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Gertrude Berg invents the character Molly Goldberg and forever after people think of Berg as Molly Goldberg. "Gertrude Berg, who created Molly, wrote all her lines, played her for two decades on radio and another five years on television." (Hinckley, 2002) Who was Gertrude Berg/Molly Goldberg and how did she so effectively represent the hegemonic ideologies of the l950s? First, she glorifies one of the values so pervasive in America: motherhood. This buxom and benevolent meddler who can solve problems by mixing good common sense, a considerable dab of compassion, but most of all wisdom becomes an archetype for motherhood during this era. Along with motherhood she celebrates the family unit and the need for family to work together to protect each other. She also embodies a sense of hope and goodness that Americans believe about themselves, that this land is generous enough to accept and embrace "the other" without restrictions.
GERTRUDE BERG/MOLLY GOLDBERG
According to Joyce Antler "Berg was probably the first woman to write, produce and star in her own TV vehicle." (Antler, l998, p. 97) She was born in 1899 in Harlem of Eastern European immigrants who owned a small summer hotel in the Catskills. As Berg was growing up she wrote scripts to entertain her parents and their guests. At the age of fourteen she created a character named Maltke Talnitzky who later morphed into Molly Goldberg, an amalgam of Berg's mother and grandmother Czerny. Her first attempt at writing about Maltke is The Other Woman. When Maltke's husband wants to leave her, she pleads her case in court against the other woman by explaining, "My face is not on top of such a long neck but it's a face, no?...So the legs are a little short, the knees maybe knock a little but who listens? There's a few lumps here and there and the waist isn't so ay, ay, and the dishwater eats off the nail polish, but whose fault is that? And if I'm not stylish can I help it if skinny dresses don't fit me? Did I ask for what I look like? I'm a woman, plain everyday woman, and you think my husband is such a Beau Brummel he needs something better? He doesn't. Believe me....