Spirit of Camp David at Emmy Awards; Holocaust Wins 8 Emmys

NEW YORK (JTA) — The spirit of Camp David added an air of drama to the Emmy Awards which was being televised live by CBS Sunday night. The telecast was interrupted at 10:30 p.m. so that CBS could carry the dramatic announcement from the White House by President Carter, Israeli Premier Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat that agreements had been reached.

The audience in Los Angeles, where the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was presenting the awards, also watched the events at the White House. Host Alan Alda noted how much everyone there had been moved by the effort for peace. Many of the participants in the show also made brief references to the agreements and voiced hope for Mideast peace.

Earlier in the program the NBC-TV film, “Holocaust,” won an Emmy for the best limited television series during the last television season, as well as seven other awards. In accepting the Emmy, Herbert Brodkin, who along with Robert Berger produced the mini-series, said, “I would like to think these awards honor the real Holocaust.”

Marvin Chomsky, who won an Emmy for the best direction of a limited television series, said he was “proud to tell this story to some of those who didn’t know like my own sons.” Blanche Baker, who was honored as the best actress in a supporting role in a single performance, for playing Anna Weiss, the Jewish girl murdered by the Nazis in a psychiatric home, noted that many children died in the Holocaust. “If I helped to keep the memory of those children alive, I know I did something,” she said.

Also receiving awards were Gerald Green, for best writer of a limited series; and Michael Moriarty, who played the SS leader Eric Dorff, and Meryl Streep, who portrayed Inga Weiss, the Christian wife of a Jew, for best actor and actress in a limited series. The film also received awards for editing and costume design. — DAVID FRIEDMAN