Gerald Wright's Movie Coverage
"YOO-HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG MOVIE REVIEW"
Directed by: Aviva Kempner
Running time: 1 hr. 32 mins.
Genre: Documentary and Biography
Distributor: International Film Circuit
MPAA Rating: Not rated
This is an impressionistic portrait of Gertrude Berg (born Gertrude Edelstein in 1899). Filmmaker Kempner delivers a superb analysis of a forgotten figure in American history. Profound in its make-up, this documentary delivers an expositional story which evolves into a tribute to a great woman of radio, television, movies and stage.
Many remember Gertrude Berg as Molly Golberg, the comedic star, creator, and main writer of the popular radio show The Rise of the Goldbergs (debuted 1929) and later in 1949's, the first domestic sitcom The Goldbergs. The memorable slogan was, "Yoo- Hoo", as Berg portraying Molly would leaned over her open window seal to spread words of wisdom to her neighbors. The relatively normal situations millions of Americans found themselves in was performed by the show's cast, even though the story was about a poor Jewish family in New York. The dialogue was stereotyped; however, the emphasis was on Gertrude Berg's portrayal of the Jewish mother. This mother was a constant source of universally positive solutions to problems. Gertrude Berg's performance in her debut television series as the bighearted matriarch of her fictitious New York family won her the first ever Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Comedy. In 1959, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress for her stage performance in A Majority of One.
Aviva Kempner's documentary displays Berg as a sophisticated and complex person. Filmmaker Kempner uses "cutaway scenes" that allow Berg's story to be told without narration exposing emotional sequences of her childhood. Gertrude Edelstein was born in East Harlem, New York from humble means. She attended public schools and Columbia University. Unfortunately, she had a brother who died at a young age. The loss of the only male child in the family caused a state of depression, and Gertrude decided she was going to succeed in life. While working in her family's Catskills Mountains resort, she wrote and performed in shows to entertain their guests.
One of those guests at the resort was a Brit named Lewis Berg, a man who invented instant coffee for soldiers fighting in World War I. In 1918, eighteen year old Gertrude married Lewis. Lewis Berg was a brilliant chemical engineer who provided everything for Gertrude; however, Gertrude was a woman who had a mind of her own. She returned to writing scripts, and pitched her work to the radio stations and ultimately, television. Once she gained a nation-wide base of popularity, her life blossomed into an advocate of civil rights working with Eleanor Roosevelt. As a feminist, she was the first woman to pioneer classic radio and early television in fields of creating, writing, producing and starring in a serial comedy-drama. She was the first woman to own her radio and television versions of her shows.
In 1950, her strong beliefs were tested during the McCarthy years, when her co-star of The Goldbergs, Philip Loeb, was one of the performers named in Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. Loeb was blacklisted and Gertrude refused to fire him from the show, despite the network and political pressures. Through archival interviews with Gertrude and from past sources, such as, Edward R. Murrow, Perry Como, Milton Berle and Steve Allen, the viewer gets to see how this brilliant woman influenced the "wonder years" of television. However, McCarthyism killed the laughter of the The Goldbergs when CBS dropped the series from their network only to be picked up by NBC (the show's original broadcasting home) later that year. The present day interviews include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Norman Lear and Margaret Nagle who share their insight of what this powerful woman meant to them.
Aviva Kempner gives an enlightening overview of Gertrude Berg's life through the Great Depression of 1929, two World Wars and the Korean Conflict. This sharp and stimulating movie is a guiding light for those Americans who forgot or never knew about this brilliant woman.
FILM RATING (B)
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