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Milton Berle

Milton Berle is not on TV in the next 2 weeks

Milton Berle Fast Facts:

His 80-plus years in show business began in 1913 at age 5 when he won a Charlie Chaplin imitation contest; the following year he appeared with Chaplin in Tillie's Punctured Romance.
Made his first TV appearance on an experimental station in Chicago in 1929.
Widely regarded as the small screen's first big star, he became permanent emcee on the variety show Texaco Star Theater on September 21, 1948. At its peak in the late '40s and early '50s, his live show drew an astonishing 80 percent of the audience and helped sell countless TV sets.
Signed an exclusive 30-year, $6 million contract with NBC in 1951; it was renegotiated in 1966 and his annual salary was lowered to $120,000 with the provision that he could work on other networks.
Was said to have memorized between 100,000 and 150,000 jokes, and was often ribbed by other comics for stealing a good number of them. (Berle once said of another comic, "I laughed so hard I almost dropped my pencil.")
Was part of the inaugural group inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984, which included Lucille Ball, Paddy Chayefsky, Norman Lear, Edward R. Murrow, William S. Paley and David Sarnoff.

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