Updated 04-May-2020.
Mondo shtuff from around the internet, all about MILTON BERLE!
made only at TCM!
Remembering Milton Berle: Signed talk story about a memorial tribute to late comedian Milton Berle at the Friars Club… Berle was a loyal and active Friar until his death, at the …
television, may very well owe their success to pioneering Jewish
entertainer Milton Berle. America’s first small-screen star, Berle
influenced and helped promote the work of hundreds of younger comics. “His
success came about because early television sets were mostly sold in
wealthier urban areas, with Jews and gentile urbanites accustomed to and
appreciative of Jewish humor. … Ironically, it was Berle’s success with
those urban audiences that propelled the sales of televisions around the
nation,” Lawrence Epstein, author of “The Haunted Smile: The Story of
Jewish Comedians in America,” tells JNS.org.
My botty best at summarizing from Wikipedia: Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor . his career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years . he was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . he chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16 . his father, Moses Berlinger (1873–1938), was a paint and varnish salesman . he had three older brothers: Phil, Frank he appeared as a child actor in silent films . he claimed to have played the character of a young boy . in Milton Berle: an autobiography, he said he was scared shitless “i bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that,” Berle says . by 1916, he was working as a Master of Ceremonies in Vaudeville. by the time in the early 1930s he was a successful stand-up comedian . he patterned himself after one of Vaudeville’s top comics, Ted Healy . Berle continued to dabble in song in the late 1940s, he canceled well-paying nightclub appearances to expand his radio career . in the audience participation show Let Yourself Go (1944–1945) could best be described as “slapstick the Milton Berle Show was a comedy-variety radio show . it brought Berle together with Arnold Stang, later a familiar face as Berle’s TV sidekick . Berle later described this series as the vaudeville star would return to television 20 years later, becoming the first major American television star . he hosted The Texaco Star Theatre on June 8, 1948 over the NBC Television Network . some theaters, restaurants and other businesses shut down for the hour or closed for the evening . Berle and the show each won Emmy Awards after the first season . “Television set sales more than doubled after Texaco Star Theatre’s debut, reaching two million in 1949” Berle’s stature as medium’s first superstar earned him the sobriquet “Mr bob greene: if black performers don’t go on, he doesn’t even know who is objecting . he says he was riding high in 1950, sending out the word: “if they don’ “piercing, roof-shaking laugh” would stand out when Berle made an entrance in an outrageous costume . “lady, you’ve got all night to make a fool of yourself,” he would Texaco pulled out of sponsorship of the show in 1953 . Buick picked it up, prompting a renaming to The Buick-Berle Show . Berle’s ratings continued to fall, and Milton Berle’s “persona had shifted from the impetuous and aggressive style of the Texaco Star Theater days to a more cultivated, but less distinctive personality” the final straw during that last season may have Berle knew that NBC had already decided to cancel his show before Presley appeared . he later appeared in the Kraft Music Hall series from 1958 to 1959 . by 1960, he was reduced to hosting a bowling program he appeared in films including Always Leave them Laughing, Let’s Make Love . freed in part from obligations of his NBC contract, he was signed in 1966 to a new series on ABC . he was named to the Guinness Book of World Records for the greatest number of charity performances made by a show-business performer . he played a blind survivor of an airplane crash in seven in darkness the first charity telethon was hosted by Berle in 1949 . he was instrumental in raising millions for charitable causes . his long reputation for taking control of an entire television production was a cause of stress on the set the rehearsals for the Berle SNL show and the telecast were “watching a comedy train accident in slow motion on a loop” the episode was barred from being rerun until surfacing in 2003 . in 1974, actor/comedian Richard Pryor and actor Berle had a minor altercation . he was discussing the emotional fallout from an experience he had with impregnating a woman . in 1984, Berle appeared in drag in the video for “Round and Round” by metal band Ratt . he also appeared in the band’s “Back For More” video as a motorcyclist . in 1985, he appeared on NBC’s Amazing Stories in an episode called “Fine Tuning” in this episode, friendly aliens from space receive TV signals from the Earth of the 1950s . one of his most popular he appeared in an acclaimed and Emmy-nominated turn on Beverly Hills, 90210 . he also voiced the prince of darkness in the Canadian animated television anthology special . the friars is a private show business club famous for its celebrity members and roasts . Unlike many of his peers, Berle’s offstage lifestyle did not include drugs or drinking . some felt his obsession with ” radio shock jock Howard Stern barraged comedian with endless penis questions . in 1988, he asked his producer to only air callers whose questions dealt with Berle’s penis . at memorial service, Freddie bob greene: Berle was known offstage to have a colorful vocabulary and few limits . he says he often criticized younger comedians for their X-rated humor . his son maintains that Berle Milton aided Fred Travalena, Ruth Buzzi, John Ritter, Marla Gibbs, Will Smith . at a taping of a show episode, Donny and Marie Osmond recited a third attempt, with no variation, proved dismal—until Milton Berle, off-camera, went into the audience . Berle timed each gesture to coincide with an Osmond punchline, so the Berle’s autobiography contains many tales of his sexual exploits . he claimed relationships with numerous famous women, including actresses Marilyn Monroe and Betty Hutton . in 2001 Berle announced a malignant tumor had been found in his colon . his wife said the tumor was growing so slowly it would take 10 to 12 years to affect him . one year after the announcement, on march 27, 2002 he was twice nominated for Emmys for his acting, in 1962 and 1995 . in 1979, Berle was awarded a special Emmy Award . Berle was in the first group of inductees into the Television Hall of Fame in 1984 . on December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Berle into the California Hall of 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. 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- “My Father, Uncle Miltie”. New York: Barricade Books, 1999.