Milton Berle was born Milton Berlinger on July 12, 1908, in New York City. He was educated at New York Professional Children's School and began performing at age 5. His first stage appearance was in "Florodora" in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He appeared at the Palace Theater in New York in 1931, then in nightclubs and theaters. He appeared in the Broadway musicals "Saluta", "See My Lawyer" and "Ziegfeld Follies of 1943". His television debut was on experimental scanning-wheel television in Chicago in 1929. By 1934, he was on radio, was heard regularly on "The Rudy Vallee Hour", and attracted publicity as a regular on "The Gillette Original Community Sing".
Appeared for the first time on television in an experimental TV broadcast in 1929, and sometimes is credited with being the first person to appear on television, possibly because a film of the broadcast has survived. On April 7, 1927, an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover was transmitted by AT&T in the first successful long distance demonstration of TV. Later that day, AT&T broadcast other material, including vaudeville comedian A. Dolan. WRNY (Coytesville, New Jersey) became the first standard radio station to transmit a television image, the face of Mrs. John Geloso, on August 13, 1928 in a process resembling early Web "broadcasts", with a delay of a few seconds between image and voice, while on August 22, 1928, WGY simultaneously broadcast Alfred E. Smith accepting the Democratic presidential nomination on radio and TV. "The Queens Messenger" was the first play broadcast by television, on September 11, 1928 by W2XAD, an event that made the front page of the New York Times. Thus, Berle cannot be considered the first "television performer" in history.
Parents are Moses Berlinger (1873-1938) and Sarah Berlinger (1877-1954).
Had four siblings: Phil Berle (born 1901), Francis (born 1904), Jack (born 1905) and Rosalind (born 1913) (all deceased).
Stepfather-in-law of Richard Moll.
On Dec. 5, 1999, he suffered a mild stroke at his home in California.
Had a longtime joking rivalry with Bishop Fulton J. Sheen ("Uncle Fultie"), whose television show was on opposite his for many years ("He stayed on longer than I did because, lets face it, he had better writers. Mark, Luke...").
Credits his survival as a television icon with his 30-year contract with NBC (Groucho Marx once joked about this saying: "30 years with NBC? Thats not a contract. Thats a sentence!").
Always opened his television show by making an entrance in a different costume each week.
Changed his name to Berle from Berlinger in 1920.
His mother, Sarah Berlinger (later called Sandra Berle), was often shown on camera as she sat in the audience for "Texaco Star Theatre Starring Milton Berle" .
Was well-known as an outrageous joke thief, which frequently rankled some of his fellow performers. One time, he said to Groucho Marx , "You know, Groucho, Ive stolen some of my best jokes from you." Without missing a beat, Groucho replied, "Then you werent listening.".
Was a regular on the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts".
In 1984 he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, and in 1991 became the first entertainer inducted into the International Comedy Hall of Fame.
Biography in: "Whos Who in Comedy" by Ronald S. Smith, pg. 46-48. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Uncle of Warren Berlinger.
In 1962 NBC tried to develop a television series around incidents in his life, but the series never got beyond the planning stage.
Had three children: Victoria, William and Bob Williams.
Had three grandsons: James, Mathew and Tyler Roe.
Began his professional career at age five, working in motion pictures at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. studios in Fort Lee, NJ.
In May 1949 he hosted the worlds first charity telethon, benefiting the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund. The program lasted 24 hours.
He died on the same day as Dudley Moore and Billy Wilder. Coincidentally, Berle and Moore both made guest appearances in "The Muppet Show" .
Berle co-wrote, with Ben Oakland , the title song for the film Lil Abner .
In 1947 he 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. The club, which moved to Beverly Hills in 1961, is a private show business club famous for its celebrity members and roasts, where a member is mocked by their club friends in good fun.
Godfather of musician Billy Sherwood.
He was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--for Television at 6263 Hollywood Blvd. and for Radio at 6771 Hollywood Blvd.
Described a brief affair with Aimee Semple McPherson in 1930 in his 1975 autobiography, "Milton Berle: An Autobiography".
Berle was famed in Hollywood for the alleged size of an "unmentionable" portion of his anatomy. An often recounted (and possibly apocryphal) story was that when he was once challenged to a "face-off" with another man to prove who had the larger one, a friend said, "Were in a hurry, Milton, just take out enough to win.".
Appears on a 44 USA commemorative postage stamp, issued 11 August 2009, in the Early TV Memories issue honoring "Texaco Star Theater" (titled "Texaco Star Theatre Starring Milton Berle" , 1954-1956).
He became a vegetarian in the early 1940s.
Interviewed in "The Great Comedians Talk About Comedy" by Larry Wilde.
Following his death, he was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Known to younger generations for his infamous pairing with drag queen RuPaul at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. The two got along very poorly on-camera, spending more time going off-script and lobbing harsh potshots and verbal low blows at each other than actually presenting an award. They also got along just as poorly backstage, if not more so. RuPaul claimed Berle was acting rude and sexually inappropriate towards him, even allegedly touching RuPauls false breasts at one point. This incident prompted RuPaul to end what was, until then, a very prosperous professional relationship with MTV.
Several of his screenplays and lyrics songs were written by Jerry Seelen.
An adult western is where the hero still kisses his horse at the end,only now he worries about it.
If evolution works, why do mothers only have two hands.
I live to laugh, and I laugh to live.
You show the emotion so you get the audience going the other way.
I have a file of four million jokes . . . I have them cross-indexed.
Whatever subject you want, I have a joke on it.
Committee: A group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.
Sex at eighty-four is terrific especially the one in the winter.
Laughter is an instant vacation.
A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours.
