Now I know what all the “Yoo-Hoo-ing” was about on Aviva Kempner’s voice mail message. And it wasn’t the reminder to hook up my digital converter box. This month, Aviva’s hitting the road with her latest documentary feature, “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg”, a portrait of the pioneer radio and television star Gertrude Berg from “The Goldbergs.” The D.C. premiere was held at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center June 23rd and will return to DC at the Avalon Theatre on July 17. A schedule of coast-to-coast screenings can be found here.
When it came to ethnicity in the the rabbit ear days of TV and radio, there was no room for nuance. And apparently Mrs. Berg, a writer and producer of the show, knew her audience. She even got an Emmy for it.
Aviva Kempner’s other films include “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg” which aired on HBO, and “The Partisans of Vilna.” I’ll even throw Aviva some credit for bringing baseball back to Washington, DC being one of its biggest fans.