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Thanks to our friends at the Tampa Jewish Community Center & Federation for promotional assistance.
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At A Glance: Equal parts edification and entertainment, Aviva Kempner's tender tribute to a forgotten pioneer of American entertainment is both richly deserved and long overdue.
"[An] engrossing documentary portrait of a once-beloved radio and television star who died in 1966 and today is barely remembered." - Stephen Holden, New York Times
"In Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, Kempner gives us a balance of artist and alter ego, introducing us to a woman we'd like to know even better." - Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
"The documentary, like the series, is haimish in the extreme - cozy, warm, homey. It touches on such larger issues as feminism, acculturation, suburbanization, and the blacklist." - Mark Feeney, Boston Globe
SPECIAL EVENT!
Saturday, October 31st at 3:00
Pre-Show Entertainment -- Come early to hear Rosa play the Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Organ beginning (2:45-3:00 pm)
Stay after the film for “Rosa Rio’s Radio Days”
Tampa Theatre organist Rosa Rio occasionally played the organ for “The Goldbergs and knew Gertrude Berg. “Gertrude was smart, successful and brilliant,” recalls Rosa, “and she made listeners feel like they were IN the show – and not just being entertained.” Hear Rosa talk about her first-hand experiences with “The Goldbergs” and the many other radio shows for which she performed, including “The Shadow” with Orson Welles and “The Bob and Ray Show.”
From Aviva Kempner, award-winning maker of The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, comes this humorous and delightfully entertaining story of radio and television pioneer Gertrude Berg. She was the creator, principal writer and star of "The Goldbergs," a popular radio show about a Jewish family living in New York City which became television's very first character-driven domestic sitcom in 1949. She combined social commentary, family values and lots of humor to win the hearts of America. Berg appeared on the cover of Billboard Magazine and received the first Best Actress Emmy in history, paving the way for women in the entertainment industry. She was polled as the second most respected woman in America after Eleanor Roosevelt. The Oprah, Martha and Rachel Ray of her day, Berg was a media trailblazer with popular radio and television shows, a cookbook, jigsaw puzzle, advice column and clothing line for modern women of her time. Gertrude Berg is truly the most famous woman in America you've never heard of. Includes appearances by "All in the Family" producer Norman Lear, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and NPR commentator Susan Stamberg.
Official Site: http://www.mollygoldbergfilm.org/
Director: Aviva Kempner
Not Rated/2009/1:32/documentary