When I first heard about Gertrude Berg a couple of years ago when I was working on a documentary, after my initial shock dissipated, I got angry. How could it be that such a towering figure in radio and TV history could just... disappear?
Well, the good news is that Berg is back, hopefully for good. Aviva Kempner has put together the documentary Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg (disclaimer: I am consulting on outreach for the film) that restores Gertrude Berg to her rightful prominence as one of the leading figures of early TV.
Berg was the creator of the radio series The Goldbergs which morphed into the first family sitcom on TV The Goldbergs. The show introduced the country to a Jewish family in the years right after the Holocaust. This very Jewish family was welcomed into homes all across America and probably introduced Jewish customs and traditions to many people who had never heard of them before.
The thing about Gertrude Berg is that she did everything on the show. She wrote the scripts, she produced the show, and she starred in the show. EVERYTHING. She worked her ass off and received the first Emmy for best actress ever.
What was also so great about Gertrude is that she stood up for her co-star Philip Loeb who was named as a communist. Sadly, standing up for her convictions and her friend doomed the show. She lost her sponsors and couldn't get any more until she fired Loeb which she refused to do for over a year. During the McCarthy insanity there were not many people who stood up for others and Berg was one of those few. The show never really recovered and when they moved the family from the Bronx to the suburbs it was doomed.
This film is a great history lesson about a woman who was a feminist before the word was used. At the height of her popularity she was the second most admired woman in America after Eleanor Roosevelt. I'm so glad that her life has been preserved for generations to see.
Aviva Kempner has been working for many years to bring Gertrude's story to the screen. She answered some questions about the film.
Women & Hollywood: Why did you want to tell Gertrude Berg's story?
Aviva Kempner: For the past 30 years I have done films about Jewish heroes--men and women who fought the Nazis and baseball slugger Hank Greenberg. This time I wanted to concentrate on a heroine who had such a positive influence on American culture.
W&H: Gertude accomplished so many things in her life and was truly famous in her time yet she is completely unknown especially to younger audiences. How did she get to be: the most famous woman in America you've never heard of?
AK: Her shows were not syndicated, she suffered from her co-star Philip Loeb's blacklist, and she was on TV so long ago that she is not duly remembered.
W&;H: Gertrude was in charge of all facets of her show from writing to producing to casting...everything. What lessons can we take from Gertude and use today?
AK: Use every minute of the day. She would write from 6 to 9 in the morning, and her husband Lewis would type her scripts, and then she would go to the studio and produce and then without much effort slide into her role as Molly Goldberg.
W&H: Why have you made it your life's work to make documentaries about under known Jews?
AK: As a child of a Holocaust survivor who lost three grandparents and an aunt to the Holocaust, I consider it my life's mission to make films about Jewish heroes and heroines that contradict negative stereotypes about Jews.
W&H: Gertrude was so big and important in the industry that she was able to fend off the "blacklist" for some time and protect her lead actor Philip Loeb. Yet she could not hold them off and she was forced to remove Loeb and the show suffered and her career suffered. Can you talk about what it meant for a woman to do what she did at that time?
AK: I think for any man or woman at that time it was heroic to stand up to the blacklist, and it makes me proud one of the most courageous stories emulated from a Jewish woman.
W&H: What is your most favorite thing you discovered about Gertrude Berg?
AK: She wrote in the bathtub and every morning at 6 am. Now I wake up that early to work.
W&H: You really want younger women to learn about Gertrude. Why is that so important to you?
AK: Our tagline is the most famous woman in America you never heard of and that alone makes it an important film for younger women to see the film. Also we want Americans to know the first inspiration for the domestic sitcom was Berg, and that you can funny and poignant without having to be gross. Wonder what movie I could be talking about?
W&H: What story are you thinking of working on next?
AK: I co-wrote a dramatic script about a Navajo activist which I want to produce as well as documentaries on labor leader Samuel Gompers and the establishment of the Rosenwald schools.
Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg opens in NYC this weekend, Washington Dc on July 17th and will roll out across the country over the summer and fall. Check here for info on where the film is playing.
Kempner will be in NY this weekend conducting Q&As: She will be at Lincoln Plaza cinema at the Fri & Sat 7:10 & 9:25 and will be at the Quad Cinema at the Sat & Sun 2:50 & 4:40 shows.