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Quick: Who won the very first Best Actress Emmy in history? I’ll give you a little assistance – the year was 1951. No one come to mind? Here’s another clue – Eight years later she won a Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for “A Majority of One.” If you answered Gertrude Berg – you’d be right! The tagline on the film states,  “The most famous woman in America that you never heard of” - unless, of course, you grew up on the Grand Concourse. 

Rarely does a film come along that not only educates but entertains in equal measure.Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg is the latest entry from documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg). Using archival footage from TV’s early days and interviewing family members and celebrities (and a Supreme Court judge) Kempner brings to life the woman who at one time was the most famous woman in America.

For those who were not fortunate to see her TV program in its heyday, she has often been credited with creating TV’s first sit-com, modeled on her radio show, The Rise of the Goldberg’s and character Molly. She not only starred in the radio and TV program, but she was the creator, writer and producer in the day when most moms were stay-at-home mothers. At a very tumultuous time in our history, “Mrs. Goldberg” was a welcomed sight in living rooms across the country. Leaning out her window, she welcomed the audience into her world as she talked directly into the camera and later with neighbors in her apartment building. The familiar wail, “Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” beckoned her to the sill, where the friends chatted about life, modeled hats and dispensed advice.

Although she portrayed a blue-collar Jewish matriarch living in the Bronx, she spoke (with an accent) to a country that was communally dealing with the Depression and mitigating family problems. In this sense, the program transcended its religious boundaries and its popularity soared.

I want to thank Ms. Kempner not only for transporting me back to the Bronx, but for re-introducing us all to a woman who may have been temporarily forgotten, but certainly left her mark on our national cultural map.

Once a year, I get to make this proclamation; If you see one documentary this year, Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg should be the one!

To read more about Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg , please read the transcript of my interview with director Aviva Kempner. Click on :
Interview with Director Aviva Kempner

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