Gertrude Berg: Her Vision, Her Voice

The year 1929 marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties. It was the year that ushered in the Great Depression. It was the year that the American audience met a young, Jewish, female author by the name of Gertrude Berg.

Berg was born in New York City in 1899 in the Jewish section of Harlem. She was the only child and the decendent of Eastern European Jews. She learned about the wonderous world of theater at a young age by helping produce various skits at her father’s resort in the Catskills. In 1928, Berg wrote out a unique program that reflected her own background. The following year, this cleverly written script was sold to NBC and aired on October 29, 1929.

The Rise of the Goldbergs was a fifteen-minute program that aired six days a week on radio.  The show centered on Berg’s very ethnic background; it featured the home life of a Jewish family living in the Bronx.  The great thing about The Rise of the Goldbergs, which eventually was shortened to The Goldbergs, is that the scenarios in the program were relatable. “Combining aspects of the family comedy and the daytime serial, The Goldbergs pioneered the character-based domestic sitcom format that would become television's most popular genre. Its concern with ethnicity, assimilation, and becoming middle class carried it through the first three decades of broadcasting and into the post-war period, but ultimately proved out of place in the homogenized suburban domesticity of late 1950s TV.” -Michelle Hilmes from the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Berg used her Jewishness and her immigrant family in a comical way as a source of inspiration for this hit program. She not only wrote the scripts, but she also played one of the leading roles. A woman breaking through the barriers of a male-dominated Hollywood, especially at this time in history, is incredible. But, Berg was also Jewish and instead of that being something people used against her, it was what made her.  This show was her vision and her voice. 

In Making Movie Magic (Reel to Reel), Bell Hooks discussed in depth how television, movies and media influence our ideals about different people groups. "Strong texts work along the borders of our mind and alter what already exists." (Bell Hook).  Media plays an educational role in our lives. Even though The Goldbergs was heavy with cultural stereotypes, it was unique because it reflected so much of who Gertrude Berg was. Through this, she was able to share entertaining and comical experiences in a positive way. 

In a time where women were not seen as equal and where Anti-Semitism was on the rise, Berg created something that positively influenced her audience in the way she wanted. 

Sources:

http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=goldbergsth

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/berg.html

Bell Hooks.  “Making Movie Magic.”  Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. 

New York: Routledge, 1996.