Background

Gertrude Berg was born on October 3, 1899, in Harlem, New York City, New York, United States, the daughter of Jacob Edelstein, a restaurant and hotel owner, and Diana Goldstein.

Education

Gertrude attended public schools in New York City and wrote skits for the guests of her father's resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains. After graduating from Wadleigh High School, she enrolled in extension courses in drama at Columbia University.

Career

Berg's first effort to write for radio, a series called "Effie and Laura, " was canceled by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) after the opening show. In 1929 Berg devised another radio show, based upon her observations and memories of her parents and immigrant grandparents. The series was intended to chronicle the rise of a family called the Goldbergs. The central figure in the family was Molly, the mother. Berg recalled that when she first submitted her script to the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) she made it illegible so that she would have to read it aloud, thus auditioning for the main role of Molly at the same time. "The Rise of the Goldbergs" was inaugurated, at first only in New York City, on November 20, 1929. Only a month later, laryngitis forced Berg to allow a substitute to play Molly. More than 11, 000 letters of protest deluged NBC. By 1931 the program was broadcast nationally five evenings a week, from 7:30 till 7:45.

Among radio series only "Amos 'n' Andy" exceeded it in popularity and longevity. Beginning at a salary of $75 per week, out of which she was expected to pay her cast, Berg earned at her peak 100 times that amount, a trajectory quite different from that of the Goldberg family itself, whose rise was thwarted by the Great Depression. From its familiar opening, when Molly greeted her tenement neighbor with "Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Bloom!" the program was bathed in good cheer and informal humor. Unlike its rival, "Amos 'n' Andy, " "The Goldbergs, " as it was soon retitled, exuded lower-class authenticity.

Berg had grown up in a home in which Yiddish was rarely spoken; and ethnic expressiveness percolated through the scripts not so much in vocabulary as in syntax and intonations. More than 200 characters, drawn from Berg's relatives and friends, gave the shows immediacy and buoyancy. Sometimes nothing in particular seemed to happen, except demonstrations of Molly Goldberg's domestic skills. Though Berg used various professional actors, including such future stars as John Garfield, Joseph Cotten, Anne Bancroft, and Van Heflin, amateurs who were really delivery boys, grocery clerks, and elevator operators were hired to play themselves. The heart of "The Goldbergs" remained its creator and protagonist; and as Molly, Berg became the operational definition of the Jewish mother, warm, nurturing, omnicompetent, but with a special flair for nagging her husband and children.

In dispensing wisdom as well as blintzes, in soothing tensions that her own manipulations often provoked, Berg - as Molly - contributed to the formation of an American stereotype. Berg later wished to transcend such material, but her close identification with "The Goldbergs" did not permit much distance. In 1935, with the series temporarily off the air, Berg wrote and produced a radio series set in the Catskills. But "The House of Glass, " though moderately successful, was dropped that same season. "The Goldbergs" returned in 1936, this time on CBS. The series enjoyed an uninterrupted run until 1945, and then reappeared from 1949 until 1951. By then Berg had written more than 5, 000 scripts in longhand. They rarely needed to be rewritten, although alterations were made during rehearsals.

In 1948 Berg wrote and starred in a stage version of "The Goldbergs, " Me and Molly, which ran for 156 performances on Broadway. With N. Richard Nash, Berg wrote the screenplay for Molly (1951), a Paramount motion picture in which she again played Molly Goldberg. An estimated 13 million television viewers watched "The Goldbergs" on CBS from 1949 to 1951. But Philip Loeb, the actor who played Molly's husband, was associated with left-wing causes, and this led to pressure to fire him. Berg resisted, but in June 1951 General Foods dropped its sponsorship "for economic reasons. " When NBC picked up "The Goldbergs" in 1952, Loeb was not rehired; three years later he committed suicide.

An affable, kindly, roundish person who seems to have aroused little jealousy or animosity in show business, Berg could not escape the sentimental persona of the Jewish mother. Back on Broadway in 1959, she won an Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for her portrayal of Mrs. Jacoby, a Brooklyn widow who became involved with a Japanese widower, in Leonard Spigelgass' A Majority of One. Though she appeared in many other roles on television and in summer stock, Berg was so closely identified with Molly Goldberg that fans usually called her Molly, and autograph seekers wanted her to sign as Molly Goldberg. She obliged, but signed her own name as well. Berg died in New York City.

Achievements

• Gertrude Berg was one of the first women to create, write, produce and star in a serial comedy-drama "The Goldbergs. " She won an Emmy Award for the Broadway Adaptation of this program, "Me and Molly, " which ran for 156 performances on Broadway. Berg also played in a Paramount motion picture, "Molly" (1951), for which she wrote the screenplay, and in a TV program called "The Goldbergs, " which was on CBS from 1949 to 1951. Berg also won an Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Actress for her performance in A Majority of One.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Molly and me

    (In these warm, happy memoirs of one of America's most bel...)

  • Goldbergs: Ultimate Goldbergs

    (Meet the Goldbergs, a lively Jewish family living in NYC....)

  • Molly Goldberg Jewish Cookbook

    (Classic, traditional Jewish cookbook. The real thing.)

  • Yoo Hoo Mrs Goldberg
  • The Ultimate Goldbergs

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "Mrs. Berg is a real human being who believes in the people she writes about and is not ashamed of their simplicity. The result is a leisurely, intimate, cheerful portrait. " - Brooks Atkinson

Connections

Gertrude married an engineering student, Lewis Berg, on December 1, 1918. They had two children.

Father:

Jacob Edelstein

He was a restaurant and hotel owner.

Mother:

Diana (Goldstein) Berg

Spouse:

Lewis Berg

References

• "Something on My Own": Gertrude Berg and American Broadcasting, 1929-1956 (Television and Popular Culture)