The Goldbergs at Princeton

Plump, placid, matronly Mrs. Gertrude Berg scarcely knew what to make of it. The august Princeton University Library wanted to salt away the scripts of her radio show The Goldbergs (TIME, June 23, 1941) as "one of the best serials now being broadcast." In Old Nassau's archives The Goldbergs will find themselves beside such other candidates-for-the-classics as the best of Norman Corwin's scripts, David Loth's Woodrow Wilson, F. van Wyck Mason's Stars on the Sea, etc.

For most of the last 14 years, Mrs. Berg, wife of a consultant on sugar technology and mother of two, has ground out her soapy, five-a-week masterwork (now on CBS, Mon.-Fri., 1:45-2 p.m., E.W.T.) for Procter & Gamble. It has been hard work, paid for by $5,000 a week. Mrs. Berg, who started at $50 a week, also produces, directs and plays the leading lady (Molly) of her Goldberg saga. Now 42 and a millionairess, Mrs. Berg has a ten-room duplex in Manhattan, an estate in Bedford Hills, N.Y.

The Goldbergs is "Rags to Riches" with a Yiddish accent. Through the years The Goldbergs (Mama Molly, Papa Jake, Daughter Rosie, Son Sammy) have moved gradually from Manhattan's Lower East Side up Riverside Drive and, finally, into the green Connecticut countryside. Their snail's-pace success has been milestoned by the kind of homely moralizing which moves clerics to write friendly letters.

Last week The Goldbergs were in an ominous situation. Sammy had gone to war and his bride, whom he married secretly, had come to live with her in-laws. They like her well enough, but there is something between her and a hired man. As Mrs. Berg's summation put it:

"George [the hired man] and Grace [Sammy's wife] are doing very well . . . in concealing the fact that they know each other . . . but what they're doing it for we can't guess, and where Sammy comes into this, we still don't know . . . why did he marry Grace. . . . Was it love . . . or what?" Princeton will eventually get the answer. But Mrs. Berg's agent posed a special problem for the university to solve. Mrs. Berg has written 3,640 scripts (about six million words) for The Goldbergs. They are mimeographed, therefore bulky. Wrote her agent to Princeton: "If we continue to send you daily scripts the archives will overflow. Perhaps one representative script per week will serve. . . ."

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