Gertrude Berg was perhaps the only woman to reach "hyphenate" status on prime-time network television during the 1950s as the creator, principle writer and star of her own weekly situation comedy, The Goldbergs. When the show came to television she was already thoroughly identified in the public mind with her life-long dramatic persona, Molly Goldberg, a Jewish-American mother she had developed into a quintessential stereotype on a long-running radio series. Public familiarity with the Molly character tended to obscure her career as a remarkably prolific writer.

Berg began writing and performing skits at her father's resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains, later studying playwriting at Columbia University. After selling several dramatic scripts to radio, her big break came in 1929 with the debut of her own series on NBC, The Rise of Goldbergs (later shortened to The Goldbergs). It was among the most popular programs of the radio era, often rivaling Amos 'n' Andy, another NBC series based on racial stereotypes, at the top of the national ratings. Fifteen-minute episodes of The Goldbergs aired Monday through Friday, placing the form of the program somewhere between the contemporary parameters of situation comedy and daytime soap opera. Berg wrote most of the episodes which, after a twenty-year production run, numbered over 5,000. A pioneer in product tie-in concepts, the writer-performer capitalized on the Molly Goldberg phenomenon with short stories, stage plays, a feature film and even a cookbook.

The Goldbergs premiered on television as a CBS sitcom in 1949. During its five-season production run, the show would move around the dial to NBC, Dumont and first-run syndication. A sentimentalized vision of melting-pot assimilation, The Goldbergs was "pure schmaltz," a mythic idealization of the American dreams and aspirations of a lower -class Jewish family in the Bronx. The differences between traditional shtetl values and middle-American values are consistently exposed as merely stylistic. The older members of the family, including Molly, her husband Jake and Uncle David, all speak with thick Yiddish accents, while Molly's children, Rosalie and Sammy sound more like the voices heard on Ozzie and Harriet. When it was becoming clear in the mid-1950s that ethnic sitcoms of this type were on the way out, Berg revamped the show by moving the family to the suburbs, renaming the series Molly (1954-55) and offering it in first-run syndication. These changes, however, could not save it.

For the next five years Berg was a frequent guest on comedy-variety shows, appearing with Perry Como, Kate Smith, Ed Sullivan and others. She also played several dramatic roles on anthology showcases, such as The U.S. Steel Hour and The Alcoa Hour. In 1961, Berg attempted to return to situation comedy with Mrs. G Goes to College (also called The Gertrude Berg Show) on CBS. It was the first time she had appeared on series television as any character other than Molly Goldberg. The old assimilationist themes remained at the heart of Berg's work; she plays Sarah Green, an elderly widow pursuing the education denied her by a poverty-stricken youth. Once again, Jewish values and American values are portrayed as distinguishable only in matters of style.

Berg's autobiography, Molly and Me, was published in 1961. Her papers, including many of her radio and television scripts, are collected at the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University. It is worth noting that Berg took a stand against the blacklist in 1951, refusing to fire her long-time co-star Philip Loeb (Loeb resigned to prevent the show's cancellation and later committed suicide).
-David Marc

GERTRUDE BERG. Born Gertrude Edelstein in New York City, New York, U.S.A., 3 October 1899. Extension courses in playwriting at Columbia University. Married Lewis W. Berg, 1918; children: Harriet and Cherney Robert. First radio script, Effie and Laura, 1927; wrote, starred in and produced the NBC radio series situation comedy, The Rise of the Goldbergs starting 1929; The Rise of the Goldbergs, published 1931; The Rise of the Goldbergs cast and Goldberg toured Vaudeville, 1934-36; half-hour radio serial The House of Glass, 1935; Goldbergs series returned to the air on CBS radio for six months, 1936;

Gertrude Berg

first film, Make a Wish, 1937; The Goldbergs ran four months on NBC radio, 1937; The Goldbergs, CBS radio 1938-45; wrote and starred in Broadway reworking of the Goldberg saga, titled Me and Molly, 1948; wrote and starred in The Goldbergs, CBS television, 1949-51; with N. Richard Nash co-wrote the movie version, Molly, herself starring in the title role, 1951; starred in The Goldbergs, NBC-TV, running during 1952 and the summer of 1953, then locally on WABD (Channel 5) in 1954; appeared in MGM's Main Street to Broadway, 1953; The Molly Goldberg Cookbook, 1955; acted in non-Molly Goldberg roles in stage plays such as The Solid Gold Cadillac, summer stock, 1956; summer stock The Matchmaker, 1957; on Broadway in A Majority of One, opposite Sir Cedric Hardwicke, 1959; Dear Me, the Sky Is Falling, 1963; autobiography, Molly and Me, 1961; television series Mrs. G Goes to College, later retitled The Gertrude Berg Show, 1961-62. Recipient of interfaith award, Cinema Lodge, B'nai Brith, 1949; citation, American Heritage Foundation; award, Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, 1949; awarded an Emmy for role as Molly Goldberg, 1950; citation of distinguished merit from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1950; commendation award, Veterans of Foreign Wars, 1950; Girls Clubs of America Radio and TV Mother of the Year; Antoinette Perry Award for best actress, 1959, for A Majority of One. Died 14 September 1966, in New York City, while in production for the lead in The Playgirls, scripted from her idea.

TELEVISION SERIES (as writer, star & producer) 1949-54 The Goldbergs (The Rise of the Goldbergs)
1954-55 Molly
1961-62 The Gertrude Berg Show (originally titled Mrs. G Goes to College)

FILMS
Make a Wish (writer), 1937; Molly, 1951; Main Street to Broadway, 1953.

RADIO
Effie and Laura (writer only), 1927; The Rise of the Goldbergs (star, producer), 1929-45; The House of Glass (star, producer), 1935

STAGE
Me and Molly, 1948; The Solid Gold Cadillac, 1956; The Matchmaker, 1957; A Majority of One, 1959; Dear Me, the Sky Is Falling, 1963.

PUBLICATIONS
The Molly Goldberg Cookbook. Garden City, New Jersey: Doubleday, 1955.
Molly and Me. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961

See also Goldbergs