Award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner told the 92nd Street Y audience at the June 25 screening of her latest documentary, “Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” that when she mentioned Gertrude Berg to Fran Drescher, the response of “The Nanny” was, “Who was Gertrude Berg?” There was a communal gasp. “She was the Oprah of her day,” says one of the “talking heads” in the film. “She invented the template for the sitcom,” paving the way for “I Love Lucy” and others that followed. And wait until you see the film and hear what Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has to say about the impact that “Mrs. Goldberg” had on her family and childhood. Opening July 10 at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, it is a must-see. Imagine a woman who wrote and acted in 12,000 radio scripts… who created a show portraying Jews in a positive light; hired Jewish actors, including Menasha Skulnik, and to counter Hitler’s rants, presented a Passover Seder on the air. “She was the most famous woman in America you’ve never heard of,” a press release notes.
The post-screening question-and-answer session between Kempner and Annette Insdorf, director of undergraduate film studies at Columbia University, disclosed a number of Goldberg gems. According to a poll, she was “the second most respected woman in America, after Eleanor Roosevelt.” She was a genius at product placement and a savvy product pitch woman. “Was she religious?” Insdorf asked. It seems that Molly Berg, the iconic American Jewish mother, the keeper of the flame, according to Kempner, “celebrated Christmas” and lived elegantly on Park Avenue. She brought a Bronx family — that happened to be Jewish — into the living rooms of America. And they welcomed and loved her! So, if younger members of your family, friends or neighbors have heard of Molly Berg, here’s a chance for them to discover one of America’s media trailblazers whose impact still resonates on TV screens worldwide.
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Masha Leon of The Forward 
