What good could possibly come from a big fat coffee table book describing how Hollywood is run by Jews? Well, this one is sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary and co-edited by J. Hoberman. So I guess it’s okay.
It’s more than okay, it’s fascinating. There’s the usual stuff about Nickelodeons and the furriers from the east moving out to California. And page after page of “Oh, I didn’t know he was Jewish”-type bios. There are in depth chapters about the fascinating love of “Seinfeld” in Idaho, how Otto Preminger created America’s perception of Israel with “Exodus” and let’s not even get into the layers-deep discussion of early Jewish film actors assimilating by donning blackface. (The freaky lengths to which this discussion goes is a theory that Sammy Davis Jr., upon converting to Judaism, was donning “whiteface”. . .or something.) Most enlightening is the chapter of Gertrude Berg a/k/a Molly Goldberg. She basically invented the sitcom and personally wrote every script of her decades-long radio, TV, theater and film career. There’s a photo of her surrounded by thousands of bound works — enough to shame any writer who can’t get off his ass and figure out an ending to that dopey screenplay.
(Also: Chaplin wasn’t Jewish, but Marlilyn Monroe converted so technically she was.)
