Berle milton biography of barack

Milton Berle's career is one of the longest and most varied in show business, spanning silent film, vaudeville, radio, motion pictures, and television. He started in show business at the age of five, appearing as a child in The Perils of Pauline and Tillie's Punctured Romance. Through the 1920s, Berle moved up through the vaudeville circuit, finding his niche in the role of a brash comic known for stealing the material of fellow comedians. He also became a popular master of ceremonies in vaudeville, achieving top billing in the largest cities and theaters. During the 1930s, Berle appeared in a variety of Hollywood films and further polished his comedy routines in night clubs and on radio.

Berle is best known for his role as host of Texaco Star Theater, television's most popular program during its early years. The show had begun on the ABC radio network in the spring of 1948, and Berle took part in a televi-sion test version for Texaco and NBC in June of that year. He was selected as host, and the first East Coast broadcast of the TV series began in Septem-ber. Within two months, Berle became television's first super-star, with the highest ratings ever attained and was soon referred to as "Mr. Television," "Mr. Tuesday Night," and "Uncle Miltie." Restau-rants, theaters, and nightclubs adjusted their schedules so patrons would not miss Berle's program at 8:00 P.M. on Tuesday nights. Berle is said to have stimu-lated television sales and audience size in the same way Amos 'n' Andy had sparked the growth of radio.

Although the budget for each program was a modest $15,000, many well-known entertainers were eager to appear for the public exposure Texaco Star Theater afforded, providing further viewer appeal and popularity for the program. The one-hour live shows typi-cally included visual vaude-ville routines, music, comedy and sketch-es. Other regular features included the singing Texaco

Milton Berle (American, 1908-2002)

Starting out as a child actor on the stage, Berle’s entertaining career lasted over 80 years through stage, silent films, radio, movies, and television. He earned the name “Mr. Television” because of his ubiquitous presence as a personality and being the first major American television star. 
In the 1930s, Berle starred in musical comedies, but it was his hosting of NBC’s the Texaco Star Theatre on Tuesday nights that caused the show to reach the number one slot in ratings with a 97% share of the viewing audience. As one of the first examples of mass popular culture in this new medium, some restaurants and theaters even closed for the hour of Berle’s show so as not to miss his performance. During Segregation, he challenged the rule to not allow Black performers on the screen and afterwards was able to book acts like Lena Horn and Bill Robinson. After his show was canceled in the 1950s, Berle appeared in numerous films as well as in casinos and stages around America, and in the 1960s made appearances on many major television sitcoms. Berle seemed to light up for the camera, showing off his expressive face, dance moves, and comedic poses.

American comedian and actor (1908–2002)

Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; Yiddish: ‏מענדעל בערלינגער; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre (1948–1953), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during the first Golden Age of Television. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV.

Early life

Milton Berle was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. His given name was Mendel Berlinger, but he chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger (1872–1938), was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1877–1954), changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous. He had three older brothers (from o

The comedian Milton Berle, who has died from colon cancer, aged 93, once described himself as "flippant, aggressive, a wise guy, a corner comedian, a big city slicker with a put-down, an insult, with venom, with bitterness, with smiles, a smart-ass - sure I know my image. Christ, I created it."

No single movie or performance now exists to show how Berle pervaded the American consciousness. In Britain he is familiar to us only from cameos - late in life, he appeared as himself, and as Cinderella, in Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose (1984).

By the late 1940s, he was known in the United States as Mr Television. He was a figure of awe to 14-year-old Allen Konigsburg (Woody Allen), who - along with some friends at New York's celebrated Circle Magic shop - introduced himself to Berle, another customer, as somebody nifty with cards. In his nervousness Allen fumbled the cards, and missed the chance of a TV spot. But from Berle he learnt the knack of manipulating an audience.

Later, as a stand-up comedian, Allen said: "I find Berle hysterically funny. He's one of the few people I've gone to see in years. There's a certain kind of broadness one associates with television presentations like the old Milton Berle Show, as opposed to, say, a much tighter kind of thing like (Mike) Nichols and (Elaine) May or Sid Caesar."

Berle came from the Bronx - his yearning for the stage abetted by an imperious mother who was "five foot eight and statuesque, which was the popular shape of the day". His parents were eastern European immigrants, his father a painter, his mother a store detective.

When the child Mendel Berlinger, as he was, found himself at Hallowe'en without a decent costume, he improvised a Chaplinesque one of his own. "I even had a Chaplin walk, which was part imitation and part from holding up Pa's pants." This performance on the neighbourhood streets was spotted, in classic fashion, by an agent who Berle's mother