More of the Best of Milton Berle's Private Joke File: 10,000 Of the World's Funniest Gags, Anecdotes, and One -Liners
(Gathers 10,000 of the world's funniest gags, anecdotes, a...)
Gathers 10,000 of the world's funniest gags, anecdotes, and one liners, in a diverse, alphabetically arranged collection that tramples everything from business and honeymoons to lawyers and salespeople.
B.S. I Love You: Sixty Funny Years With the Famous and the Infamous
(This autobiography of Milton Berle's fifty years in the F...)
This autobiography of Milton Berle's fifty years in the Friars Club features one-lines, ad libs, and risque roasts of America's past and present celebrities from the fields of entertainment, sports, politics and crime
(This 5-volume set collects the very best of Milton Berle'...)
This 5-volume set collects the very best of Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theatre, featuring the famous jokes and sight gags that earned him the nickname "Mr. Television" and made him one of the first stars of the then-new medium.
Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during TV's golden age.
Background
Even as a young child, Berle was a natural entertainer. Moses and Sarah Berlinger welcomed their fourth child on July 12, 1908, and by the age of six he was winning Charlie Chaplin contests. The talent that didn't come naturally was cultivated by his mother, who became his most ardent supporter. Thanks to her efforts, he had had bit parts in over 50 silent films before he was eight, appearing with many stars of the time including Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin.
When the movie business moved west, Berle's mother found work for him in vaudeville kiddie acts-partly out of necessity, and partly to encourage him. Health problems kept his father from working full time in the painting business, and Berle contributed to the family's finances. Berle remembered those early years in a 1996 interview with Broadcasting & Cable magazine: "She was the backbone of my career. She forged me and worked on me like a son of a gun. Every place I ever appeared-whether it was vaudeville, theaters, nightclubs or TV-she was in the audience being a one-woman flack for me. " In fact, her loud laugh and applause at strategic points in the act became part of the act itself.
At the age of 12, Berle made his debut on the legitimate stage in Floradora, and by 16 he was a veteran of vaudeville. According to an interview with John Hughes for the Orange County Register, he also had an eye for the good life, and smoked his first cigar in 1920 at the tender age of 12. It wasn't long before he started his own vaudeville group and became master of ceremonies. By his own admission, he was "a smart ass kid, insulting audiences with one liners, such as 'I never liked you and I always will. "' However flip he was on stage, there was never a question about his dedication to perfecting the art of comedy. While other boys his age were collecting baseball cards and thinking about girls, Berle was collecting joke books and honing his craft. But he also pirated other comedians' material so shamelessly that he was called the "Thief of Badgags, " according to Mr. Showbiz.
Education
He received one of the first Emmy Awards ever given for starring in NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948), was the first person to be inducted to the Television Hall of Fame (1984), the first inductee into the Comedy Hall of Fame (1992), and the first to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Television Academy (1996).
Career
In a 1994 documentary produced by the Arts & Entertainment network, Berle talked about patterning himself after one of the great comics of his day, Ted Healy. "He was flattered that I imitated him, and took me aside and said, 'There's no such thing as an old joke. If you haven't heard it before, it's new. "' Thus, Berle felt justified in using other comedians' material, believing that all jokes are public domain.
The mother-son duo was a hit on the vaudeville circuit, with Berle on stage and mom in the audience prompting laughter when she felt a lull. Success followed him wherever he plied his craft: on Broadway as a popular master of ceremonies introducing variety acts, in night clubs around the country with stand up routines, in starring roles with the Ziegfeld Follies, and in Hollywood motion pictures in the 1930s and 1940s. Radio was the least successful of all his ventures. Although he performed on radio, he never enjoyed the same success there. His style was too visual-the raised eyebrow, turned head, a wink, a tap of the ever-present cigar ("cigaahhhhh" as Berle would say)-to be conveyed entirely through voice and innuendo.
With the advent of television, the entertainment world underwent a seismic change, which presented a great opportunity for those willing to take a chance. Berle, along with a few other comedians, took turns hosting the Texaco Star Theater during its debut. This show was fast, funny, visual, and live-the perfect showcase for Berle's style of comedy. According to Variety, "The fifties is known as the Golden Age of Television in large part because of the variety shows which dominated the early part of the decade…. They were just vaudeville on TV. " Berle became television's first big star, leading NBC to dub him "Mr. Television. "
He got into every aspect of the show, writing, producing, and directing. He could be a tough taskmaster, but his perfectionist tendencies paid off—ratings of Texaco Star Theater and Kraft Music Hall soared so high that NBC signed him to a 30-year "lifetime" contract in 1951, which paid $100, 000 a year, whether he worked or not. Many in the industry credited Berle with television's success because he was able to attract major sponsors. Some even felt he was responsible for selling television sets. Within one season the number of sets in the country increased from 500, 000 to one million.
Berle had the country's attention-young and old alike-which is how he inadvertently acquired another nickname, "Uncle Miltie. " In an interview with Hollywood Online, he explained how he acquired the dubious title: "I received a lot of complaints from parents who wrote and told me that their kids wouldn't go to sleep until our show was over. So I went on the air and told all the children watching to 'listen to their Uncle Miltie and go to bed right after the show. ' The next day I was in a parade in Boston and a couple of workmen in hard hats yelled, 'Hi, Uncle Miltie. ' I had no idea when I first used it that the name would stick. "
Berle was the first star to take a risk on TV, but his success led to strong competition. By the mid-fifties, the public's tastes had changed, preferring musical comedies and westerns to variety shows. As television audiences grew, Berle's ratings began to decline, and in 1956 the show was canceled. Berle then concentrated on dramatic acting, appearing in scores of films and made for TV movies, including It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963); The Oscar (1965); Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968); and Seven in Darkness (1970).
Berle's acting career continued well into the 1990s. He remarried; and, with his third wife, Lorna Adams, launched a magazine named Milton. A tribute to indulgence, the magazine's motto is: "We Drink. We Smoke. We Gamble, " and includes articles such as "How to Play Craps Without Looking Like a Dork. "
Achievements
On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Berle into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.
In later life, Berle found comfort in Christian Science, and subsequently characterized himself as "a Jew and a Christian Scientist".
Views
Quotations:
"I'm 83, and I feel like a 20-year-old, but unfortunately there's never one around. "
Personality
Berle worked tirelessly at becoming a master of timing. Some called him a scholar of comedy. He was known as a brash young comic, with a very physical style of humor that included dressing in drag-a trademark "shtick" that stayed with him throughout his career.
Berle's autobiography contains many tales of his sexual exploits. He claimed relationships with numerous famous women, including actresses Marilyn Monroe and Betty Hutton, columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson.
Connections
After twice marrying and divorcing showgirl Joyce Mathews, Berle married publicist Ruth Cosgrove in 1953; she died in 1989.
He married a fourth time in 1992 to Lorna Adams, a fashion designer 30 years his junior. He had three children, Victoria (adopted by Berle and Mathews), William (adopted by Berle and Cosgrove) and a biological son, Bob Williams, with showgirl Junior Standish.
