HAPPY
PASSOVER

15800 W. 10 Mlle
Southfield, MI.
552.1100

(KALO PESACH)

25505 Northwestern
Southfield, IL
357-2009

TO OUR FRIENDS
& CUSTOMERS

NEW ORION
HOUSE

The Management and Staff of

RDMA N IK' S

Featuring: GREEK SALADS,
PIZZA & HOT GARLIC BREAD

M-24 & CLARKSTON RD.

Lake Orion

893-6224

r11 ∎111 IFCCILS

Orchard Lake Road North of Maple

Wish Their Customers
and Friends
A Very Healthy
and Happy

COCKTAILS BEER WINE
PHIL & KATHLEEN
CHRISTI
PAUL & ESTELLA
MITCHELL

FIND IT

L

Passover

IN THE

AST

We Will Be Closed April 13, Reopen April 24
For Dinner (5 p.m.)

Reservations Being Accepted While Closed

855 - 6511

(anytime)

THE GUTTMAN FAMILY
MANAGEMENT AND STAFF
OF

Complete
Delicatessen-Restau rant

Wis h T heir Friends and Customers

Illeru liappu
Anti iitaltim Passnuer

We Will Close
Monday, April 13
at 3 p.m.
and
Reopen At Our
Usual Hour,
Thursday, April 16,
9 a m.

Thank You For
Making Us
No. 1
In The Metropolitan
Detroit Area

La Mirage Mall
29555 Northwestern Hwy.
Bet. 12 & 13 Mile

352-3840

I

Our Own Famous
Homemade
Fried Matzo

PRIVATE PARTY ROOM ,
AVAILABLE FOR
ALL OCCASIONS

68

ENTERTAINMENT

Friday, April 10, 1987

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Reel to Reel

Continued from preceding page

reading her lines, take after
take, until she herself was
satisfied that she got our
message across. What a great
lady!"
Though he plays many
roles today, they aren't on
stage. His Claudette Colbert
anecdote, however, sparked
brief hopes in the '50s: "I was
a lowly summer production
assistant at Falmouth
Playhouse on Cape Cod.
Beautiful Claudette Colbert
played the wife of a philan-
derer who was never seen on
stage, only referred to by the
other characters. One day our
director decided to try a bit of
stage business, hoping for a
comedic touch. He cast me as
Miss Colbert's husband. My
hopes soared. What a start
for an acting career ... a role
opposite Miss Colbert! Natur-
ally, I didn't sleep well the
night before my debut, think-
ing of my part and how to
carry it off.
"You have to know that, in
fact, I was to appear only
during the curtain call ...
and the audience was sup-
posed to recognize me as the
philandering spouse on first
sight — and laugh! Well, of
course, they didn't. Did the
director revise the bit of
business and let me on stage
again? Not at all," Greenberg
laughs, "and with that, my
acting career went into ec-
lipse!"
No matter. Thirty years
later he has made his mark
off-stage. Artist-filmmaker
Iry Stollman of Oak Park
credits Greenberg's film
classes at Oakland Commu-
nity College, Farmington
Hills, as "where I learned ev-
erything you needed to know
about production. The man is
a painstaking, dedicated
teacher ..."
Greenberg's appointment
book, cross-hatched with no-
tations that require him to
deliver a weekly newspaper
column of film criticism to
the Observer-Eccentric, teach
at O.C.C., screen and critique
student film-video prod-
uctions, and further research
his book on the serious errors
typically found in early film
literature, has no soundtrack.
Yet, surely, the applause of
community audiences that he
has helped to rediscover the
joys of turn-of-the-century
films must echo, at times.
When Woody Allen's hero
stepped off the screen into
the heroine's real life in The
Purple Rose of Cairo, it was
pure fantasy. Yet Greenberg
learned long ago that, "The
real stars of stage and screen
can be as accessible as your
imagination permits."
As his career has proven
you needn't be Hollywood-
based to reach out and touch
Hollywood or host the stars
here. Critical objectivity is
perhaps sharper, too, away
from Tinseltown's seductive

frenzy. Greenberg's Wayne
State University doctorate in
radio, TV and film and his
production years with WTVS
in educational TV have given
him solid credentials. His
thorough knowledge of film,
TV and video industries' his-
torical development should
make him a Trivial Pursuit
winner, hands down.
For Greenberg, his weekly
newspaper columns, cable TV
and videotapes expand his
audience and capture such
moments as his interview
with Alan Alda in Detroit a
few years ago.
There is no rattling of pop-
corn bags during his screen-
ings of the wonderful old
films salvaged through the
efforts of the Brandeis Na-
tional Jewish Film Archives
or at screenings of Green-
berg's own films.
When he's not showing,
producing or critiquing films
and videos, he's at work writ-
ing a scholarly book on the
"distressing problem of disin-
formation — inaccuracies —
about early films."
So, how did Greenberg
happen to get hooked on
film? "Nothing dramatic," he
puns. His writing aspirations
emerged "after I had studied
natural resources and other
subjects, while I earned my
B.A. degree in English at U
of M" It was when he earned
his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees
at Wayne State University
and worked with WTVS in its
early years that he "got bit-
ten by the film bug."
Greenberg abhors the vio-
lence and exploitation of sex
that characterize many- con-
temporary films. Readers of
his weekly newspaper column
in the Observer-Eccentric "tell
me they care about such is-
sues; still, when you see huge
box office returns for the
grossest films, it's obvious
that plenty of audiences go
for such stuff."
Working out a film career
where his roots are strong,
this third generation De-
troiter recalls that his
mother's father, Jacob Levin,
"founded the Jewish Old
Folks Home in 1907. One
day, to my surprise, someone
from Borman Hall called me
to say that they had dis-
covered some film of my
grandfather carrying the To-
rah, when the home moved to
Petoskey Street from Brush
and Erskine in 1937."
Wherever Greenberg goes,
"people ask how I like my
work. I tell them, every day,
I'm paid for showing and dis-
cussing old films. Every
night, I'm paid to see new
films and write about them.
Who wouldn't love it?"
Greenberg and his wife,
Roslynne Mayer Greenberg,
and daughter Elizabeth Ann,
reside in Farmington Hills.
Daughter Julie, now of Tel
Aviv, and son, Jonathon Eric,