Jerry Berger, born in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on June 30, 1933, is a retired iconic press agent, journalist, and PR man. He gained notoriety in the St. Louis community by writing a column for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat

St. Louis Globe-Democrat

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat was originally a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri from 1852 until 1986...

 and later with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...

.

Early Biography

Gerald Berger is the son of Julius Berger and Rae Cohen. He has Hungarian ancestry on his father's side and British-Russian ancestry on his mother's side. He graduated from Soldan-Blewett High School

Soldan International Studies High School

Soldan International Studies High School is a public magnet high school in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri that is part of the St. Louis Public Schools. From its opening in 1909, Soldan was known for its wealthy and predominantly Jewish student population...

 in St. Louis. His career ambition was to be a pharmacist.

Career

Just barely out of his teens, 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 Film Corporation as Midwest advertising-publicity manager. His career then took off, when he became one of five young employees chosen by company chairman Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...

 to train as future leaders of the company.

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, the Rhodesias and East 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 "Barefoot in the Parkand Otto Preminger's "Hurry, Sundown and "Advise and Consent. Berger also worked with legendary producer Hal Wallis on "Becket". However, Berger struck up a close friendship with Otto Preminger

Otto Preminger

Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...

, who once visited Berger, when the latter returned to St. Louis.

He was also a press agent and publicist with such personalities as Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson

Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...

, Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...

, Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli

Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....

, Arthur Rubinstein

Arthur Rubinstein

Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...

, Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Betty Grable

Betty Grable

Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...

, Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

, Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

, and Rudolf Nureyev

Rudolf Nureyev

Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...

, among others.

In 1968, Berger returned to St. Louis, where he joined the 12,000-seat Municipal Opera as operations director. Ten years later, he accepted the position as people columnist with the now-defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat. After the newspaper folded, he joined the Pulitzers' 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 and added a new credit to his dossier - marketing consultant. However, he has started his online column on bergersbeat.com.