Milton Berle, dead at age 93

AP, via ABC-TV

[summer]

ABC-TV just announced that AP informed them Milton Berle has died, at the age of 93.

[MeekOneGOP]

Yes, rest in peace "Uncle Milty".........

[PoisedWoman]

Thanks for the bio, summer. To which I add, Milty was known as the best lover in Hollywood amongst the ladies who would know.

[nopardons]

ARNOLD Stang

[summer]

"God bless, MeeknMing."

[summer]

See the next to the last paragraph here.

[summer]

Actually, 2nd from last paragraph there.

[summer]

FYI.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Goodbye, Mendel Berlinger. Thanks for the laughs.

[xJones]

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had so MANY greats... " it also boasted one of the most impressive casts of comic actors ever assembled: Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Buddy Hackett, Dick Shawn, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters and far too many others to mention. Leading man Spencer Tracy held the monstrous cast together, playing the lone straight man in a lineup of jokers.

The screwball antics are touched off by a freak death on a California mountain pass. Recently freed bank robber Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante, in one of the film's countless celebrity cameos) careens off a cliff, crashing onto the desert floor below. Before he kicks the bucket (literally), Grogan tells a secret to the motorists who have stopped to help: $350,000 in stolen loot is buried beneath the big W at a not-too-distant park. The motorists, henpecked hubby J. Russell Finch (Berle), his wife (Dorothy Provine) and mother-in-law (Merman), dentist Melville Crump (Caesar) and his wife (Edie Adams), comedy writers Benjy Benjamin (Hackett) and Ding Bell (Rooney), dim-witted moving man Lennie Pike (Winters) and two enterprising cabbies (Peter Falk and Eddie Rochester Anderson)all try to decide on a fair way of splitting the cash, but negotiations crumble once greed sets in."

[summer]

Thanks for posting that terrific photo.

[summer]

bttt - remember where the cash was buried???? ..... LOL!

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

[John W]

The Washington Post obit,linked from Drudge says his mother was Sandra.I thought her name was Sarah.

[RayChuang88]

The passings of Milton Berle and Dudley Moore are major losses to the entertainment industry. Both were people with enormous skills that we'll all never forget.

Berle literally helped define the rise of network television, as his TV show was responsible for the first major upswing in TV sales. A lot of people owe their TV careers to Berle's success, to say the least.

Godspeed, Uncle Milty. :-(

[John W]

This from another site---

Few American comedians have had so aggressive a "stage mother" as did Milton Berle. Berle's mother Sarah dragged her son to New Jersey's Edison movie studios in 1914 to do extra work, then finessed the lad into supporting roles, including the part of a newsboy in the first-ever feature length comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), which starred Charlie Chaplin. Under Sarah's powerhouse tutelage, Berle moved into vaudeville, making his debut at the prestigious Palace Theatre in 1921.

Another fine reporting job by the Washington Post.

[MeekOneGOP]

bttt - remember where the cash was buried???? ..... LOL!

Under the palm tree, right?????

[killermosquito]

Several years ago Milton Berle spoke at one of the big awards (Emmys?) and gave a very moving address. Anyone have the text?

[summer]

Re your post #92 - Great shots! Thanks for posting!

[summer]

Yes, remember that visual? I think it was a few palm trees, bending in the shape of a "W." Like a mirage....