Milton Berle

Milton Berle, born Milton Berlinger, also known as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television (1908-2002) was a comic Actor whose career spanned show business from vaudeville, silent films, radio, television, to Broadway and Las Vegas. Milton's career began at the age of 5 on the streets of upper Manhattan, where he did Charlie Chaplin imitations to entertain other kids. An agent saw him and found work for him as the Buster Brown boy, selling shoes. Chaplin heard about him and sent for him, and he appeared in several silent films with the great Charlie Chaplin. He began in Broadway in 1920 on a musical called "Floradora," then worked vaudeville for awhile. His mother, Sandra, was a great influence on him, and guided him in his early days of show business. His first credited film was "The Perils of Pauline" (1914), but he was in over 70 films over the course of his lifetime. He successfully made the transition to television in 1948, with The Milton Berle Show, which ran for nearly ten years. He last acted in 1994, but still made cameo appearances for the last several years. As the New York Times once observed "Television didn't make Milton Berle, Milton Berle made television." He was considered one of the first persons to appear on television, in 1928, during an experimental broadcast in New York City. He was married four times, twice to Joyce Mathews, who he remarried after divorcing her. His second wife was the former Ruth Cosgrove, who he married in 1953; she died in 1989. His last wife was Lorna Adams, who he married in 1991 and was with him until the end. In April 2001, he was diagnosed with a slow growing colon cancer, which doctors indicated would not affect him for several years. He also wrote three books about himself.

Milton Berle in "The Star and the Rockets"
Milton Berle's work with Texaco Star Theater attracted Texaco station owner and semi-professional baseball player Joe Bauman to his program. Bauman greatly enjoyed Berle and would often watch his program during late nights keeping the station open till midnight despite very slow traffic. During one particularly entertaining show in January 1954, Bauman was interrupted from his television watching by three strange men driving an 88 Oldsmobile.