Book Description

In these warm, happy memoirs of one of America’s most beloved radio, television, and stage stars, a woman who has delighted millions of people tells her own wonderful story, from the arrival of her grandfather in this country to her triumph in the Broadway hit A Majority of One. Her story really begins with Grandpa Mordecai Edelstein, who came to America, as she proudly explained to the grandchildren, before the Statue of Liberty. Young “Tillie,” as Gertrude Berg was called, grew up in a most engagingly alive family of brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Manhattan’s upper East Side. “Home,” she says, “was an apartment on the fourth floor of a house you called an apartment house if you wanted to be fancy, and a tenement if you wanted to be depressing.” One day, her highly unpredictable father bought a hotel in the Catskills, a million-dollar mansion, for $500 and his word of honor, which was worth the difference. What with cocky bellboys, temperamental headwaiters, lovesick cooks, hungry musicians—and the guests, and the rain—every member of the family was busy. It became Gertrude’s job to entertain the fretful guests whenever storm clouds gathered, and as a result, she began to read palms. But she soon started writing playlets with parts for as many guests as possible. She remembers “with particular pride such masterpieces as ‘Snow White and the Twenty-eight Dwarfs’ and ‘Thirty-three Blind Mice.’” After such an education, radio was a natural step for her. Her own family (protesting loudly) became models for the famous radio family, The Goldbergs, which has captivated audiences for thirty years. Her experiences in the early days of radio, the transformation of The Goldbergs from radio to television, and her wonderful friendship with Sir Cedric Hardwicke, co-starring on Broadways with her, are all recalled with gusto, excitement, and pride.