Bill divorce Bert, but Bert refused to let him go and then Bert discovered she was pregnant. When Bill discovered that Bert was pregnant, he agreed to stay with her. Gloria then fell off the wagon, and Sid offered her a new radio and television career which gave her the strength to get sober. Gloria and Sid were then married, and with Bill back with Bert and her expecting their first child, things seemed to stabilize for the Bauers. Bert gave birth to a boy named Michael (later named, "Mike", and named after Charita Bauer's first son who was also named Michael.)