In June, the first authoritative work on Gertrude Berg, a broadcasting and television pioneer of the 1930s and ’40s, went to print for the first time. “Something On My Own: Gertrude Berg and American Broadcasting, 1929-1956,” written by MSU assistant communication professor Pete Smith, details her extensive career.Berg produced, wrote and acted in some of the most well-known radio and television programs of the era. In a field dominated by men, she made a name for herself and was well-respected among her peers for her numerous accomplishments.
Berg’s work in television and radio paved the way for sitcoms and soap operas. She was also the first woman to sign a million-dollar contract; however, many people are not familiar with her name.
“She fell thtough the cracks of history,” Smith said.
Smith first discovered Berg while working on a paper during graduate school.
He was researching someone else and decided to look into Berg’s life.
He began his research on Berg in 1994 and has been writing his book for two and a half years.
“I decided to do a full-length biography about six or seven years ago,” Smith said. The book was published in June 2007.
Smith visited Syracuse University, where Berg donated most of her personal papers, scrapbooks and photos.
He was also able to interview some of Berg’s family members and talk to some of her coworkers.
“I really got caught up in her story. She was a woman in a man’s business,” Smith said.
At the time, men predominantly ran both television and radio. Berg made a name for herself by starting at the bottom and teaching herself how to work her own business.
“She had a drive and ambition in a time where women were told not to have ambitions outside the home,” Smith said.
The title of Smith’s book came from his interview with Berg’s daughter.
In it, she told Smith that Berg’s father had wanted her to help him with the family hotel business. Berg told him no, saying she wanted to do “something on my own.”
Berg’s passion and first priority was her career.
Even her daughter told Smith during an interview that Berg’s job came before her family life.
Smith said that Berg’s ability to write, produce and star in her works was incredible and required an immense amount of hard work.
“She was able to control her own intellectual property,” Smith said.
NBC Radio first aired Berg’s show “The Rise of the Goldbergs” in November 1929. Berg played the lead, Molly, a Jewish mother.
Writing about a fictional Jewish family living in New York, Berg strove to talk about numerous issues, such as assimilation, the Holocaust and World War II issues.
Despite the serious nature of these topics, Berg made the show humorous and wrote with somewhat of a soap opera style.
The radio program continued until January 1949 when CBS introduced “The Goldbergs” on television.
While some had doubted Berg’s ability to transpose the radio show into a television program, the series became a hit.
Berg was able to create a Broadway show “Molly and Me,” as well as a movie, stories and a cookbook based off her hit television show.
One of the reasons Berg is not well acknowledged today is because she opposed Hollywood’s blacklisting.
“She stood up against the television blacklist. Most other television executives didn’t,” Smith said.
In 1950, Berg’s co-star, Philip Loeb, who played Berg’s television husband Jake Goldberg, was accused of having communist ties and was blacklisted.
Berg received much pressure to fire Loeb because that is what other television executives were doing.
Smith said Berg refused to fire Loeb because she held the belief of the American justice system: Loeb was innocent until proven guilty.
Smith said Berg understood the business better than anyone and yet she risked her career by standing against CBS and General Foods, who sponsored the television show.
“Her career meant so much to her and she put all that on the line to stand up for a colleague accused of communism,” Smith said.
Smith said Berg’s decision put her career on the line for her principles.
“She chose her principles over her commercial interests. I’ve learned that sometimes you do have to choose your principles over profit,” Smith said.
After Berg’s refusal, CBS dropped “The Goldbergs” in 1951.
Loeb was innocent but being blacklisted ruined his career, and he later committed suicide.
Berg lost much of her career because of her support of Loeb and for standing up against the rest of the industry.
Smith said Berg was “done” with television.
While she had some theater success, she never made it back to where she had been previously.
“Everything she did, she was out there on the ledge, trying to do the right thing,” Smith said.
Smith said he had two goals while in school: to get his doctorate and to come back to MSU to teach.
This semester, he teaches introduction to mass media and honors public speaking courses.
Smith is originally from Morton, Miss. He graduated from MSU in 1993 with a communication degree.
After obtaining his master’s degree from Auburn University in 1995, he went to the University of Southern Mississippi where he received his doctorate in 2004.
Smith is now working on a biography on Loeb, whom he describes as a “firebrand, very liberal in his political beliefs.”
This past summer, Smith spent three weeks in New York going through Loeb’s personal papers and interviewing Loeb’s colleagues. He hopes to release the book sometime in the next five years.