Molly and Me the Memoirs of Gertrude Berg by Gertrude with Cherney Berg Berg (3 results)

Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Frayed, Chipped DJ. First Edition. 278pp. The delightful, warm memoir by the radio and tv actress . 'Jake, shall I fry you or boil you.' (loc 1015/1+1).

1st Edition. Fine in a very good dust jacket (price clipped) with some clear tape repairs to closed edge tears. INSCRIBED BY BERG on the flyleaf: "To Sally Niel from Gertrude Berg" below which she has written "Molly" (the fictional character she played on TV). Very scarce signed. Signed by Author.

Hardcover. Condition: Fair. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. x, 278 pages. Inscription on the half title signed by Gertrude. Inscription reads To Sam Buther (Sp?) fondly Gertrude. Some damp staining at top edge and fore edge. DJ is in a plastic sleeve and is heavily worn, torn, soiled and chipped. Scarce in any condition. Rare as an inscribed copy. Contents include A Foreword to the Wise; Part One: The City: Chapters on Ah, Columbus!; The Retired Gentlemen; Forget the Logic; The Transatlantic Tailor; Friday Nights; Claire, My Anti-Social Friend; The Dumbwaiter and the Laundress; A Tailor He'll Never Be; Of Men and Restaurants; Part Two: The Country: Chapter on Our Own Hotel; Fleischmanns; Credit; Country Confessions; The Bellboy; One Headwaiter+One Cook+Trouble; Conrad; Music Hath Charms--But Food is Better; Guests are Named, Not Born; The Triple Standard; The Philosopher's Store; "Where Is It Written?"; Portrait of the Actress As a Young Palm Reader; The Gentleman Caller; Part Three: The Studio: Chapters on Down on the Levee; The Goldbergs Are Born; Radio Family; and Part Four: Tillie Branches Out: Chapters on "Broadway"' "Life Among the Electrons"; Bedford; A Majority of One; and Through a Glass, Brightly. Gertrude Berg (Born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 - September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter and producer. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce and star in a long-running hit when she premiered her serial comedy-drama The Rise of the Goldbergs (1929), later known as The Goldbergs. Her career achievements included winning a Tony Award and an Emmy Award, both for Best Lead Actress. She learned theater while producing skits at her father's Catskills Mountains resort in Fleischmanns, New York. After the sugar factory where her husband worked burned down, she developed a semi-autobiographical skit, portraying a Jewish family in a Bronx tenement, into a radio show. Though the household had a typewriter, Berg wrote her script by hand, taking the pages this way to a long-awaited appointment at NBC. When the executive she was meeting with protested that he could not read what Berg had written, she read the script aloud to him. Her performance not only sold the idea for the radio program but also got Berg the job as the lead actress on the program she had written. Berg continued to write the show's scripts by hand in pencil for as long as the program was on the air. Berg became inextricably identified as Molly Goldberg, the bighearted matriarch of her fictitious Bronx family who moved to Connecticut as a symbol of Jewish-American upward mobility. She wrote nearly all the show's radio episodes (more than 5000) plus a Broadway adaptation, Me and Molly (1948). It took considerable convincing, but Berg finally prevailed upon CBS to let her bring The Goldbergs to television in 1949. Early episodes portrayed the Goldberg family openly and personally struggling to adapt to American life. Just as Berg stated in her autobiography, she chose to depict her Jewish grandfather's worship in her first radio broadcast show. Her characters Molly, Jake, Sammy and Rosie emphasized her day to day stories of Jewish immigration to America. Immigrant life and the Goldberg family struggle were familiar and relatable to many families during this point in American history. Radio seemed to produce a common place to tie patriotism and families together. The program's success was largely because of the familiar feelings of the American people portrayed in the program's scripts. The first season script was later published in book form. In 1951, Berg won the first ever Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Television Series in her twentieth year of playing the role. The show would stay in production for five more years. The series can sometimes be seen on the Jewish Life Television (JLTV) cable network. Berg continued to make guest appearances on television in the 1950s and early 1960s. She appeared on The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, a February 1958 episode of The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, and was the "mystery guest'" on the series What's My Line? in 1954 and 1960. In 1961, Berg made a last stab at television success in the Four Star Television situation comedy, Mrs. G. Goes to College (retitled The Gertrude Berg Show at midseason), playing a 62-year-old widow who enrolls in college. The series was canceled after one season. Berg continued working in theater through these years. In 1959, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress for her performance in A Majority of One. In 1961, Berg won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theater. Berg also published a best-selling memoir, Molly and Me, in 1961. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing.