{{short description|American film producer (c. 1889 – 1959)}} {{Use American English|date=January 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Jack Goldberg | birth_date = c. 1889 | death_date = 1959 | occupation = Film producer, film director, talent manager, vaudeville performer }}
'''Jack Goldberg''' (c. 1889 – 1959) was an American film producer, film director, talent manager, and vaudeville performer. He started his career as in vaudeville, and became a producer of films starring African American casts for mixed race audiences. He led the Hollywood Pictures Corporation in New York City in 1945, and Herald Pictures in New York City in 1946.
== Life and career == Goldberg was white and Jewish.<ref name="Rollins-2014">{{Cite book |last=Rollins |first=Peter C. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hollywood_As_Historian/x44fBgAAQBAJ |title=Hollywood As Historian: American Film in a Cultural Context |date=July 11, 2014 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-4864-9 |pages=126 |language=en}}</ref> His brother Bert Goldberg ran Harlemwood Pictures in Dallas, Texas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=69NKAAAAYAAJ&q=harlemwood+studios&pg=RA11-PA58|title=Negro Digest|date=November 20, 1945|publisher=Negro Digest Publishing Company|via=Google Books}}</ref>
He married vaudeville singer Mamie Smith,<ref name="Weisenfeld-2007">{{Cite book |last=Weisenfeld |first=Judith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QNV9LeA4QGcC&q=jack+goldberg+film&pg=PA287 |title=Hollywood be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949 |date=November 20, 2007 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520227743 |pages=193, 240, 286–287, 301 |via=Google Books}}</ref> in 1929. Goldberg had been her talent manager prior to their marriage.<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 6, 1944 |title=Jack Goldberg |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chicago-defender-jack-goldberg/188288365/ |access-date=2026-01-06 |work=The Chicago Defender |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Goldberg was known for producing "race movies", a genre of cheaply produced films for distribution at Black theaters.<ref name="Rollins-2014" /> He also attempted to make films with all-African American casts for mixed race audiences.<ref name="Weisenfeld-2007" /> He was a supervising producer of the film ''Harlem is Heaven'' (1932). He produced the film ''Paradise in Harlem'' (1939), starring Mamie Smith, his wife.<ref name="Weisenfeld-2007" />
Negro Marches On Inc. was a film production studio in New York City, led by Goldberg.<ref name="Rollins-2014" /> In 1944, Goldberg signed a suit on behalf of his company Negro Marches On Inc. in attempts to stop the U.S. War Department and the War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry from releasing ''The Negro Soldier'' film, which he felt competed unfairly with his own film ''We've Come a Long, Long Way'' (1944).<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 22, 1944 |title=Would Ban Army Film: Negro Marches On, Inc., Sues to Halt Showing 'Negro Soldier' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/04/22/archives/would-ban-army-film-negro-marches-on-inc-sues-to-halt-showing-negro.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="The Afro-American-1944">{{Cite news |date=May 13, 1944 |title=Story Behind "Soldier" Yet to Be Told, Says Johnson |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-story-behind-soldier/188287165/ |access-date=2026-01-06 |work=The Afro-American |pages=6 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Lightfoot Solomon Michaux had co-produced and invested in the ''We've Come A Long, Long Way'' film.<ref name="The Afro-American-1944" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=June 3, 1944 |title=Await New Fight on Soldier Film |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-await-new-fight-on-sol/188286715/ |access-date=2026-01-06 |work=The Afro-American |pages=16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Goldberg ended up losing this lawsuit, however this movie was never a box office success. ''The'' ''New York Times'' published a review and characterized his film, ''We've Come A Long, Long Way'' (1944) as a rambling testimonial.<ref name="Weisenfeld-2007" />
Goldberg founded Herald Pictures in New York City in 1946.<ref name="Weisenfeld-2007" />
==Filmography== *''Harlem is Heaven'' (1932), as supervising producer *''Scandal of 1933'' (1933) *''Paradise in Harlem'' (1939) *''Sunday Sinners'' (1940) *''We've Come a Long, Long Way'' (1944), as director<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.regenerationblackcinema.org/films-and-filmmakers/films/weve-come-a-long-long-way|title=We’ve Come a Long, Long Way|website=Regeneration: Black Cinema}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rollins |first=Peter C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x44fBgAAQBAJ&q=jack+goldberg+film&pg=PA126 |title=Hollywood As Historian: American Film in a Cultural Context |date=July 11, 2014 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=9780813148649 |via=Google Books}}</ref> *''Boy! What A Girl!'' (1947), the first of 11 Herald Pictures films<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=14iXDwAAQBAJ&q=jack+goldberg+film&pg=PT120|title=Talk's Cheap, Action's Expensive - the Films of Robert L. Lippert|last1=McGee|first1=Mark Thomas}}</ref> *''Sepia Cinderella'' (1947), as producer *''Miracle in Harlem'' (1948)
==See also== *African American cinema *Vincent Valentini, screenwriter
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10594419/ IMDB profile]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldberg, Jack}} Category:1880s births Category:1959 deaths Category:American talent agents Category:American vaudeville performers Category:Film directors from New York City Category:Film producers from New York City Category:Jewish American film people Category:Race films