![]() ![]() ![]() There is Hazel Scott, playing two pianos at the same time, combining jazz and Tchaikovsky. And Betty White, ad-libbing and improvising on daytime television for 5½ hours a day. There is Gertrude Berg charging into CBS offices, demanding they give her radio program a chance on television. Her writing - propulsive, and neatly scene-oriented - can feel almost like watching television. In her fifth book, “ When Women Invented Television,” Jennifer Keishin Armstrong “aims to reclaim television history for the women who made it.” Her depth of knowledge and easy command of the material make her subjects compelling from the first beat. Marx is considered one of America’s greatest comedians, while the contributions of Berg and many of the other female pioneers of television would be all but forgotten. ![]() Women were making strides in the nascent television industry, but all around them patriarchal norms were as entrenched as ever. Berg won the best actress Emmy, but only Marx’s legacy would live on. He thought she was the Emmy, he later explained. When he won, he grabbed the presenter, the former Miss America Rosemary LaPlanche, and carried her off the stage. Groucho Marx was also nominated for an Emmy that year. ![]() In 1951, two of television’s original leading ladies, Betty White and Gertrude Berg, were nominated in the new Emmy category of best actress. ![]()
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