Gerald Allen "Jerry" Berger
(June 30, 1933 – January 5, 2021) was an American press agent and journalist. He was known in the
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
area for his columns in the ''
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
The ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat'' was originally a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1852 until 1986. When the trademark registration on the name expired, it was then used as an unrelated free historically themed paper.
Orig ...
'' and the ''
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...
''.
Biography
Berger was born in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
, to Julius Berger and Rae Cohen. He was of Hungarian ancestry on his father's side and Russian ancestry on his mother's side. His father was a plumber. Berger was Jewish.
He graduated from
Soldan-Blewett High School in St. Louis. He was enrolled at
St. Louis College of Pharmacy
The University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis is a private university focused on the health sciences that is located in St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in 1864 as the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. The university includes St. ...
.
In his twenties, Berger was employed by the local branch of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a booker of films, while simultaneously entering management at the local Loew's Theatres. Subsequently, he joined
20th Century-Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
Film Corporation.
The launch-pad for Berger was an appointment as advertising publicity manager of 20th Century-Fox's far-flung operations in the Republic of South Africa. He headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
After some time, he returned to the states to fill a marketing position at 20th Century-Fox's New York headquarters. He eventually accepted an offer of a marketing position with Paramount Pictures. He worked both in New York and Hollywood. His marketing expertise was employed on such motion pictures as ''
Becket
''Becket or The Honour of God'' (french: Becket ou l'honneur de Dieu) is a 1959 play written in French by Jean Anouilh. It is a depiction of the conflict between Thomas Becket and King Henry II of England leading to Becket's assassination in 117 ...
'' (1964), ''
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
'' (1956) (reissue), and ''
Alfie
Alfie may refer to:
Theatre and film
* ''Alfie'' (play), a 1963 play by Bill Naughton
* ''Alfie'' (1966 film), a film based on the play starring Michael Caine
* ''Alfie'' (2004 film), a remake of the 1966 film
* ''Alfie'' (2013 film), an Indi ...
'' (1966).
Berger struck up a friendship with
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor.
He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
.
He was also a press agent and publicist with such personalities as
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
,
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Golde ...
,
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
,
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
,
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
, and
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev ( ; Tatar/ Bashkir: Рудольф Хәмит улы Нуриев; rus, Рудо́льф Хаме́тович Нуре́ев, p=rʊˈdolʲf xɐˈmʲetəvʲɪtɕ nʊˈrʲejɪf; 17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet ...
,
among others.
In 1968, Berger returned to St. Louis, where he joined the
Municipal Opera as operations director. Ten years later, he accepted the position as people columnist with the ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat''. After the newspaper folded, he joined the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', where he continued to write daily columns and features for 24 years, while sporadically broadcasting entertainment reviews on television and Hollywood gossip on KMOX Radio, the CBS affiliate.
He retired in 2004 after thousands of columns for the ''Post-Dispatch''; he was working on a book at the time of his retirement.
Personal life and death
Berger had an illegitimate son he never met.
Berger was banned from visiting the ''Post-Dispatch'' due to "inappropriate behavior" in 2009. In 2013, Berger pled guilty to sexual misconduct, following an incident in which he groped a man in a check-out line.
Berger moved to
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
in 2017. He died on January 5, 2021, aged 87, from natural causes in
Coral Springs, Florida
Coral Springs, officially the City of Coral Springs, is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is located approximately northwest of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderdale. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. C ...
.
He was survived by his husband, Victor Isart.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Jerry
1933 births
2021 deaths
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Jewish American journalists
Journalists from Missouri
St. Louis Globe-Democrat people
St. Louis Post-Dispatch people
Writers from St. Louis
American gay writers
21st-century American Jews