Ordinary Americans – Growing up with The Goldbergs in one of the most challenging times of our country – A Review

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I recently had the privilege of experiencing ‘Ordinary Americans‘ an original play now showing at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre presented  Palm Beach Dramaworks. This thought-provoking presentation focuses on The Goldberg’s, a major television hit and money-maker for CBS.   This memory-jolting play about, well, Ordinary Americans, at least that was what my entire family thought. The Goldbergs, to me and my family, wasn’t about being Jewish, but about being a normal, everyday family. Living in the Bronx since birth, The Goldbergs were a standard appointment where my family and both sets of grandparents who lived on the same floor as we did, experienced one of the most enjoyable shows on television. I was too young to understand the political and personal ramifications that were prevalent at that time, and had no idea about the era of McCarthyism. It was only growing older did I fully understand that those times were, in so many ways, identical to the times we live in now. This show really was an eye-opener for me because it seemed like yesterday, even though I was a small child.

This show is a must for any American and read your playbill. It is filled with stories of Blacklisted actors and how thie lives were changed forever. More importantly, it is a history lesson to many generations following this event – a history lesson not soon forgotten.

Below you will read the scope of The Goldbergs and how the McCarthyism era affected so many people, so many outstanding professionals and how it ultimately affected Gertrude Berg and her co-star, Phillip Loeb.

When television was in its infancy, few actors were as beloved as Gertrude Berg and few shows were as popular as The Goldbergs , the gentle comedy that she created, starred in, wrote, and produced. The program began on radio in 1929, and 20 years later became one of TV’s earliest sitcoms. For her portrayal of Molly Goldberg, the matriarch of a Jewish family living in the Bronx, Berg was the first recipient of an Emmy Award for Best Actress.   The Goldbergs was a huge moneymaker for CBS. And then, in June, 1950, a pamphlet was issued called Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television , published by a right-wing newsletter funded by a businessman with ties to the John Birch Society. It listed 151 artists and broadcasters as “Red Fascists and their sympathizers.” All it took to get on the list was to be an activist with political views antithetical to the extremist ideology of those responsible for the pamphlet; proponents of civil rights and academic freedom were among the favorite targets. Many of them, not coincidentally, were Jewish. Among those ensnared by this very real witch hunt was Philip Loeb, who played Jake Goldberg, Molly’s husband. When CBS demanded that Berg fire Loeb, she refused. The show was taken off the air.

Ordinary Americans
Phtoto: Samantha Mighdoll
lFeatired” David Kwiat, Elixabeth Dimon, Margery Lowe

The aftermath of that decision, and the consequences of McCarthyism and anti-Semitism on Berg, Loeb, and the Goldberg “family,” are at the center of Joseph McDonough’s Ordinary Americans , a co-production with GableStage that was commissioned by Palm Beach Dramaworks. The play received its world premiere at PBD on December 6, and continues at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre through January 5 by popular demand.  Following its run at PBD, Ordinary Americans moves south to GableStage, where it can be seen from January 18 – February 16, 2020. PBD Producing Artistic Director William Hayes directs. *     

 

Ordinary Americans by Joseph McDonough
Credit:  Alicia Donelan
Pictured” David Kwiat – Elizabeth Dimon

“On one level, Ordinary Americans pays tribute to an extraordinarily talented, innovative, and courageous artist and businesswoman,” said Hayes. “Gertrude Berg was responsible for a television show which fostered the idea that, regardless of who we are, where we come from, or how we worship, people are basically the same and fundamentally good. But then she and her wonderful, big-hearted ensemble are threatened by the Red Scare, and life is never quite the same. Ordinary Americans serves as a warning and reminder of the damning effects of fear and paranoia on good people and on society. Director William Hayes states, of which I fully agree,  “I believe this is the timeliest production in PBD’s history.”  How times change, and yet, they still remain.

Like the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Red Channels branded people without any knowledge or proof of subversive activities. The pamphlet was quietly distributed to studio and advertising executives who were all too willing to sacrifice the accused rather than stand up to the accusers and run the risk of major financial losses. Their complicity and cowardice expanded the blacklist begun by HUAC in 1947. The only way to clear one’s name was to go before HUAC and tell the committee what it wanted to hear: truth was unacceptable if facts got in the way of its fiction. Livelihoods and lives were destroyed.

Ordinary Americans features Elizabeth Dimon as Gertrude Berg, David Kwiat as Philip Loeb (PBD debut) and, in multiple roles, Rob Donohoe, Margery Lowe, and Tom Wahl. Ilana Becker is the associate director (PBD debut). Set design is by Michael Amico, costume design is by Brian O’Keefe, lighting design is by Christina Watanabe (PBD debut), and sound design is by David Thomas.

JOIN PBD FOR THE EXCITING, UPCOMING 2-DAY EVENT OF PLAYS AND ENTERTAINMENT – JAN 10-12.2020

VIEW: www.palmbeachdramaworks.org/program/newplaysfestival 

Contact Information,  Location
Location
Palm Beach Dramaworks
201 Clematis Street
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Phone
(561) 514-4042
Fax
(480) 287-8666

www.palmbeachdramaworks.org

Please note:  There is ample parking garages and wonderful eateries all within walking distance of theater

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