Jigsaw puzzle printed with illustration of The Goldbergs: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Jigsaw puzzle printed with illustration of The Goldbergs. The puzzle illustration depicts the Goldberg family in their apartment in The Bronx. Children Sammy and Rosie are playing the violin and piano while the elderly David converses with father Jake, who is seated with a newspaper in his hands. Mollie is at the window, shown shouting “Yoo-hoo! Mrs. Bloom!” to a neighbor. The puzzle was produced as a radio premium promotional item by Pepsodent, the sponsor of The Goldbergs program. Jay Weaver was the likely artist for the original painting, which was then reprinted for the puzzle by an American lithographer.

The Goldbergs was a groundbreaking radio sitcom that aired on radio from 1929 to 1946 and television from 1949 to 1956. The series was not only one of the first American sitcoms but also the first works of American entertainment to feature a Jewish protagonist and family in a positive, non-stereotypical light. Each 15-minute radio episode recounted events in the life of a family of Eastern European Jews living in the Bronx, often exploring ethnicity, city life, and family issues. Show creator, writer, and star Gertrude Berg portrayed matriarch Mollie Goldberg as a “bighearted, lovingly meddlesome, and somewhat stereotypical” mother with a Yiddish accent and penchant for gossip. As depicted in the puzzle, Mrs. Goldberg would address the audience from the apartment window and became known for her catch phrase "Yoo-hoo!", shouted while summoning neighbors.

The series was a rare and important representation of contemporary Jewish life at a time when mass immigration of Jews and Eastern Europeans to American cities had renewed anti-semitism and nativism as political forces. Whereas earlier cultural representations of Jews in vaudeville and popular literature created and sustained stereotypes, radio programs that presented stories about lower-class immigrant families and their problems, joys, and fears humanized these new Americans and helped create new understandings of citizenship and inclusion. Listeners heard how prejudice and world events affected the Goldbergs, including some notable episodes addressing Kristallnacht and the rise of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and more quotidian stories of cultural misunderstandings and assimilation. The show was one of the most popular of its era; as a Life Magazine reporter wrote in 1949, "for millions of Americans, listening to The Goldbergs... has been a happy ritual akin to slipping on a pair of comfortable old shoes that never seem to wear out".

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1932
• Object Name: puzzle
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: printed (overall production method/technique)
• Measurements: overall: 8 in x 10 in; 20.32 cm x 25.4 cm
• place made: United States
• depicted: United States: New York, Bronx
• Subject: Radio
• Subject: Puzzles
• Subject: Toys
• Subject: Judaism
• ID Number: 2021.0102.02
• accession number: 2021.0102
• catalog number: 2021.0102.02
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.