Though he was before my time, as a fan of television, I should pay my respects to Mr. Television. I find it amazing that one man could sell a ton of TVs.
Thank you Milt, for making TV what it is.
How much do ou suppose the tabloids are offering for photos of the naked corpse to see once and for all if THE RUMOR is true?
What rumor?
Uncle Milty was reportedly hung like a clydesdale (to use the medical term)
His show was way before my time, but even so, it’s a shame he’s gone.
Here’s the rumor:
Maybe the ITEM in question will wind up in the Smithsonian along with John Dillinger’s.
If there is an afterlife, he’ll have to face all the dead comedians he stole jokes from in this life. Or an extra long stay in Purgatory.
But he will be missed…
I wouldn’t bet that THEY didn’t steal the jokes from Miltie.
I wouldn’t bet that THEY didn’t steal the jokes from Miltie.
The finniest line I ever heard him say was a few years on one of those tribute shows.
He followed a very tall guy up to the microphone stand, and had some trouble lowering it. He commented, “How ironic, can’t get it DOWN”.
It is interesting. He was the man who created the television variety show, televison comedy and so much else and so few remember him because it so long ago.
Uncle Miltie, a nephew remembers. Thanks for so much from the pies, and cross dressing to the duets with biggest stars of the time.
TV
Uncle Miltie’s TV show was well before my time, so my first clear memory of him was when he was in the music video for the band RATT in the 80s. I remember thinking how cool he must have been to agree to be in a heavy metal video.
Such passings are both sad (because the world has lost a wonderful source of humour) and reflective (he lived a long life and had a long, successful career, and made millions of people laugh.)
His prime was long ago, and much of his television work is not longer funny – it’s been copied and imitated so often, he set many of the standards for television comedy. However, you can rent I’ts a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and see him in the hilarious role of a man beset by a henpecked mother-in-law (the wonderful Ethel Merman.)
I imagine there is a cloud in heaven where Jack Benny, Gracie Allen, Ernie Kovaks, Fred Allen, and their ilk are greeting Uncle Miltie … Groucho probably offering him a cigar, with a wise-crack.
Milton Berle . . . Hmm . . . never found him the slightest bit funny, but it’s a shame he’s dead . . . I hear he was a Class-A sonofabitch, too . . . Shame he’s dead, though . . . Ninety-three years—pretty good run . . . Still, ummm . . .
I wonder who Number Three will be? Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope must be revving up their defibrillators, and I hear Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Brockerick nervously took the night boat out of Manhattan . . .
I’m with **Eve[/]
My opinion of him is negative based on his dispute with the lesbian and gay Chicago resource guide that used a picture of him in drag as Carmen Miranda.
In filing suit against the company, he claimed that the ad falsely implied that he was gay. He argued that impling he was gay was libelous and defamatory. Homophobic bigotry is not attractive, especially in someone who did drag so much.
Considering those were the days when being accused of being gay or lesbian could ruin your life (Oscar Wilde, anyone?) I’m not sure I can really fault him for this. Unless there’s more to it than is mentioned here.
In 1999? It’s kinda hard to ruin the career of a 91 year-old retired performer. He was asking for $6 million. If he had sued for using his image without permission, I could understand. But he specifically called it defamation to be identified as gay. That is my problem with him.
Case in point: On a telethon years ago to raise money to fight one or another disease (there were may of these through about the sixties) a man was playing a violin solo of an old song, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” Berle thought it would be funny to walk up to the guy and blow cigar smoke in his face while he was playing. This wasn’t part of the act. The violinist was, I think, from the Lawrence Welk Show, and took himself very seriously. At any rate, I never had any use for Berle after that. I’ve heard other stories of his just riding roughshod right over other people’s acts. He was an asshole. Ninety three? Ooold asshole!
I’ll miss Dudly Moore, though.
That is different. I thought it took place years ago. But then, I knew nothing about it to begin with.
Never mind.
Ninety-three years old and dead, and still able to rile (what passes for the) standard bearers of cultural pomposity these days. I like Uncle Miltie.