The Genius that was Gertrude Berg

Yesterday the UCLA Film and Television Archives had a showing of remastered episodes of “The Goldbergs” the Gertrude Berg TV program that Aviva Kempner featured in her recent documentary “Yoohoo Mrs Goldberg” about Berg. A panel about Berg featured writer producer Margaret Nagle, as well as film and TV professor Vincent Brook moderated by journalist Michael Hammond.

Gertrude Berg was one of the most succcessful entertainers of the 1930s, 40s and 50s — During the Depression was the 2nd most well paid woman in America.  Her radio program was one of the most successful throughout the 1940s and when TV came around, Berg who over the course of her career wrote, produced and starred in her programs was the first woman to win an Emmy — before Lucy.

So why is she so little remembered today — the most significant is that her programs were not preserved. They were done live and there was no record of them — they never appeared in re-runs.

Much is made of the fact that The Goldbergs were so obviously Jewish and were more ethnic than any sitcom since or would be today — and that no one objected. But as was discussed by Brooks and Nagle — at that time, the earliest days of TV,  only 10% of Americans owned TVs and those that did lived in urban settings. Once TV had to appeal to a national large audience, they abandoned programming that focused on a niche. — and we all know that the people in charge of programming decisions at Network have always been visionaries. One could say that were are wrong then, as they are today —

I had never seen “The Goldbergs” until yesterday– and I have to admit — the woman was a genius — a genius in how she put her material across, how she involved the viewers and made them complicit in her program. Also the setting and the camera work — all prefigured the mold — the setting in the home which characters come in and out of — which sitcoms would follow and which many still follow to this day.

UCLA Film archives have released a DVD of Goldberg episodes that is now available. And “Yoohoo Mrs Goldberg” should be available on DVD this summer.

J.D. Salinger, novelist of modern anomie, dead at 91

J. D. Salinger, the novelist whose “Catcher in the Rye,” was the gateway drug for a generation of teenagers, readers and writers resisting the social conformity, and who became almost as famous for being reclusive as he was for his novel and his collections of short stories, died at his home in New Hampshire, at 91. He last published in 1965; Salinger claimed that he continued to write and would no longer be published during his lifetime.

With Salinger’s death, the literary world awaits to find out, after more than 50 years of waiting, whether in fact,Salinger left completed work — stories, novels, even poems — and whether it is coherent and intelligible, interesting or out-of-date — whether any of it is good, or even perhaps, great.

In Catcher in the Rye created a teenager character who spoke the feelings of teenagers of all ages, in decrrying the behavior of “phonies.” In his subsequent short story collections, Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenter” Salinger described characters at odds with themselves — and though many readers found them plain odd, they found them compelling. “The Catcher in the Rye” remains one of the perennial best-selling novels, read in schools across the country and the globe, holding a special place on the bookshelves of many. But Salinger’s last published stories, increasingly influenced by Salinger’s own experiments in eastern thinking, give one pause about what direction his unpublished writing may have taken.  Hopefully we will know soon.

After Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon, he was found with a copy of “Catcher in the Rye.” and various writers and filmmakers have expounded on the connections between the two. Readers formed great attachment to “Catcher in the Rye” and perhaps this as much as anything was reason for Salinger to remove himself from society and live as a recluse in New Hampshire.

Born Jerome David Salinger in New York City in 1919, his father Sol, worked in the food industry. One of the accounts I read online claims that Salinger’s mother was born Marie but called herself Miriam and it was only after his bar-mitzvah that Salinger discovered that she was not in fact Jewish.

Salinger attended everal schools in New York including McBurney before attending Valley Forge Military Academy, and several colleges including New York University and Columbia University’s evening program where he attended a writing class taught by Whit Burnett of Story Magazine who would publish some of his early work.

In 1941 The New Yorker Magazine accepted “Slight Rebellion off Madison Avenue,” a short story featuring a character named Holden Caulfield.

At that time, Salinger also courted Oona O’Neil, playwright Eugene O’Neil’s daughter, who was a teenager at the time — she would eventually marry Charlie Chaplin. The courtship is mentioned in Aram Saroyan’s “Trio”  his account of the young lives of Oona O’Neil, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Carol Matthau (Saroyan’s mother).

It is also reported that around that time Salinger worked on a cruise ship, and perhaps performed on board.

Salinger served in World War Two, landing in France on D-Day and fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. While in France, he met Ernest Hemingway, who impressed Salinger and who was in turn impressed by Salinger’s writing — they began a correspondence. Salinger also served in a Counter-Intelligence Unit that interrogated prisoners of war and he was among the first soldiers to enter a recently liberated concentration camp.  Shortly therafer, Salinger reportedly had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for combat-related stress in an Army hospital.

Upon his return to the States, Salinger continued to write short stories. “A perfect day for Bananafish” was published in the New Yorker and established Salinger as an important contemporary writer. At the same time, Salinger became interested in Buddhism and various variants of eastern religions and religious practices, which he would continue to explore the rest of his life.

With the publication of “Catcher in the Rye,” Salinger who was living in Westport, Connecticutt, moved with his then wife Claire to Cornish N.H., which continued to be his residence until his death. Salinger had two children, Margaret and Matt who survive him.

Salinger continued to publish stories in The New Yorker, many of them about The Glass family, until 1965, with ” Hapworth 16, 1924,” his last published story. After that Salinger claimed that he continued to write but would no longer publish during his lifetime.

At first, Salinger gave interviews to the local paper and high school but he stopped that after a certain while. For awhile, journalists would take it upon themselves to travel to New Hampshire and wait in town for Salinger to pick up his mail and then try and strike up a conversation. Salinger gave his last interview in 1980.

Over the last many decades several persons have written memoirs of knowing Salinger. These include his daughter Margaret, and writer Joyce Maynard who dated Salinger as a teenager.

Salinger was protective of his life and his work and over the years sued to block publications biographies, and unauthorized collections of his short stories, or works too closely inspired by his own.

My own Salinger experiences begin with “Catcher In the Rye,” one of four books a bookstore clerk insisted I needed to read, as a teenager, to educate myself (the other three were Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World” and “George Orwell’s 1984″ and Richard Farina’s “Been Down So Long”) — and yes, I became attached to the book.  Whenever I had a swimming meet against the McBurney School I thought of Salinger and his description of his fencing team adventure in Catcher — And when we thought of where to meet near Grand Central, we thought of the clock in the Vanderbilt Hotel.

When the New York Times Magazine published Joyce Maynard on its cover — I was not alone in developing a crush and felt validated in my attraction when it was reported that she had begun an affair with J D Salinger. The fact that Salinger was so much older didn’t matter — the creator of Holden was, no doubt, in touch with his inner teenager.

A few years later, I learned that a friend of mine’s high school girlfriend had also had a relationship with Salinger which had developed by correspondence.  According to the gossip, third hand, Salinger loved to come to New York, much like any tourist, and have tea at the Plaza, see a show and visit friends at the New Yorker and in the city — by being a recluse, he had created anonymity for himself in New York — no one knew what he looked like, no one recognized him.

One summer in the mid-1970s I found myself in the Catalyst bookstore in Santa Cruz. There on the counter by the cash register were two paperbacks, “The Uncollected Stories of J.D. Salinger” volumes 1, and 2. Someone had taken all the stories that Salinger had published over the years in magazines that remained uncollected and published them. I remember holding them in my hands and poring over them, looking at stories I had never heard of.  Shortly thereafter, Salinger sued to halt what the publishers called a “samidzat publication”  — and those copies were not seen again.

Matt, Salinger’s son, is an actor and producer who has lived for many years in LA — I don’t know if he still does — I met him once (possibly twice) — he seemed nice and very unaffected. Given that his father wanted at some point to be an actor and/or entertainer — perhaps his father found some pleasure in his son being a working actor who turns up on TV programs with some regularity. In any event. please accept our condolences on your loss.

Although Salinger had one of his early stories optioned for film, the way in which his work was mangled for the screen convinced never to again option any of his work. Joyce Maynard once commented that the only one who could ever have played Holden was Salinger himself.

Holden is dead. Long Live Holden.

Ringo Starr at the Grammy Museum backed by Ben Harper

What an amazing experience it was! Ringo still very much Ringo — quick, funny, sweet and tough in a room of about 200 people at the Grammy Museum downtown.

Ringo has a new album out called “Y not” that he is out promoting and talking about. It is the first album that Ringo has produced himself — he talked about how the album grew organically and that when friends came over for tea they ended up on the album.

Robert Santelli, the director of the Grammy Museum and a former journalist described visiting Ringo in England with Max Weinberg of the E Street band and the Max Weinberg 7 for their book on drummers, “The Big Beat” and what a treat that was.

However when Santelli tried to interview Ringo, it was clear that Ringo was not comfortable in the interview format. It wasn;t long before Ringo motioned to Ben Harper to come out and participate in the conversation. Harper asked a question or two and Santelli took a few questions from the audience as well.

The irony is that as uncomfortable or impatient with the interview format as RIngo is, he has great stories to tell, particularly about his early life in Liverpool and the early days of the Beatles.  He spoke about being in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, the band he was in prior to joining the beatles (that’s when he adopted the name Ringo) and told a funny story about Rory’s stutter, and also how he was given a showcase to sing in the band that they called “Starr Time”. He also did an imitation of Brian Epstein telling the boys not to curse when they were on stage.

Recent books such as Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles, Vol 1″ and the recently published “Just Kids” by Patti Smith (about her and Robert Mapplethorpe) provide a template for a wonderful that Ringo could organize around his anecdotes of those days (and that I am eager to work on with him, if given the chance…)

Ringo took to the stage backed by Ben Harper and five of the Relentless 7. As vocalist Ringo performed two songs from his new album “Walk With You” and “The Other Side of Liverpool,” a song that Ringo descrisbed as a one in a continuing series of autobiographical songs he has written. He then performed his hit “Photograph” as well as “With a little help from my friends”  and as an encore, mounting the drum kit, he performed a rousing rendition of “Boys” a song Ringo perforemd with Rory Storm as well as the Beatles and conveyed much of the excitement of what it must have been to hear Ringo in a small club all those many years ago.

Ben Harper and band also performed a few songs which were great — and to which Ringo standing off stage danced to.

In attendance in the audience were Edgar Winter, Joe Walsh, Roy Orbison’s widow and Dhani Harrison.

Sitting next to me was a young woman who told me that she had taken a Beatles class in college and had only been a Beatles fan for four or five years — and that seeing Ringo that night had been the fulfillment of a dream.  She was not disappointed. Nor was I. A great memorable evening.

All Photos ©Becky Sapp/Wire Image.

light posting –if at all — until 2010

Happy holidays — I will be posting lightly if at all between now and picking it up again next year.

Judges reject Demjanjuk defense motions; more Dutch witnesses testify

The Demjanjuk trial in Munich resumed this morning after a several week break with the Judge rejecting the defense motions to end the trial based on the extradition or claims of double jepoardy.

Demjanjuk appeared in court in a wheelchair, keeping his eyes closed for much of the hearing. He reappeared later on lying on a stretcher.

The trial resumed with further testimony from Dutch witnesses whose family members had been convoyed by the Nazis and their collaborators to the Sobibor extermination camp  and murdered during the period evidence indicates that Demjanjuk was a guard there.

Demjanjuk’s defense while acknowledging the tragic deaths denied there was any personal, direct connection between them and Demjanjuk.

The lawyer also provoked one of the defendants by asking if the kapos at Westerbrook transit camp weren’t worse than the Nazis.
here’s the Y net news account:

P{margin:0;} UL{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-right: 16; padding-right:0;} OL{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-right: 32; padding-right:0;} H3.pHeader {margin-bottom:3px;COLOR: #192862;font-size: 16px;font-weight: bold;margin-top:0px;} P.pHeader {margin-bottom:3px;COLOR: #192862;font-size: 16px;font-weight: bold;} Demjanjuk’s chosen lawyer Ulrich Busch provoked another outrage when he asked one of the survivors: “Do you believe the Jew-police was worse than the Nazis?” Busch said he had read that the Jewish support officers in the Dutch collective camp of Westerbork treated the Jews who were sent to Sobibor much worse then the SS did. When the court and the agitated lawyers of the plaintiffs asked where Busch found the information he could not name a source but said: “If you google it, you’ll find it.” (Sarah Stricker)

Here is the AP account of the witnesses’ testimony
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hIH0N3mJ1HhKJrBMWn3uUa8WpghAD9CNQ6N00

Work may set you free…but crime doesn’t pay

The sign that stood over the entrance of Auschwitz saying “arbeit macht frei” has been recovered in Poland. Five men were arrested, who, according to reports, hoped to sell the sign for money.

See the cnn.com story:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/12/21/auschwitz.sign.found/

Los Angeles man says his father was alleged Demjanjuk victim

Saul Lisky, who was 6 when his father was killed in a DP camp in Germany — had a shock of recognition when he heard that Demjanjuk was being investigated for possibly running over a man with a truck in a DP camp in German — he realized it was his father.

The full article is printed here in the Jerusalem Post’s jpost.com:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1260930892861&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

At first the Jpost was reporting that charges had surfaced that Demjanjuk may have run over a Jewish man while working as a truck driver for the Americans in Germany in 1947. Lisky realized that “that Jew was my father.”

An uncle wrote a memoir which described Moishe Lisgorski’s death at  age 34, at the hands of a Ukrainian truck driver. Lisky recalled his mother’s description:

“My father and a group of other Jews working for the same company were sitting on a bench eating their lunch. An individual working for the same organization started threatening them with his truck. He was playing chicken with them. They all left the bench, except for my father….My father sat there defiant. As a result, the crazed lunatic ran into him and killed him.”

According to Lisky, the driver claimed the death was an accident and was released. Lisky’s mother died 11 years ago. He is convinced the killer in question is Demjanjuk. Authorities in Germany are investigating.

DISNEY ON ICE — A GREAT TIME HAD BY ALL

I was a little concerned that my daughter and her friend, tweens already disdainful of all parent-chosen entertainment, would find the DISNEY ON ICE show, as they say, “boring!” or too babyish — but they were enchanted.

There was a Mickey and Minnie opening to the show that they could have done without but the retellings on ice of “Little Mermaid,” “Cars,”  “The Lion King,” and the after-intermission “Tinkerbelle” story really held them in thrall, particularly the moments of full on costume dance numbers (and remember this is on ice). Of course songs like “Under The Sea” and “Hakunah Matata” still resonate — and the opportunity to have a dinner of hot dog, soda, popcorn and candy is always appealing.

I went with another Dad, and we were discussing how much we still enjoy going to these shows. Truth is, that with very young kids, - and there were many, many young kids there, including some adorable young girls who came in their princess costumes (cute in the extreme) — there is more kid-management and less show enjoyment. You take them and they have a great time but the perfect sweet spot occurs when the kids are happy to be there and happy to watch, and even happy to let their parent also watch the show. I know — last night, I was there.

Here are some pics from the show:

The shows take place:

Staples Dec 17-20

Honda Center Dec 22-27

Citizens Business Bank Arena Dec 30- Jan 3

Long Beach Arena Jan 6-10

check out www.disneyonice.com for more info

[For my friends at the FCC, let me repeat my prior disclosure of having been given free tickets by the show's publicist -- no doubt in the hope that I would write about the show, -- which I confess that when I receive free tickets I do feel an obligation to write about more than if I do if I go to an event on my own dime and have nothing to say -- and the hope that I would say nice things -- which I don't feel compelled to do if I don't have nice things to say -- I think part of my job is to provide my reactions, good or bad, and therefore let the people whose show it is, or venue it is, hear about what they are doing right or wrong, if there are matters that rankle or don't appeal.]

German prosecutors looking into whether Demjanjuk ran over a Jewish man in 1947

I know it sounds strange but one of my trusted correspondents sent me this Jpost.com article:

‘Demjanjuk ran over a Jew in 1947′

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Evidence that John Demjanjuk, 89, may have deliberately run over and killed a Jew while driving a truck in Germany is being studied by police, a prosecutor said Monday in a DPA report.

Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk is currently on trial in Munich over allegations that he took part in the murder of 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor Nazi death camp in 1943. He moved from Germany to the United States in 1952.

The incident allegedly occurred in 1947, near the southern German city of Ulm.

Michael Bischofberger, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Ulm, confirmed that a formal murder inquiry was underway, saying, “He is alleged to have deliberately run someone over.”

DPA quoted Bischofberger as saying that the roadkill inquiry had been prompted by the findings of research by private individuals.

The prosecutor did not say who had supplied the evidence.

There was no official confirmation of a claim in the mass-circulation newspaper Bild that the victim had been Jewish.

The Bild report stated that the allegations were sent to Germany’s national war-crimes investigations unit to assess whether they were plausible.

The Sobibor trial is currently adjourned till December 21 while Demjanjuk, who is in a prison sick bay, recovers from an infection.

Demjanjuk is believed to have undertaken various jobs while he lived in Germany as a displaced person in the aftermath of World War II, including driving a truck for the Allied occupation authorities.

Prosecutors in Munich might take over the additional case in the event that the evidence is corroborated.

Disney on Ice comes to the Southland

As many of you are well aware I am a good audience for all things circus and ice shows — can’t say that it’s my ‘rosebud” but it has something to do with my childhood, no doubt, and the sort of entertainment that my father enjoyed and took me to as a child.

I have attended Disney on Ice in the past, and when the good folks promoting this event, offered me tix, gratis, I jumped (perhaps I should have used a ice skating metaphor there — and said I did a doubll gainer (sp?). Now having completed the sort of disclosure the FCC would like bloggers to engage in from now on — I will leave it to you to determine whether my integrity has been compromised, or is not to be had for the price of a few tickets. I know, I know, — it could go either way.

In any event here is the info on the upcoming shows. I’ll let you know what I thought tomorrow. The big question being how my daughter and her friend reviews the show. The shows take place:

Staples Dec 17-20

Honda Center Dec 22-27

Citizens Business Bank Arena Dec 30- Jan 3

Long Beach Arena Jan 6-10

check out www.disneyonice.com for more info

Here’s the press release:

disney-on-ice-presents-worlds-of-fantasy-1217-110

RETHINKING KASZTNER

“Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis,” a new documentary, portrays filmmaker Gaylen Ross’ attempt to understand why Reszo (Rudolf) Kasztner, a Hungarian Jewish leader who saved more than 1,600 people in war-time Budapest - more than Oskar Schindler - on the so-called Kasztner train, remains so controversial to this day. In the course of [...]

Silver Judaica is Sign of the Times

“How’s it going?” As a tough year ended and a new decade began, it seemed a fair question. While The New York Times has looked to bowling alley attendance as a gauge of our nation’s condition, I turned to Jonathan Greenstein and his recent auction of silver Jewish ritual art, or Judaica, to determine the health, [...]

Lessons from the not-so-distant past: How photos of the civil rights movement can inspire us today

History often seems to take place on a stage distant from our own experience - yet the exhibition “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968,” which opened at the Skirball on Nov. 19, reminds us that even our recent past can deliver a strong message for our times. “Road to Freedom” is a [...]

Shadows of the Sun

When the German forces surrendered to the Allies in May 1945, World War II in Europe ended. However, for the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, the trauma of what they endured wasn’t over. For many, the effects lingered on in ways large and small, noticeable and not, often in ways their families came to know. Rita [...]

The Kraft of Movie Music

“If there’s music in a movie,” said Robert Kraft, president of Fox Music, “whether on screen, or underscore, or someone is playing guitar in a scene, I’m involved.” That includes the decisions concerning music at every level. “How it’s paid for, is it creatively appropriate to the film, is it legal, is it focused on selling more [...]

What Survives the Sixties

The summer of 1969 was host to a pair of historic events - the moon landing and the Woodstock festival - that seemed to define the ’60s. As we revisit those events this summer, it is fair to ask: What did they mean, what did they accomplish and what parts of the ’60s have meaning [...]

VIDIOTS

If you believe all the tech pundits, the future of home movie watching will be moving to “the cloud.” We’re already well on the way to where Netflix DVDs will no longer arrive in the mail and sit, unwatched, on an entryway table. Soon all films and many reruns of TV shows will be downloaded [...]

Spies, Celebs, Classics and More — Good Reads are Coming Up

Among the most daunting questions I’m often confronted with is: “What should I read next?” Recently, I traveled to the depths of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York for BookExpo 2009, the annual American Bookseller’s gathering, where I crisscrossed the convention floor, Indiana Jones-like, to gather publishers’ catalogues and advance-reader copies of so [...]

Design with a ?Z? (Lajos Kozma and Szalon)

Lajos Kozma. Photo courtesy Szalon Can a piece of furniture convey the story of Hungarian Jewry or reveal the genius of a little-known master? The story of a career undercut by anti-Semitism and cut short by death? This weekend’s “Legends of La Cienega Design Walk” (May 7-9) offers a celebration of design through lectures, panel discussions, book [...]

JEWBALL: From First NBA Basket to Major League Umping

Who knew? Who knew that basketball has a storied Jewish past, or that a non-sports guy like me would ever read, no less enjoy, a book about baseball umpires, Bruce Weber’s “As They See ‘Em” (Scribner, 2009)? Maybe it’s because Passover is a time of miracles - or is that Chanukah? Or Purim? Or the entire [...]

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