Back at 35,000 feet, but this time I’m actually posting from
the air. Did you know American Airlines has started offering Internet access on
board flights from LAX to JFK? Very cool…and yet I imagine very soon we'll be shocked to remember a time when there wasn’t Internet
access on planes.
We planned this trip several months ago to attend a wedding of a good friend. We were going to see a few plays and then head out to Cape Cod for the wedding. Except the wedding got cancelled, and later rescheduled for the same day in Los Angeles. Gulp. We decided to keep our non-refundable plane and theatre tickets!
Even though my family did not come through Ellis Island or
the Lower East Side, I always feel like a Diaspora Jew returning home when I
visit New York. I can’t think of a more Jewish city on the planet. I was just
reading about the quintessential New York Jewish mama, Gertrude Berg. A few
days ago would have been Berg’s 109th birthday. Are you familiar
with her or at least her most famous character, Molly Goldberg? Yesterday we had lunch with a woman who co-starred in the 1950 movie version of "The Goldbergs." Tomorrow night we're having dinner with an actress whose husband appeared on the radio version of the show.
Gertrude Berg was a true pioneer—a woman who wore all the hats: writer, producer, star, comedian—and this decades before Lucille Ball hit the airwaves. “The Goldbergs” started on the radio in 1929, moved to television in 1949, and lasted there until 1955, even surviving the blacklisting of one of the show’s stars, Philip Loeb.
It’s only my swiftly dying battery and our slow descent into Manhattan that’s preventing me from tormenting you with a PhD-thesis-length treatise on Gertrude Berg’s many accomplishments. So instead I’m including a segment from a documentary in the works about the amazing Berg and “The Goldbergs.” To me it’s the perfect thing to watch as we touch down in New York.
“YOO-HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG! WE’RE ON OUR WAY!”
Have a wonderful,wonderful time in New York! Get up to the Hungarian pastry shop and eat some strudel for me, if you can.
Posted by: Emily Barton | October 07, 2008 at 02:17 PM
Danny - What a remarkable post! One never quite knows what one will encounter on your blog, that's what makes reading it so much fun!
Posted by: Wendy | October 07, 2008 at 02:52 PM
Danny!
Tenx for the memories! Yoo Hooo!
Best,
Mrs. Bloom
Posted by: Ellen Bloom | October 07, 2008 at 04:21 PM
You're missing the debate. McCain is being so smug I'm going to hurl. AND he has started dropping his G's. Blech. I'd kill to be in NY. Are you going to Sammy's for skirt steak????? Have some chicken fat for me.
xo
Posted by: your sister | October 07, 2008 at 07:01 PM
Yoo Hoo, Mr. Miller. Loved this post. Love Gertie Berg. Love you and the Mrs. Love NYC. Come for a nice pot roast when you get home.Have fun. xo
Posted by: Kerry Karsian | October 07, 2008 at 07:08 PM
Dear Danny,
Thanks for the beautiful piece on Gertrude Berg. Other than seeing her a couple of times on the re-runs of "What's My Line ?," I never knew much about her. I really enjoyed the video.
Posted by: Gordon | October 07, 2008 at 09:39 PM
"Yesterday we had lunch with a woman who co-starred in the 1950 movie version of "The Goldbergs." Tomorrow night we're having dinner with an actress whose husband appeared on the radio version of the show."
Ohhh, Danny, the company you keep...
Thanks for this great post.
(An aside: Did you ever watch the early nineties, short-lived wonderful show BROOKLYN BRIDGE?)
Posted by: Pearl | October 08, 2008 at 12:09 PM
I used to love that show,it was so real life to me in Brooklyn. Later, my daughter used to call me Molly. Did she pick up something as a little egg in my ovary? If you've got time, maybe you want to daven on Yom Kippur at the Stanton St Shul on the lower east side,(between Clinton & Attorney STs) really haimish...a little building desperately in need of repair...around the block from a newly renovated larger shul on Clinton St. south of Houston st.(As I write this,I realize you'd prefer the Temple at Westbeth in the West Village.) After Rosh Hashanah services, I sat at the First St.park by First Ave and First St, thinking of my own Romanian born grandmother who 103 years ago, lived in one of those buildings at 1st & 1st just before she got married.
Posted by: Judy | October 08, 2008 at 12:15 PM
Dear Danny,
Thanks for the memories. I was a young teenager during the Goldbergs TV era and never missed a show. One of my favorite lines she used while speaking to a neighbor through the window was "Mrs. Bloom darling, please throw an eye on my soup while I'm out". My mother often used that line with me while growing up.
Hope you enjoyed your visit to N.Y. Did you do the Tenament Museum tour? It's a must see even if you're not from N.Y. Danny darling, please "throw an eye" on your Kendall and I wish you both the happiest of New Years.
Love,
Marilyn
Posted by: Marilyn Molnar | October 09, 2008 at 05:46 PM
Danny, thanks so much for the post and the video. What a marvelous look into Gertrude Berg's talent! The piece on Philip Loeb is so tragic. I don't think I ever knew his response to that awful part of our history. In a way, it's so timely, with all the slime coming out of the McCain-Palin ticket. Sorry to bring politics into it. Just can't seem to stay away...
Posted by: Elaine Soloway | October 11, 2008 at 05:35 AM