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.