Milton Berle was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV.
56 Facts About Milton Berle
2.
Milton Berle was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 W 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan.
3.
Milton Berle's given name was Mendel Berlinger, but he chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16.
4.
Milton Berle's father, Moses Berlinger, was a paint and varnish salesman.
5.
Milton Berle had three older brothers : Phil, Frank, and Jack Berle.
6.
Milton Berle entered show business in 1913 at the age of five when he won a children's Charlie Chaplin contest.
7.
Milton Berle worked as a child model and was "Buster Brown" for "Buster Brown" shoes.
8.
Milton Berle appeared as a child actor in silent films.
9.
Milton Berle claimed The Perils of Pauline as his first film appearance, playing the character of a young boy, though this has never been independently verified.
10.
Around 1920 at age 12, Milton Berle made his stage debut in a revival of the musical comedy Florodora in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which later moved to Broadway.
11.
Milton Berle is known to have played small bit parts in several silent films in the 1910s and 1920s, though his presence in some is disputed.
12.
In 1933, Milton Berle was hired by producer Jack White to star in the theatrical featurette Poppin' the Cork, a topical musical comedy concerning the repealing of Prohibition.
13.
Milton Berle co-wrote the score for this film, which was released by Educational Pictures.
14.
From 1934 to 1936, Milton Berle appeared frequently on The Rudy Vallee Hour and attracted 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.
15.
Milton Berle made guest appearances on many comedy-variety radio programs during the 1930s and 1940s.
16.
Milton Berle first appeared on television in 1929 in an experimental broadcast in Chicago which he hosted in front of 129 people.
17.
Milton Berle would revive the structure and routines of his vaudeville act for his debut on commercial TV, hosting The Texaco Star Theatre on June 8,1948, over the NBC Television Network.
18.
Milton Berle modeled the show's structure and skits directly from his vaudeville shows and hired writer Hal Collins to revive his old routines.
19.
Milton Berle risked his newfound TV stardom at its zenith to challenge Texaco when the sponsor tried to prevent black performers from appearing on his show:.
20.
Milton Berle's unique, "piercing, roof-shaking laugh" would stand out, especially when Berle made an entrance in an outrageous costume.
21.
Milton Berle asked NBC to switch from live broadcasts to film, which would have made possible reruns ; he was angered when the network refused.
22.
Critics generally approved of the changes, but Milton Berle's ratings continued to fall, and Buick pulled out after two seasons.
23.
Milton Berle knew that NBC had already decided to cancel his show before Presley appeared.
24.
Milton Berle later hosted the first television version of the popular radio variety series, The Kraft Music Hall from 1958 to 1959, but NBC was finding increasingly fewer showcases for its one-time superstar.
25.
In Las Vegas, Milton Berle played to packed showrooms at Caesars Palace, the Sands, the Desert Inn, and other casino hotels.
26.
Milton Berle had appeared at the El Rancho, the first Las Vegas Strip full service resort, starting in the late 1940s.
27.
Milton Berle became a commercial spokesman for the thriving Lum's restaurant chain.
28.
Milton Berle later appeared as guest villain Louie the Lilac on ABC's Batman series.
29.
Milton Berle played the part of a blind survivor of an airplane crash in Seven in Darkness, the first in ABC's Movie of the Week series.
30.
Milton Berle played a dramatic role as a talent agent in The Oscar and was one of the few actors in that movie to get good notices from critics.
31.
Unlike the high-profile shows done by Bob Hope to entertain the troops, Milton Berle did more shows, over a period of 50 years, on a lower-profile basis.
32.
Milton 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 during World War II and the Vietnam War.
33.
Milton Berle made a cameo appearance in The Muppet Movie as a used car dealer, taking Fozzie Bear's 1951 Studebaker in trade for a station wagon.
34.
At the time, Milton Berle was discussing the emotional fallout from an experience he had with impregnating a woman with whom he was not married, having to then decide whether or not they would keep the child.
35.
In 1984, Milton Berle appeared in drag in the video for "Round and Round" by the 1980s metal band Ratt.
36.
Milton Berle made a brief appearance in the band's "Back For More" video as a motorcyclist.
37.
Milton Berle 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.
38.
Milton Berle voiced the Prince of Darkness, the main antagonist in the Canadian animated television anthology special The Real Story of Au Clair De La Lune.
39.
Milton Berle appeared in 1995 as a guest star in an episode of The Nanny as her lawyer and great uncle.
40.
In 1947, Milton Berle was one of the founding members of the Friars Club of Beverly Hills at the old Savoy Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.
41.
Milton Berle avoided consuming drugs and alcohol, but was an avid cigar smoker, womanizer, and gambler; primarily gambling on horse racing.
42.
Milton Berle was famous within show business for the rumored size of his penis.
43.
In 1989, Milton Berle stated that his mother was behind the breakup of his marriages to Mathews.
44.
Milton Berle had three children, Victoria, William and a biological son, Bob Williams, with showgirl Junior Standish.
45.
Milton Berle had two stepdaughters from his marriage to Adams: Leslie and Susan Brown.
46.
Milton Berle had three grandchildren: Victoria's sons James and Mathew, and William's son Tyler Daniel Roe, who died in 2014.
47.
Milton Berle claimed relationships with numerous famous women including Marilyn Monroe and Betty Hutton, columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson.
48.
Milton Berle's wife said the tumor was growing so slowly that it would take 10 to 12 years to affect him in any significant or life-threatening way.
49.
However, one year after the announcement, on March 27,2002, Milton Berle died in Los Angeles from colon cancer.
50.
Milton Berle died on the same day as Dudley Moore and Billy Wilder.
51.
Milton Berle reportedly left arrangements to be buried with his second wife, Ruth, at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank, but his body was cremated and interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City.
52.
Milton Berle had hired the writer Hal Collins to revive old vaudeville, burlesque, and radio routines that Milton Berle has used successfully.
53.
Milton Berle was the ringmaster, the master of ceremonies who did his opening monologue and introduced each new act.
54.
When "Buffalo Bob" Smith came on, Milton Berle appeared dressed as Howdy Doody.
55.
Milton Berle clearly considered no costume too outlandish, no stunt too foolish.
56.
An investigation revealed that Detroit's citizens were waiting until Milton Berle was off the air to go to the bathroom; the simultaneous flushing of thousands of toilets created havoc with Detroit's water works.