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The Ron Coden Show

and was known as the 'Shakespeare of
"There was a character called Mr.
radio.' Arch Oboler was very influential
Kitzle on Jack Benny's show, and he
in horror shows, and Himan Brown
spoke in a very strong Jewish accent,
originated and produced several differ-
but I don't think anyone was offended.
ent shows including Inner Sanctum and
"When the Goldberg show began,
Grand Central Station, which had dra-
its creator and actress Gertrude Berg
mas set in New York City"
(Molly Goldberg) had much more of
Nachman's book breaks radio shows
a Jewish accent. The show was set in
down into categories
the tenements and was
Opposite page,
as he discusses styles
about a lower middle
clockwise from top left:
and celebrities
class family becoming
involved with come-
Gerald Nachman, author
successful.
dies, dramas, music,
of "Raised on Radio"•
"Molly Goldberg was
quizzes, soaps and
`21 disproportionate number
a bridge between gener-
news. There also are
of the influential people
ations. While she still
sections on advertis-
in radio were Jewish."
spoke with an inflection
ing and sound effects. Gertrude Berg played
and respected her par-
"Radio was a great Molly Goldberg on radio
ents' ways, she had
bridge from vaude-
modern ideas and an
and later on television:
ville to movies and
American sensibility.
"Molly Goldberg was a
higher ground,"
What gave the show its
bridge between generations,"
Nachman says.
says Nachman.
humor, appeal and ten-
When radio began,
sion
was the pull
Arnold Stang, left, played
it had to create its
between
old and new,
second banana to Henry
own personalities,
tradition
and change.
Morgan, right, on the
and it mainly did
When
the show
latters radio show.
that by taking on the
moved to television, it
Walter Winchell: Among
headliners of vaude-
was about how they
ville and some of the the earliest commentators
became more assimilat-
to attack Hitler publicly
lesser names in
ed into the community."
and steadily.
vaudeville, many of
The book also discuss-
whom were Jewish.
es Life Can Be Beautiful,
With radio, people could hear the
a soap about a Jewish family.
greatest names free every night, and
A Jewish personality who gets con-
that certainly helped their careers."
siderable attention in Nachman's book
Nachman describes the first major
is Walter Winchell, a newsman com-
Jewish star as Ed Wynn, who went on
pared to the National Enquirer in style.
to television successes.
"Actually, Winchell was an actor
"With his falsetto old-lady giggle
playing a newspaperman," Nachman
and girlish lisp, Wynn had the neces-
says. "To his credit, he was among
sary comic vocal props to pierce
the earliest commentators to attack
radio's one dimension," asserts
Hitler publicly and steadily. As a Jew,
Nachman, who explains that comedi-
he was constantly on the march
ans in the '40s did not flaunt their
against anti-Semitic slurs and eagerly
Judaism. "Wynn pioneered the use of
took on Hitler."
the studio audience and the announc-
In contrast, Nachman also men-
er-straight man as a foil for his doofus
tions Father Charles Coughlin, the
gags, most of them puns.
Michigan priest he calls the "broad-
"Jewish comedians were not trying
cast bigot" because of his anti-
to pass, but their religion wasn't out in
Semitic commentary from his base at
the open as it is today. People didn't
the Shrine of the Little Flower in
joke about being Jewish the way they
Royal Oak.
do now.
While working on his retrospec-
Nachman says there was not a lot
tive, Nachman looked for people who
of Jewish stereotyping in early radio
were still available for interviews. He
even in the legendary show about a
found Arnold Stang, an actor working
Jewish family, The Rise of the
as a child, moving on as a teenager
Goldbergs.
with the Goldbergs 'and best known
"There were stereotypes, but I don't
for his character roles with Milton
think they were harmful stereotypes,"
Berle. His "quavery New York
he says. "Mrs. Nussbaum, a character
squeak," the author says, "engraved
on Fred Allen's show, was a stereotype,
him in radio audiences' minds."
but she was funny. Even in today's
"The thing that radio [ultimately]
politically correct times, I don't think
did was homogenize the culture by
she'd be considered offensive. She did
smoothing out dialects and creating
a lot of malapropism, but a lot of
a unified way of speaking,"
radio was based on malapropism.
Nachman says. TI

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Detroit Jewish News

10/22
1999

79