Gertrude Berg (3 October 1898 – 14 September 1966) was an American actress and screenwriter. A radio pioneer, Berg was one of the first women to create, write, produce and interpret a program success, which got her tragicomic serial The Rise of the Goldbergs (1929), later known as The Goldbergs.
Career
His real name was Tilly Edelstein [ 1 ], was born in Harlem, New York. He attended public schools, and learned Theatre producing satires in the paternal tourist centre in the Catskills mountains in Fleischmanns, New York. One of his satires, semi-autobiographical character, and portrays a Jewish family at their home in New York, became a radio show. On November 20, 1929 was broadcast on NBC episode 15 minutes of The Rise of the Goldbergs. “Thanks to this, Berg began to earn $75 per week, which last less than two years, became 2,000”.
Berg was completely identified with the role of Molly Goldberg, the generous matriarch of his fictional New York family. She wrote almost all the radio episodes (more than 5,000), and their adaptation to Broadway, Me and Molly (1948). With difficulties, Berg managed to convince CBS to adapt The Goldbergs to the average television in 1949. Berg won the first Emmy for best actress in a comedy series on his debut on TV – his twentieth year in a row playing – and the show stayed on antenna for five years.
The Goldbergs struggled in 1951, during McCarthyism. Fellow cast, Philip Loeb (husband of Molly, Jake Goldberg Patriarch), was one of the artists appearing in network Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in radio and Television, by which ended in the Hollywood blacklist. Loeb resigned his post to prevent damage to Berg. The actor would have received a generous compensation, but this did not prevent from falling into depression and ended committed suicide in 1955.[ 3 ] The Goldbergs returned one year after the departure of Loeb, remaining in antenna until 1954, whereupon Berg also wrote and produced a film version.
Berg received the Tony for best actress for her performance in A Majority of One in 1959, and in 1961 won Sarah Siddons Award for his work in the theatrical medium of Chicago. Berg also published a memoir, Molly and Me, in 1961. That same year he won a last television success with the Four Star Television sitcom Mrs. g. Goes to College (retitled The Gertrude Berg Show average season). Her co-stars were Cedric Hardwicke, Mary Wickes and Marion Ross.
Berg was also a composer of songs. One of them, “That Someone Wonderful”, he even part of the Repertoire of the country singer Patsy Cline on his debut album in 1957.
Death
Gertrude Berg died of heart failure in a hospital in Manhattan, New York, 1966.[ 4 ] She was buried in the Delaware County Clovesville cemetery.
In 1918 had married Lewis Berg in 1918. The couple had two sons, Cherney (1922-2003) and Harriet (1926-2003). Lewis berg died in 1985.