Movie review: Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

"She was the Oprah of her day."

by John P. Meyer

Per the poster blurb, Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg tells the story of Gertrude Berg, "the most famous woman in America you've never heard of." It does so in high Ken Burns documentary style, employing narration and incidental music scored over vintage photographs, excerpts from radio and TV productions, and contemporary interviews.

Gertrude Berg's career and talents didn't just set the stage for family-oriented situation comedies -- they BUILT it, argues producer/director Aviva Kempner. Her film bio touches on everything from Berg's childhood growing up in New York City (and later the Catskills resort town of Fleischmanns), to Berg's beginnings as a popular radio personality, through her stellar career in television.

A multi-talented woman, Berg wrote, produced, and acted in her shows and sketches. Not only did she pave the way for later, more familiar sitcoms (such as I Love Lucy), she more or less invented the art of product promotion and in-character advertising pitches.

Berg's period of popularity (she was rated at one time as the second most popular woman in America, right behind Eleanor Roosevelt) spanned tumultuous times which were reflected in her productions, including:

* The Great Depression (her first radio show made its bow on Black Tuesday, 1929);

* The rise of Nazism (as Hitler pontificated, NBC broadcast an episode of The Goldbergs featuring a Passover celebration);

* The McCarthy "red scare" years (her co-star Phillip Loeb was blacklisted, and she refused to fire him, leading CBS to cancel her show even while sponsor Sanka Coffee's sales were skyrocketing).

In 1950, a film version of The Goldbergs (titled Molly) bowed to cinema audiences. Berg's TV show reappeared in 1954, but the fictional family whose matriarch dispensed her unique Kosher homespun humanist philosophy (laced with humor) made the mistake of moving its setting from an inner-city apartment building to the suburbs, where the plot device of having legions of supporting players drop in without knocking (think Seinfeld or Friends) left the picture.

Still, before Berg's immense popularity played itself out, she had:

* Become the highest-paid wage-earning woman in America (just AHEAD of Eleanor Roosevelt);

* Won the Best Actress Emmy;

* Performed on Broadway in the lead role of A Majority of One (garnering a Tony for her efforts);

* Published a cookbook;

* Introduced such talents as Steve McQueen and Anne Bancroft;

* Written over 12,000 scripts.

Given the scope of Berg's popularity and talent, it's easy to see how Kempner ended up with a 92-minute cut for the film's theatrical edit. But that doesn't mean we have to agree that such lengthy drill-down was necessary, particularly when it comes to speculation about Berg's less-than-happy formative years, or modern-day interviews of only peripheral interest or importance. (Such as the one in which Ed Asner tells us how he and his family -- attempting to keep a low profile while growing up Jewish in the Midwest -- explains how "Molly Goldberg, with her accent, interfered with our 'blending'.")

The most entertaining vintage clips (inserted periodically throughout the film) are taken from an interview with Berg and her husband Lewis conducted by Edward R. Murrow. Gertrude Berg comes across as a friendly, well-off neighbor lady with a lot of charm and a personality that won't quit.

Much like this documentary.