Review by Booklist Review
Armstrong (Seinfeldia, 2016) takes a look at four female pioneers in the early days of television whom she believes deserve far more credit than history has given them. Focusing on the late 1940s and early '50s, Armstrong deftly illustrates how this quartet of women battled skepticism, sexism, and even the infamous Cold War blacklist to become vital players in the burgeoning days of the small screen. Comedienne Gertrude Berg successfully introduced her radio comedy The Goldbergs to television, breaking barriers not only as a woman but also by bringing a Jewish family into viewers' living rooms. Hazel Scott, a gifted pianist, became the first African American to host a weekly variety show in prime time, but fell victim to Senator Joseph McCarthy's now-infamous hunt for communists, which destroyed the careers of many Hollywood professionals. Irna Phillips, a daily-soap-opera innovator, succeeded in bringing the enduring format from radio to television, in the process creating the longest-running scripted show in history, The Guiding Light. And Betty White, best known today for her role in the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, starred in both a sitcom and her own daytime talk show in the '50s. With crisp, electrifying prose, Armstrong recounts the hard work and struggles of four women trailblazers who shaped the dawn of television.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Television cultural critic Armstrong (Sex and the City and Us) reclaims in this enthusiastic outing the forgotten history of four women who shook up the staid ranks of mid-century television and set it on a course to become the medium it is today. Among the players are Gertrude Berg (1899--1966), who created, wrote, and starred in The Goldbergs, the first TV show to feature Jewish-American characters; it became a phenomenon and was adapted into a 1950 movie. Virtuoso Betty White ad-libbed her way into being one of the first women to develop a hit daytime talk show (Hollywood on Television) and now, with a career spanning 80 years, boasts the longest tenure in television history. Irma Phillip (1901--1973), meanwhile, created the longest running broadcast program of all time with the soap opera Guiding Light, which ran from 1937 to 2009. And jazz pianist Hazel Scott (1920--1981) became "the first black person to host a prime-time network television show" when she began hosting The Hazel Scott Show in 1950. Despite their successes, however, Armstrong drives home the point that her subjects (other than White) would not live to know the impact of their work on "the frontier of television." This fast-paced and fascinating group biography will enthrall pop culture, television, and women's history buffs. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In this compelling, well-researched work, Armstrong (Seinfeldia) uncovers the role women played in developing television, fighting for airtime as they launched sitcoms, soap operas, variety shows, and more. Focusing on the period from 1944 to 1955, the author follows the careers of Gertrude Berg, Hazel Scott, Irna Phillips, and Betty White. While all had auspicious starts, as the television industry expanded and the country grew more conservative, the women soon confronted McCarthyism, in addition to racism and sexism. Scott, who broke ground with The Hazel Scott Show, the first program to be hosted by an African American, was named in Red Channels, a Red Scare blacklist, and found more receptive audiences in Europe. Berg wrote, produced, and starred in The Goldbergs, one of the first TV depictions of a Jewish American family; her on-screen husband, Philip Loeb, was also blacklisted, which led to pressure from corporate sponsors to fire him. Phillips, dubbed "Queen of the Soap Operas" for the many series she created, faced internal competition from a network that didn't take her programming seriously, and White lost her eponymous show because of network interference. VERDICT Armstrong preserves an important part of television's--and women's--history in this engaging book.--Terry Bosky, Madison, WI
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The author of Seinfeldia and other books on pop culture explores the early days of TV through the efforts of four innovative women. Entertainment writer and TV historian Armstrong looks back at the careers of four women whose contributions helped shape many of the formats popular today, including talk shows, sitcoms, and soap operas. Producer, writer, and actor Gertrude Berg tenaciously battled networks and sponsors to get The Goldbergs, her long-running radio series about a Jewish family living in the Bronx, to TV in 1949 and to keep the show running through the mid-1950s. Irna Phillips created several dramatic radio serials and "conceived the soap opera, including its defining tropes," and her series, Guiding Light, became "the longest-running scripted program in broadcast history"--72 years on radio and TV. Betty White was among the first women to write, produce, and star on her own talk show and comedy series, yet her efforts to assert creative control over these early shows were increasingly curbed by NBC. Talented jazz musician and civil rights activist Hazel Scott faced perhaps the toughest roadblocks. In 1950, she was the first Black American to host a popular evening variety show, but her TV career was unfairly curtailed by false accusations from the House Un-American Activities Committee. Though their backgrounds, talents, and successes were distinct, each of these women faced similar pressures within the conservative, White male--dominated environment of the 1950s. "The white men of the Eisenhower era would take over and erase women's legacies in television," laments the author. "The women would have to fight for their basic career survival, and to defend any life choices that deviated from the nuclear family norm: remaining single and child-free, like Betty White…or raising children without a father, like Irna Phillips." Though Armstrong repeats some pieces of information over the course of the narrative, her history is fresh and welcome. Engaging and well-documented recognition of four women's significant impact on the emerging TV medium. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
