56 | DECEMBER 12 • 2024 
J
N

NO GOOD DEED AND THE RED 
JEWISH MUNCHKIN
No Good Deed is an eight-
episode Netflix comedy/drama 
that premieres on Dec. 12. Ray 
Romano and Lisa Kudrow, 
61, co-star as the owners of a 
fabulous 1920s Spanish-style 
villa in Los Angeles. They are 
empty nesters who decide to 
sell their house. 
Three different families make 
a bid over the asking price. 
All three families believe that 
owning the house will solve 
their personal problems. The 
main supporting cast includes 
Abbi Jacobson, 40, as Leslie 
Fisher. Jacobson is best known 
for co-starring in Broad City, a 
Comedy Central show. (Linda 
Lavin, 87, has a recurring role 
as “Phyllis”)
No Good Deed was created 
by Liz Feldman, 47, and she 
oversees the production of the 
series. Feldman co-wrote the 
first and the eighth episode of 
No Good Deed. 
Feldman grew up in Brooklyn. 
She once said she got the 
showbiz “bug” after appearing 
in her synagogue’s Purim play. 
Feldman won four Daytime 
Emmys (2006-2009) for her 
scripts for the Ellen DeGeneres 
talk show. She left Ellen in 
2010 and went on to write for 
many sit-coms. Her talent was 
so admired that Netflix signed 
a deal with Feldman to create 
five new series. The first, Dead 
to Me (2020-2022), a black 
comedy-drama, got very good 
reviews and it received several 
Emmy nominations. 
Here’s a 2022 Feldman quote 
from the Hollywood Reporter. It 
makes me think that No Good 
Deed will be much deeper than 
the average sitcom: “I don’t feel 

like I have a choice not to be 
politically active — as a Jewish 
gay woman in 2022. I would 
have to be unconscious to not 
want to fight for my rights and 
the rights of every human being 
in this country. I’m a poster child 
of who the right is afraid of on 
some level — yet in my work, 
I tend to be pretty subtle. In 
my next show, I’m introducing 
themes that feel more relevant 
to what’s going on. But my 
job is to entertain, first and 
foremost. And sometimes 
subtlety is the strongest form of 
suggestion.” [Her “next” series 
is No Good Deed.)

JEWISH MUNCHKIN
In my last column, I said I would 
reveal a “virtually” unknown 
Jewish actor who prominently 
sang in the Wizard of Oz. Here 
goes: Under the name Jackie 
Gerlich (1925-1960), he was 
one of the three members of 
the Munchkin “Lollipop Guild” 
who danced and sang a short 
song welcoming Dorothy to 
Munchkin Land. Just about 
everyone remembers: “We’re 
the members of the Lollipop 
Guild … and we welcome you to 
Munchkin Land!”
The three Lollipop Guild 

singers don’t have character 
names. But the three wore 
identical costumes in different 
colors and Oz fans often call 
them by the color they wore: 
Gerlich was in red clothes, and 
he stood on the left as you look 
at the Guild members. 
The Munchkin Land song and 
all the other Wizard songs were 
written by two great Jewish 
songwriters: E. Y. Harburg and 
Harold Arlen. Bert Lahr, who 
played the Cowardly Lion, was 
the only Jewish actor with a big 
part in Wizard.
A few weeks ago, I stumbled 
on Wikipedia’s list of the 
Munchkins in the 1939 Wizard 
film. I saw a Munchkin entry 
for Jackie Gerlich, and he had 
a separate “page” Wiki bio. 
His name, I thought, could be 
Jewish, and this Wiki article said 
he left Austria in 1936. Together, 
these clues made me think he 
was Jewish. Wiki was silent 
about that. 
I found an article about 
Gerlich and his Jewish family on 
the website of the Leo Baeck 
(Jewish) Institute in New York. It 
was mostly about Jackie’s 
family. The primary source for 
the article were interviews 
with Dave Fox, Jackie’s older 

brother. Sadly, I just learned that 
the Baeck Institute doesn’t post 
interview transcripts online. You 
have to read them in person. 
So, I can’t provide, now, all the 
info that Fox gave about his 
brother. 
However, Dianne Ritchey, 
an archivist, did review the 
transcripts and her Leo Baeck 
article (2022) is a good 
starting place. Jackie’s parents, 
Abraham Fox and Regina Fox 
(Ryfka, nee Gerlich), owned a 
small grocery in Vienna. They 
had three sons: Dave (born in 
1917), Jakob (born about 1920), 
and Jackie, born 1925 (who was 
a little person).
Jackie was the first to leave 
Vienna. Leo Singer, a Jewish 
impresario, combed Europe for 
“body proportional” little people 
who could look good as they 
danced and sang in his troupe, 
“Singer’s Midgets.” In 1936, he 
recruited Jackie, then 10, and 
took him to America. 
As you can tell, this story 
is getting long. So, please, 
read my next column for the 
conclusion (as I know it now) 
on Jackie Gerlich’s life and a 
brief note about Harry Monty, 
another Jewish Munchkin. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

IDOMINICK 

Abbi Jacobson
Jackie Gerlich

OZ WIKI FANDOM

Lisa Kudrow

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