Milton Berle

Berle Sent off with Lots of Laughs

Originally posted 04/02/2002 01:00PM

Like the honoree himself, the memorial tribute to Milton Berle at L.A.'s Hillside Memorial Park on Monday was larger than life -- and funny. Berle, also known as "Mr. Television" because of his enormous influence on the fledgling medium in the late '40s, died last Wednesday at the age of 93. As reported by the Associated Press, comedian Don Rickles, 75, set the tone for Monday's eulogies, standing over the flower-draped coffin and declaring to the 300 guests, including Berle's grieving fourth wife, Lorna Adams: "I would like to be paid for this." The service resembled a celebrity roast. Red Buttons, 83, said: "Lorna, Milton would have been alive today if it wasn't for you. All that sex." Writer Larry Gelbart, 74, never at a loss for words, noted last week's sad losses of Dudley Moore and filmmaker Billy Wilder, too. "I hear you Milton, sorry," Gelbart said. "I know you work alone." As for Berle's well-known "borrowing" of jokes from other comedians, Gelbart put it gently: "He had a propensity for giving other people's material a new home." Bah-dum-bum. But it was a somber Sid Caesar, 79, who gave Berle his due for showing TV executives more than half a century ago that a weekly comedy program was a viable idea. "This was a new thing," Caesar said. "People don't realize. He showed them you didn't have to go out and park the car to see a show."

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Milton Berle

Originally posted 03/28/2002 01:00PM

Milton Berle, America's legendary "Uncle Miltie" -- the rubber-faced comic who rose from the ranks of vaudeville entertainers to become television's first big-time star and who is credited with helping transform television into a seemingly indispensable commodity -- died during a nap at his Beverly Hills home Wednesday. He was 93 years old.

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Another Landmark for Uncle Miltie

Originally posted 02/03/1999 12:00AM

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