The Two from "A Majority of One"

Recognize this distinguished-looking couple? It's Gertrude Berg and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, who teamed up to star in the 1959-60 Broadway hit A Majority of One, by Leonard Spigelgass. Berg, known to radio and television audiences as the creator and star of The Goldbergs, played an American widow who becomes involved romantically with a Japanese man. She won a Tony for her performance in the show, which ran for more than 500 performances.

As for Hardwicke, who was Tony-nominated for his performance as well, Berg so enjoyed working with him that she wanted him for her co-star when she returned to series television in 1961. Can't quite remember that show? Refresh your memory with my book, Lost Laughs of '50s and '60s Television, which covers it and twenty-nine other sitcoms that are rarely revived today.

Mrs. G Has a Birthday

Happy birthday to the late, great Gertrude Berg (1898-1966), the pioneering star and creator of the long-running radio and TV hit, The Goldbergs. Here she's pictured with Sir Cedric Hardwicke, her leading man in the successful Broadway play A Majority of One. They worked so well together that, when Berg returned to weekly television in 1961 with Mrs. G Goes to College, she insisted on having Hardwicke as her co-star. In that series, rather than her signature character of Molly Goldberg, she played a not-dissimilar widow, Sarah Green, who pursued a college degree later in life, with Hardwicke as her professor.

Although Mrs. G Goes to College (retitled The Gertrude Berg Show at midseason) wasn't a ratings winner, it earned Berg an Emmy nomination. I researched the show a few years ago for my book Lost Laughs of '50s and '60s Television, and thought it was a neglected gem that should be rediscovered. Give it a look and let me know if you agree.