Milton Berle

Milton Berle
Milton Berle

Berle at the 41st Primetime Emmy Awards in 1989
Born Milton Berlinger
July 12, 1908(1908-07-12)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Died March 27, 2002(2002-03-27) (aged 93)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names Mr. Television, Uncle Miltie
Occupation Actor/Comedian
Years active 1914–2000
Influenced by Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx
Influenced Don Rickles, Johnny Carson, Larry the Cable Guy, Nipsey Russell
Spouse Joyce Mathews (1941–1947;1949–1950)
Ruth Cosgrove (1953–1989)
Lorna Adams (1991–2002)

Milton Berlinger (July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002), better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television[1] and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television to millions during TV's golden age.

Contents

Early life

Milton Berlinger was born to a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 West 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, he chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger (1873–1938), was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1877–1954),[2] eventually became stagestruck and changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous.

Berle entered show business at the age of five when he won an amateur talent contest.[3] He appeared as a child actor in silent films, beginning with The Perils of Pauline, filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey.[4] The director told Berle that he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. In Milton Berle: An Autobiography, he explained, "I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. Which is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that."

By Berle's account, he continued to play child roles in other films: Bunny's Little Brother, Tess of the Storm Country, Birthright, Love's Penalty, Divorce Coupons and Ruth of the Range. Berle recalled, "There were even trips out to Hollywood—the studios paid—where I got parts in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, with Mary Pickford; The Mark of Zorro, with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Tillie's Punctured Romance, with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler."

In Poppin' the Cork, 1933

However, Berle's claims to have appeared in many of these films, particularly the 1914 Chaplin Keystone comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance, are hotly disputed by some, who cite the lack of supporting evidence that Berle even visited the West Coast until much later. The newsboy role often claimed by Berle in Tillie was unquestionably played by resident Keystone child actor Gordon Griffith.

In 1916, Berle enrolled in the Professional Children's School, and at age 12 he made his stage debut in Florodora. After four weeks in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the show moved to Broadway. It catapulted him into a comedic career that spanned eight decades in nightclubs, Broadway shows, vaudeville, Las Vegas, films, television, and radio.

Career

Rising star

Berle's 1949 television appearance[4][5] was only experimental, but by the early 1930s he had become a successful stand-up comedian. In 1933, he was hired by producer Jack White to star in the theatrical featurette Poppin' the Cork, a topical musical comedy concerning the repealing of Prohibition. Berle also co-wrote the score for this film, which was released by Educational Pictures.

Berle continued to dabble in songwriting. With Ben Oakland and Milton Drake, Berle wrote the title song for the RKO Radio Pictures release Li'l Abner (1940), an adaptation of Al Capp's comic strip, featuring Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat.[6] Berle wrote a Spike Jones B-side, "Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma."

Radio

In 1934–36, Berle was heard regularly on The Rudy Vallee Hour, and he got much publicity as a regular on The Gillette Original Community Sing, a Sunday night comedy-variety program broadcast on CBS from September 6, 1936 to August 29, 1937. In 1939, he was the host of Stop Me If You've Heard This One with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners.[7]

Three Ring Time, a comedy-variety show sponsored by Ballantine Ale, was followed by a 1943 program sponsored by Campbell's Soups. The audience participation show Let Yourself Go (1944–1945) could best be described as slapstick radio with studio audience members acting out long suppressed urges (often directed at host Berle). Kiss and Make Up, on CBS in 1946, featured the problems of contestants decided by a jury from the studio audience with Berle as the judge. He also made guest appearances on many comedy-variety radio programs during the 1930s and 1940s.[7]

Scripted by Hal Block and Martin Ragaway, The Milton Berle Show brought Berle together with Arnold Stang, later a familiar face as Berle's TV sidekick. Others in the cast were Pert Kelton, Mary Schipp, Jack Albertson, Arthur Q. Bryan, Ed Begley and announcer Frank Gallop. Sponsored by Philip Morris, it aired on NBC from March 11, 1947 until April 13, 1948. Berle's desire to succeed on radio was strong enough to cause him to cancel well-paying nightclub appearances in favor of doing the radio program.[7]

His last radio series was The Texaco Star Theater, which began September 22, 1948 on ABC and continued until June 15, 1949, with Berle heading the cast of Stang, Kelton and Gallop, along with Charles Irving, Kay Armen, and double-talk specialist Al Kelly. It employed top comedy writers (Nat Hiken, brothers Danny and Neil Simon, Leo Fuld, Aaron Ruben), and Berle later recalled this series as "the best radio show I ever did... a hell of a funny variety show". It served as a springboard for Berle's rise as television's first major star.[7]

Mr. Television

Caricature of Milton Berle by Sam Berman from 1947 NBC promotional book

In 1948, NBC decided to bring Texaco Star Theater from radio to television, with Berle as one of the show's four rotating hosts. For the fall season, NBC named Berle the permanent host. His highly visual, sometimes outrageous vaudeville style proved ideal for the burgeoning new medium. Berle and Texaco owned Tuesday nights for the next several years, reaching the number one slot in the Nielsen ratings and keeping it, with as much as an 80% share of the recorded viewing audience. Berle and the show each won Emmy Awards after the first season. Fewer movie tickets were sold on Tuesdays. Some theaters, restaurants and other businesses shut down for the hour or closed for the evening so their customers would not miss Berle's antics.[4] Berle's autobiography notes that in Detroit, "an investigation took place when the water levels took a drastic drop in the reservoirs on Tuesday nights between 9 and 9:05. It turned out that everyone waited until the end of the Texaco Star Theater before going to the bathroom".

Berle is credited for the huge spike in the sale of TV sets. (Other comedians turned this into a punchline: "I sold mine, my uncle sold his...") After Berle's show began, set sales more than doubled, reaching two million in 1949. His stature as the medium's first superstar earned Berle the sobriquet "Mr. Television".[4] He also earned a slightly more familiar nickname after ending a 1949 broadcast with a brief ad-libbed remark to children watching the show: "Listen to your Uncle Miltie and go to bed."[4]

Berle asked NBC to switch from live broadcasts to filmed shows, to make possible future reruns and residuals, and he was not happy when NBC showed little interest. NBC did consent to make a kinescope of each show — a reference copy filmed directly off a TV screen.

He also risked his newfound TV stardom at its zenith to challenge Texaco when the sponsor tried to prevent black performers from appearing. In his autobiography, Berle recalled the incident:

“ Another thing that was a constant anger to me was that I didn't have approval on the acts and performers I wanted on the show. I remember clashing with the sponsor and the advertising agency and the sponsor over my signing the Four Step Brothers for an appearance on the show. The only thing I could figure out was that there was an objection to black performers on the show, but I couldn't even find out who was objecting. "We just don't like them," I was told, but who the hell was "we"? Because I was riding high in 1950, I sent out the word: "If they don't go on, I don't go on." At ten minutes of eight — ten minutes before show time — I got permission for the Step Brothers to appear. If I broke the color-line policy or not, I don't know, but later on I had no trouble booking Bill Robinson or Lena Horne." ”

Berle's mother Sadie was often in the audience for his broadcasts; she had long served as a "plant" to encourage audiences for his stage shows to laugh.[3] Her unique, "piercing, roof-shaking laugh"[3][8] would stand out, especially when he would walk onstage in an outrageous costume. He would feign being startled by her laugh, and would pretend she was a stranger or a heckler, then come up with a response. Example: "Lady, you've got all night to make a fool of yourself. I've only got an hour!"

Berle was offered the use of a new device, the teleprompter, and 25% of the company by its inventor, Irving Kahn, if he would simply begin using the new gadget. He turned the offer down.[9]

Francis Craig and Kermit Goell's Near You became the theme song that closed Berle's TV comedy shows.[10]

Berle's TV decline

NBC signed him to an exclusive, unprecedented 30-year television contract in 1951. The problem with Berle's 30-year deal was that NBC could not have realized the relatively short lifespan of a comedian on television, compared to radio, where some careers had thrived for two decades. In part, this was due to the more ephemeral nature of visual comedy (those who do not adapt quickly do not survive), and a single television appearance could equal years of exposure on the nightclub circuit. It has also been said that Berle had less appeal with audiences outside the Borscht Belt as television expanded from big East Coast markets to smaller cities. It is also possible that the positioning of the television set itself was a factor. When Berle's program first hit the airwaves, so few people owned the apparatus that many audiences watched it in public places such as bars, clubs and even in appliance store windows; these were perfect venues for Berle's out-sized personality. However, as more and more people acquired their own televisions, they may have adjusted their tastes to suit the privacy of home.[citation needed]

Texaco pulled out of sponsorship of the show in 1953. Buick picked it up, prompting a renaming to The Buick-Berle Show, and the program's format was changed to show the backstage preparations to put on a variety show. Critics generally approved of the changes, but Berle's ratings continued to fall and Buick pulled out after two seasons.[11] By the time the again-renamed Milton Berle Show finished its only full season, Berle was already becoming history — though his final season was host to two of Elvis Presley's earliest television appearances, April 3 and June 5, 1956.[12] The final straw during that last season may have come from CBS scheduling The Phil Silvers Show (aka You'll Never Get Rich and Sergeant Bilko) opposite Berle. Ironically, Silvers was one of Berle's best friends in show business and had come to CBS' attention in an appearance on Berle's program. Bilko's creator-producer, Nat Hiken, had been one of Berle's radio writers.

Berle knew that NBC had already decided to cancel his show before Presley appeared.[13] Berle later appeared in the Kraft Music Hall series from 1958 to 1959,[14] but NBC was finding increasingly fewer showcases for its one-time superstar. By 1960, he was reduced to hosting a bowling program, Jackpot Bowling, delivering his quips between the efforts of bowling contestants.[15]

Life after The Milton Berle Show

In Las Vegas, Berle played to packed showrooms at Caesars Palace, the Sands, the Desert Inn and other casino hotels. Berle had appeared at the El Rancho, one of the first Vegas hotels, in the late 1940s. In addition to constant club appearances, Berle performed on Broadway in Herb Gardner's The Goodbye People in 1968. He also became a commercial spokesman for the thriving Lums restaurant chain.

Leavelaugh.jpg

He appeared in numerous films, including Always Leave Them Laughing with Virginia Mayo and Bert Lahr, Let's Make Love with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Loved One, The Oscar, Who's Minding the Mint?, Lepke, Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose and Driving Me Crazy.

Freed in part from the obligations of his NBC contract, Berle was signed in 1966 to a new, weekly variety series on ABC. The show failed to capture a large audience and was cancelled after one season. He later appeared as guest villain Louie the Lilac on ABC's Batman series. Other memorable guest appearances included stints on The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Lucy Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, Get Smart, Laugh-In, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Hollywood Palace, Ironside, F Troop, Fantasy Island, and The Jack Benny Show.

Like his contemporary Jackie Gleason, Berle proved a solid dramatic actor and was acclaimed for several such performances, most notably his lead role in "Doyle Against The House" on The Dick Powell Show in 1961, a role for which he later received an Emmy nomination. He also played the part of a blind survivor of an airplane crash in Seven in Darkness, the first in ABC's popular Movie of the Week series. (He also played it straight as an agent in The Oscar (1966), and was one of the few actors in that infamous flop to get good notices from critics.)

During this period, Berle was named to the Guinness Book of World Records for the greatest number of charity performances made by a show-business performer. Unlike the high-profile shows done by Bob Hope to entertain the troops, Berle did more shows, over a period of 50 years, on a lower-profile basis. Berle received an award for entertaining at stateside military bases in World War I as a child performer, in addition to traveling to foreign bases in World War II and Vietnam. The first charity telethon (for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation[16]) was hosted by Berle in 1949.[17] A permanent fixture at charity benefits in the Hollywood area, he was instrumental in raising millions for charitable causes.

Late career

On April 14, 1979, Berle guest-hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live. Perhaps the comedian saw this as a chance to revisit his live-TV glories of three decades before. Whatever his intention, he seemed to spend as much time trying to upstage the show's youthful cast members as he did trying to work with or complement them. Berle's long reputation for taking control of an entire television production—whether invited to do so or not—was a cause of stress on the set. One of the show's writers, Rosie Shuster, described the rehearsals for the Berle SNL show and the telecast as "watching a comedy train accident in slow motion on a loop." Upstaging, camera mugging, inserting old comedy bits, and climaxing the show with a maudlin performance of "September Song" complete with pre-arranged standing ovation (something producer Lorne Michaels had never sanctioned), resulted in Berle being banned from the show.

Milton Berle was a guest star on The Muppet Show, where he was memorably upstaged by the heckling theatre box critics Statler and Waldorf.[18] The Statler and Waldorf characters were based on comedian Sidney Spritzer, who routinely did a similar heckling act on Berle's 1960s ABC series.

Another well-known incident of upstaging occurred during the 1982 Emmy Awards, when Berle and Martha Raye were the presenters of the Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Berle was reluctant to give up the microphone to the award's recipients, from Second City Television, and interrupted actor Joe Flaherty's acceptance speech several times. After Flaherty would make a joke, Berle would reply sarcastically "Oh, that's funny". However, the kindly, smiling Flaherty's response of "Go to sleep, Uncle Miltie" flustered Berle, who could only reply with a stunned "What...?" SCTV later created a parody sketch of the incident, in which Flaherty beats up a Berle look-alike, shouting, "You'll never ruin another acceptance speech, Uncle Miltie!"

One of his most popular performances in his later years was guest starring in 1992 in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as womanizing, wise-cracking patient Max Jakey. Most of his dialogue was improvised and he shocked the studio audience by mistakenly blurting out a curse word. He also appeared in an acclaimed and Emmy-nominated turn on Beverly Hills, 90210 as an aging comedian befriended by Steve Sanders, who idolizes him but is troubled by his bouts of senility due to Alzheimer's Disease. He also appeared in 1995 as a guest star in an episode of The Nanny in the part of her lawyer and great uncle.

Berle appeared in drag in the video for "Round and Round" by the 1980s metal band Ratt (his nephew Marshall Berle was then their manager).

As "Mr. Television," Berle was one of the first seven people to be inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984. The following year, he appeared on NBC's Amazing Stories (created by Steven Spielberg) in an episode called "Fine Tuning". In this episode, friendly aliens from space receive TV signals from the Earth of the 1950s and travel to Hollywood in search of their idols, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, The Three Stooges, Burns and Allen—and Milton Berle. (When he realizes the aliens are doing his old material, Uncle Miltie is thunderstruck: "Stealing from Berle? Is that even possible?") Speaking gibberish, Berle is the only person able to communicate directly with the aliens.

Berle was again on the receiving end of an onstage jibe at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards where RuPaul responded to Berle's reference of having once worn dresses himself (during his old television days) with the quip that Berle now wore diapers. A surprised Berle replied, "Oh, we're going to ad lib? I'll check my brain and we'll start even".

Uncle Miltie offstage

In 1947, Milton Berle founded the Friars Club of Beverly Hills at the old Savoy Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. Other founding members included Jimmy Durante, George Jessel, Robert Taylor, and Bing Crosby. In 1961, the club moved to Beverly Hills. The club is a private show business club famous for its celebrity members and roasts, where a member is mocked by his club friends in good fun.

Unlike many of his peers, Berle's off-stage lifestyle did not include drugs or drinking, but did include cigars, a "who's who" list of beautiful women, and a lifelong addiction to gambling, primarily horse racing. Some felt his obsession with "the ponies" was responsible for Berle never amassing the wealth or business success of others in his position.

Berle was also famous within show business for the rumored size of his penis. Phil Silvers once told a story about standing next to Berle at a urinal, glancing down, and quipping, "You'd better feed that thing, or it's liable to turn on you!" In the short story 'A Beautiful Child', Truman Capote wrote Marilyn Monroe as saying: "Christ! Everybody says Milton Berle has the biggest schlong in Hollywood." Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, who had written many Friars Club jokes about Berle's penis for other comedians, described being treated to a private showing: "He just takes out this— this anaconda. He lays it on the table and I'm looking into this thing, right? I'm looking into the head of Milton Berle's dick. It was enormous. It was like a pepperoni. And he goes, 'What do you think of the boy?' And I'm looking right at it and I go, 'Oh, it's really, really nice.'" At a memorial service for Berle at the New York Friars' Club, Freddie Roman solemnly announced, "On May 1st and May 2nd, his penis will be buried."[19] Radio shock jock Howard Stern also barraged Berle with an endless array of penis questions when the comedian appeared on Stern's morning talk show on Aug 5, 1988[20] (Berle was also a guest on the Stern show on Oct 30, 1996[21]). In Berle's 1988 appearance, when fielding phone calls, Stern purposely asked his producer to only air callers whose questions dealt with Berle's penis.[22]

Berle was known to have a colorful vocabulary and few limits on when it was used. Surprisingly, however, he "worked clean" for his entire onstage career, except for the infamous Friars Club all-male, private celebrity roasts. Berle often criticized younger comedians like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin about their X-rated humor, and challenged them to be just as funny without the four-letter words.

Hundreds of younger comics, including several comedy superstars, were encouraged and guided by Berle. Despite some less than flattering stories told about Berle being difficult to work with, his son, Bill, maintains that Berle was a source of encouragement and technical assistance for many new comics. Uncle Miltie's son Bob backs up his brother's statement. He was present many times during Berle's Las Vegas shows and television guest appearances. Milton aided Fred Travelena, Ruth Buzzi, John Ritter, Marla Gibbs, Lily Tomlin, Dick Shawn and Will Smith. At a taping of a Donny & Marie, for example, Donny and Marie Osmond recited a scripted joke routine to a studio audience, to little response. The director asked for a retake, and the Osmonds repeated the act, word for word, to even less response. A third attempt, with no variation, proved dismal — until Milton Berle, off-camera, went into the audience, pantomiming funny faces and gestures. Ever the professional, Berle timed each gesture to coincide with an Osmond punchline, so the dialogue seemed to be getting the maximum laughs.

Personal life

After twice marrying and divorcing Joyce Mathews, a showgirl, Berle married Ruth Cosgrove, a onetime publicist on December 9, 1953; she died in 1989.[8][23] In 1989, Berle stated that his mother was behind the breakup of his marriage to Mathews. He also said that she managed to damage his previous relationships: "My mother never resented me going out with a girl, but if I had more than three dates with one girl, Mama found some way to break it up."[24] He was married for a fourth time in 1992 to Lorna Adams, a fashion designer 30 years younger than he was, whom he credited for 'keeping him young'. He had two children, Victoria (adopted by Berle and Mathews) and William (adopted by Berle and Cosgrove).[25] Berle also had two stepdaughters from his marriage to Lorna Adams—Leslie and Susan Brown, who is married to actor Richard Moll.[26] He also had three grandsons, James and Mathew, the sons of his daughter, Vicki,[23] and Sgt. Tyler Roe (USARMY Iraq/Afghanistan War's), the son of his son, William.

In later life, Berle found solace in Christian Science and called himself a Jew and a Christian Scientist.[27] Oscar Levant, commenting to Jack Paar about Berle's conversion, quipped, "Our loss is their loss."

Controversies

Accusations of plagiarism and conflicts

Berle once made fun of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis while they were on stage, calling them "headhunters". Davis said that he confronted Berle later on in life and Berle apologized[citation needed].

Berle was well known among his peers to have one of the largest joke collections in the world, which Berle estimated to be between five and six million jokes[citation needed]. Berle had a reputation for stealing material from other comedians,[3] which eventually became known to the public. Bob Hope quipped onstage with Berle, that he "never heard a joke he didn't steal"[citation needed]. "Uncle Miltie" would then mug for the cameras with an exaggerated innocent face. On more than one occasion, Berle commended a co-star for a punchline, saying, "I wish I'd said that," to which the co-star invariably replied, "Oh, you will"[citation needed]. Columnist Walter Winchell famously labeled Berle "The Thief of Bad Gags."[citation needed] On being accused of stealing jokes from Berle, Jack Benny once quipped, "When you take a joke away from Milton Berle, it's not stealing, it's repossessing."

Aspiring comedy writer Irving Brecher famously placed an ad in Variety looking for work, saying he could write "jokes so bad, even Berle wouldn't steal them." He was quickly hired...by Milton Berle.[citation needed]

Occasional claims by Berle and others that these jokes were transferred to computer media[citation needed] are suspect, as a member of Berle's family verified that the majority of them were on sheets and scraps of paper and index cards in a vast, disorganized collection amassed over decades, well before personal computers[citation needed]. The books Milton Berle's Private Joke File and The Rest of the Best of Milton Berle's Private Joke File each contained 10,000 of these jokes.

Berle was confident his jokes were funny, regardless of the audience response he received. When the laugh track gained popularity in the 1950s, Berle used it to his advantage. While witnessing a post-production editing session, Berle once said, "as long as we are here, this joke didn't get all that we wanted." After sound engineer/laugh track pioneer Charles Douglass inserted a chuckle after the failed joke, Berle reportedly commented, "See? I told you it was funny".[28]

Texaco Star Theater in the news

In 1988, a series of syndicated TV specials with the umbrella title "Milton Berle: The Second Time Around," recycled footage from representative Texaco Star Theater kinescopes. These shows, unseen for decades, helped to introduce Berle's brand of comedy to a new audience.

In 2000, Berle made national headlines when he sued NBC for $30,000,000. Berle had retained co-ownership of his NBC programs and specials, but when he approached NBC about making the episodes available on home video, he was told that NBC no longer had the programs on file. Berle sued, claiming the network's negligence in deliberately or accidentally losing or destroying the shows. Berle itemized the loss of 84 Texaco hours, 32 Buick shows, and 12 prime-time specials. NBC scoured the shelves for the missing films, which turned up two months later in the network's Burbank, California facility. All but four of the films were recovered.

Death

In April 2001, Berle announced that he was suffering from a cancerous tumor in his colon, but would not undergo surgery.[29] At the time of the announcement, Berle's wife said the tumor was growing so slowly that it would take ten to twelve years to affect him in any significant or life-threatening way. Less than one year after the announcement, Berle died on March 27, 2002 in Los Angeles, California from colon cancer.[26][30]

Berle left detailed arrangements to be buried with his second wife, Ruth, at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank. However, his last wife, Lorna Adams, altered the plan so that he was cremated and interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. In addition to his wife, Berle was survived by a daughter, Victoria, born in 1945; son, William, born in 1961; and Bob Williams, a son, born in 1951.[31]

Other awards

Broadway

  • Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1932 (1932) - revue — in the roles of "Mortimer" in the sketch "Mourning Becomes Impossible", "Joe Miller, Jr." in "What Price Jokes", "Frank" in "Two Sailors", "Paul" in "The Cabinet of Doctor X", the "Announcer" in "Studio W.M.C.A." the "Defendant" in "Trial by Jury" and "Milton" in "The Bar Relief"
  • Saluta (1934) — musical, co-lyricist and performer cast in the role of "'Windy' Walker"
  • See My Lawyer (1939) — play — performer cast in the role of "Arthur Lee"
  • Ziegfeld Follies of 1943 (1943) — revue — performer in the role of "Cecil" in Counter Attack, "J. Pierswift Armour" in The Merchant of Venison, "Perry Johnson" in Loves-A-Poppin, "Escamillio" in Carmen in Zoot, "Charlie Grant" Mr Grant Goes To Washington, "'The Micromaniac' Singer" and "'Hold That Smile' Dancer"
  • I'll Take the High Road (1943) — play — co-producer
  • Seventeen (1951) — musical — co-producer
  • The Goodbye People (1968) — performer cast in the role of "Max Silverman"

In popular culture

In the episode titled "The One with the 'Cuffs" of the sitcom Friends, Rachel promises Chandler that she will make him "This generation's Milton Berle", hinting that he had a large penis but "not compared to (Chandler)". In the Family Guy episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", Lois describes her perfect man as having (among other male celebrities' features) "Milton Berle's legendary genitals".

For the initial production of Robert Sherwood's Idiot's Delight starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1936, Lunt went to see Berle perform many times and took lessons from him in joke delivery and soft shoe for his characterization of tenth rate vaudeville performer Harry Van. After Lunt had seen Berle perform numerous times and went backstage to meet him, before any introductions could be made, Berle snapped, "Now look here, nobody steals from me. That's my line of work!" After finding out that his fan was none other than the American stage's most gifted and prestigious actor, Berle was flattered and showed Lunt everything he knew. - From Design for Living, Margot Peters' biography of the Lunts.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ "Broadcast pioneer NBC prepares for cable takeover" Miami Herald, Nov. 16, 2009
  2. ^ "Milton Berle's Mother Dies". The Tuscaloosa News. 1 June 1954. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2CQeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NpgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5278,3741070&dq=milton+berle+son&hl=en. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  3. ^ a b c d "The Child Wonder". Time, 16 May 1949.
  4. ^ a b c d e www.museum.tv
  5. ^ Berle, Milton; Frankel, Haskel, eds (1974). Milton Berle: An Autobiography. Delacorte Press. pp. 337. ISBN 0440056098. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0440056098. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  6. ^ Entertainment Magazine: Astor Pictures, Li'l Abner (1940)
  7. ^ a b c d "The Milton Berle Show". RadioArchives. http://www.radioarchives.com/Milton_Berle_Show_p/ra017.htm. Retrieved 2 February 2011. 
  8. ^ a b Kamm, Herbert (27 August 1958). "'Mr. TV' Is Coming Back". Schenectady Gazette. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zVQuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4H4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=695,3891050&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  9. ^ Humphrey, Hal (13 June 1968). "Berle Recalls Beginning of TV". Toledo Blade. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SWcxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mwEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7291,3455107&dq=milton+berle+son&hl=en. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  10. ^ Texaco Star Theater (comedy-variety hosted by Milton Berle) [1]
  11. ^ "Berle Traded For Gleason". Prescott Evening Courier. 20 December 1954. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7ecKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CVADAAAAIBAJ&pg=2406,1249723&dq=milton+berle+son&hl=en. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  12. ^ Milton Berle — Milton Berle Show
  13. ^ The Blue Moon Boys — The Story of Elvis Presley's Band. Ken Burke and Dan Griffin. 2006. Chicago Review Press. page 52. ISBN 1-55652-614-8
  14. ^ Torre, Marie (11 March 1959). "Milton Berle Not Moping". Lawrence Journal-World. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zTwyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-eQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6842,4109474&dq=milton+berle+son&hl=en. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  15. ^ Ashe, Isobel (27 November 1960). "Berle's 'Jackpot Bowling' Is A Really Striking Series". Reading Eagle. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LBIrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YpwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4633,5663479&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en. Retrieved 8 May 2011. 
  16. ^ [2] damonrunyon.org
  17. ^ www.imdb.com
  18. ^ Milton Berle Vs. Statler & Waldorf - YouTube
  19. ^ Men In Dresses Dept.: Remembering Milton Berle: The New Yorker
  20. ^ MarksFriggin.com - Stern Show News - Archive
  21. ^ Mark's Friggin' Stern Show News - October 1996
  22. ^ Stern, Howard. Howard Stern Miss America, 1995.
  23. ^ a b "Milton Berle's Wife Dies". Merced Sun-Star. 20 April 1989. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xJNcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-lcNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4327,3990991&dq=milton+berle&hl=en. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  24. ^ "Milton had to prove his manhood". The Spokesman-Review. 18 March 1989. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N1xWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1e8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6863,1231529&dq=milton+berle&hl=en. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  25. ^ "Comedian Ernie Kovacs Is Killed In Traffic Accident". Victoria Advocate. 14 January 1962. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HSMcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vFgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6745,1128022&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  26. ^ a b "Milton Berle, 'Mr. Television,' Dies at 93". Washington Post. March 28, 2002. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28744-2002Mar27?language=printer. Retrieved 2009-01-27. "Milton Berle, 93, the old-time vaudeville comic who earned the nickname "Mr. Television" for introducing millions of Americans to the electronic medium during its infancy and thereby helping to change the country forever, died yesterday at his home in Los Angeles. Berle, who had been under hospice care in recent weeks, learned last year that he had colon cancer, the Associated Press reported." 
  27. ^ Adherents World Religion Statistics: Obituary: Milton Berle
  28. ^ Kitman, Marvin. "Don't Make Me Laugh," Channels of Communication, August/September 1981
  29. ^ archives.cnn.com
  30. ^ "'Mr. Television,' Milton Berle, dead at 93". CNN. March 28, 2002. http://edition.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/03/27/milton.berle.obit/index.html. Retrieved 2009-01-27. "Berle, who had been in failing health in recent years, died in his sleep while taking a nap, publicist Roger Neale said. His wife, Lorna, was at home with him when he died. Berle is also survived by a son and a daughter. Funeral arrangements are pending." 
  31. ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence (28 March 2002). "Milton Berle, TV's First Star As 'Uncle Miltie,' Dies at 93". New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 March 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5xGILoM5M. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 
  32. ^ Berle inducted into California Hall of Fame, California Museum, Accessed 2007

Further reading

  • Berle, Milton with Haskel Frankel. Milton Berle, an Autobiography. New York: Dell, 1975. ISBN 0-440-15626-2
  • Dunning, John. On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-507678-8
  • McNeil, Alex. Total Television. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. ISBN 0-14-004911-8
  • Shales, Tom and James Andrew Miller. Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. New York: Little, Brown, 2002. ISBN 0-316-78146-0
  • Berle, William and Lewis, Brad. "My Father, Uncle Miltie". New York: Barricade Books, 1999. ISBN 1-56980-149-5

External links

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