There she is, folks — that’s Molly Goldberg, a woman with a place in every heart and a finger in every pie.

If you are like me (a week ago) you have NO idea who Molly Goldberg/Gertrude Berg is.

I was listening to NPR on Friday and heard a very interesting story. It was about this Jewish woman in the 1920's who created a sitcom, The Goldbergs. In fact, she created the genre of sitcom, to an extent. It started as a radio show and then was adapted to television. It went off the air in the 1950's. Sadly, most of the episodes were destroyed but there are a few historical records of the radio show and television show.

I read a great article on MyJewishLearning.com about The Goldbergs. Read it here
Also, there is a new film out called, Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (a signature call of that show), by Aviva Kempner. Here is the interview with Aviva on NPR (which is what sparked my curiosity).

Gertrude Berg was an actress and writer (screenwriter, eventually), one of the first women to hold those roles. She was born in NY to a Jewish family and wrote about what she knew, Jewish family life in NYC. She was the first person to receive the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series but things weren't always funny for Gertrude. She was loyal to her cast/friends, almost to a fault. When her television husband, Phillip Loeb, was accused of Communism (he was involved in the Actor's Equity Union and AFRA to better conditions for actors), Gertrude stood by him... until she was forced to let him go for fear that the show would be taken off the air. She did, however, keep him quietly on the payroll because he was eminently unemployable after being blacklisted by McCarthy. Though she provided for him, Phillip Loeb sank into a depression. Being unable to work and with failing eyesight, he ultimately committed suicide in 1955.

Gertrude addressed real issues affecting Jews in America with her scripts. Ms. Kempner mentions this in her interview with NPR, "Very early on as Hitler rose in power, she had a very overt Passover scene on radio," says Kempner. "Some months after Kristallnacht, she had a stone being thrown through the window on the radio show, and while no one was addressing the Holocaust on TV, she had an episode where she got letters from her relatives."

But Molly Goldberg was everyone's mother during those 26 years (20 years on radio and six years on television)... imagine that! 26 years! We are lucky if a show lasts one year these days.

She was the stereotypical Jewish mother but not in a negative way. Always positive and with dignity. It didn't matter where you lived or if you had ever met a Jew, you loved Molly Goldberg.
President Roosevelt supposedly said, "I didn't get us out of the Depression, The Goldbergs did."

Once the television show went off the air, Gertrude moved onto the Broadway stage earning a Tony for her work in A Majority of One.

Gertrude Berg (zt"l) passed away in 1966.

What a powerful history that I never knew. I will be looking for anything I can find from the amazing 26 years of The Goldbergs and if you want to see something now, the article from MyJewishLearning.com has a few clips.

Basil Rathbone… my hero

Okay, so I posted in February how I am in love with Sherlock Holmes and recently ordered some old DVDs (Rathbone and Bruce from the 40's and Jeremy Brett from the 80's).

Well, I got them... finally! :-)

As luck would have it, my schedule didn't allow a Sherlock Holmes weekend and there were technical difficulties... (I need another surge protector for my living room tv. The Comcast guy didn't tell me he unplugged my dvd player to plug in the cable box, grrrr.) BUT I have snuck a few episodes in here and there this weekend.

Wow.

First of all, the UCLA Film & Television Archive did an AMAZING job at restoring these films. AND they put a note in the box explaining it. I actually learned a lot! Here is a blurb from their website -

Until 1950, films were produced using nitrate cellulose film stock, a chemically unstable and highly flammable material that inevitably deteriorates and turns to dust. Film preservation historically referred to the transfer of nitrate films to more stable acetate (or safety) film stock. However, acetate film stock also deteriorates, giving rise to a condition called "the vinegar syndrome"; and many of the color films made since 1950 are also subject to irreversible color fading. Many of the Archive's preservation and restoration projects deal with these post-1950 titles. The Archive is relying increasingly on a new polyester film stock, which appears to be much more stable if kept in optimal storage conditions.

They really did a nice job. They found the original front end titles and back end credits that were thrown away and restored the film to it's former glory. There were only a few they couldn't get all the pieces for or were irrevocably damaged.

So the first few episodes, well really, movies (they are over an hour long and were shown in theatres) are totally time warp Sherlock Holmes. They brought Holmes and Watson into WWII to help fight the Nazis. HOW COOL. It is rather funny to see them dressed in the period attire of the 40's rather than the late 1800's but still cool. The writers did a great job adapting Conan-Doyle's character to a new time period. They stayed pretty true to the character. (if you ignore the fact that they say "It's elementary, ____" to nearly every character and that is not something that Conan-Doyle wrote.)

So needless to say, I really am enjoying this collection. And I have two recommendations for you.

1. If you are watching late night tv and see a Brett or Rathbone Sherlock Holmes coming on, WATCH IT!

2. Help support the archive. What they do is invaluable and we have preserved so much history through their techniques.

Sherlock Holmes ala Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce

Okay, so a stated previously, I LOVE Sherlock Holmes. My dad even got an autographed copy of the complete works... which I thought was totally cool until I realized two things -

A. #1. It was signed, "To Talia.... Sincerely, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" and he has been dead for oh, I don't know... 50 years?

B. #2. It was totally my dad's handwriting.

But that did make it kinda more cool, that my dad would do that for me.

Anywho, so I was watching a little late night TV the other night and two things happened (and they say things come in threes...) -

A. #1. I saw a listing for the old (1980's) Jeremy Brett version of the Sherlock Holmes tv series AND

B. #2. My curiosity peaked, I went searching on Comcast for more and found that Encore was showing the old, OLD (1940's) Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce version of the Sherlock Holmes tv/movie series that they were making while doing the radio show during WWII!!!!

I have never seen #2 and got super excited... until I realized I don't get Encore. So I went searching... I found the entire set on Amazon.com! Both of them! The 1980's and 1940's versions! All episodes! ON DVD!!!!

Of course I bought them immediately (early birthday present to me)!

So here's the deal. Brett was brilliant as Holmes but Rathbone created the role... and yet, I have never seen his face! (okay, except on wikipedia) The earlier episodes that Rathbone did were taken out of Doyle's context and put during WWII so Holmes and Watson were fighting the Nazis. When the war was over, they went back to dramatizations of stories like Doyle's (they did that a lot, write new episodes based on Doyle's characters and style).

So, needless to say, I am anxious to get my DVDs and have a Sherlock Holmes marathon! :-)

P.S. The top is Jeremy Brett and the bottom is (obviously) Basil Rathbone.

--Talia

It’s my first time, be gentle…

Okay so here's the deal. I blog for work, I tweet for work, I tweet for me, I facebook, I myspace, I link-in... but I have never blogged personally.

I thought it would be an interesting experiment to try to blog. I do well with the 140 characters of Twitter... how will I do with a full blog?

We will see. I have promised myself I won't resort to blogs full of quotes (okay, sometimes... I love quotes) or links or "I am brushing my teeth."

So here's some back story and expectations.

I am a 27 (nearly 28) year old Public Relations professional in Denver. I work in the non-profit arts sector and love my work. [So look for blogs about PR, social media, marketing, networking, arts, dance, theatre, film... etc.]

I am in grad school, working on my masters in PR & Marketing. [More PR & marketing stuff, plus school trials and tribs.]

My father is a rabbi (seriously, follow his blog - Rocky Mountain Hai. It rocks.) and so I do a lot of work in the Jewish community. [Yes folks, that means Judaism, Jewish holidays, Israel, and Israeli politics, etc.]

I volunteer for Goodwill in Denver and my sorority, Gamma Phi Beta. [You'll hear about that I am sure. GPhi, volunteering, working with needy kids.]

I love yoga and am a bit of an addict. [Yup, you will hear when I master hurdler and if I fall out of my flying crow. Did I mention that birds of paradise is one of my favs? I'll get ya a picture.]

Lastly, I think, I am obsessed with a few things.
A. Angela Lansbury is my hero (hence Talia, She Wrote).
B. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rodgers, Gene Kelly... most films made between 1930 and 1955.
C. Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (that means Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, people)
D. Old radio shows. I love the old commercials... Petri Wine, Clipper Craft Clothing...
E. Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me (on NPR)
[All of the above, free game for blogs.]

Okay, one more thing... I am going to try to not delve too deeply into my personal like (aka dating) because, well, it's personal and frankly, I know some people who would love to use that against me. But I have no doubt a few details will slip in. :-)

Alright, enough level setting. Nice comments appreciated.

I hope this blog works out. It's fun already!

-- Talia Davis