George Putnam
Friday, March 29, 2002

It is this reporter's opinion that with the passing of my friend Milton Berle, we are witnessing the END of the great comedic radio and television era. It all began with vaudeville, continued on with radio and exploded on television.

No question about it – Uncle Milty was the first and greatest salesman of television and TV sets. Paul Brownfield recalls there were fewer than 500 sets in use in America when Berle took to the air with the "Texaco Star Theater" in 1948.

By the time he finished his run in 1954, more than 26 million homes had television. Indeed, Milton WAS and IS Mister Television.

I have known him since 1939, when my fellow announcer Ben Grauer took me to the International Casino on Times Square to see his childhood friend perform with the famous Harry Richmond. Milton was not well known but caught everyone's eye as Richmond's warm-up performer.

That is also when I met Milton's stage mother, Sarah, who, as Milton became more famous, changed her name to Sandra. At that performance at the International Casino, Mother Berle stood up and led the applause for Milton.

Milton's career began July 12, 1908, the son of Moses Berlinger, a paint shop owner and Mother Sarah, a department store detective. Berle won a Chaplin look-alike contest for kids at a local theater and later became a model for Buster Brown children's clothes and played kid parts in silent movies, the first being "The Perils of Pauline."

He was in "The Mark of Zorro" with Douglas Fairbanks and, later, in "Tillie's Punctured Romance." Then came vaudeville in New York and Philadelphia, where he shared billing with an assortment of monologists, acrobats and tap-dancers.

Oh, yes – he also performed alongside Powell's elephants and Fink's mules. Those were the days!

Along the way, Milton became in great demand as master of ceremonies, after-dinner speaker and just plain captivating personality.

And he was! Frankly, he was much too big to show to advantage on radio and much too large for the movie screen, but he exploded with the intimacy of in-your-lap television.

The "Texaco Star Theater" debuted Sept. 21, 1948, from Studio 6B in the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center. Within two months, it was television.

I recall standing in the wings at Studio 6B as a young reporter/announcer and watching Milton improvise. He sang, he danced, he directed, he produced, he moved the camera, he changed the lighting, he edited – and it was ALL LIVE!!

What a contrast with today's performances, which are taped, cut, edited – and before the finished product, everything is rehearsed for as much as weeks in advance. Milton, with an earphone, using hand signals, brought the whole production together. As my friend Sandy says, "He was high-tech without the 'tech.' "

And he did it ALL, leaving the impression that it was accomplished effortlessly. His energy was boundless!

Part of his genius was that he made us laugh because he really made us laugh at ourselves; and, you know, he never resorted to vulgarity or even bordered on "blue" material.

Milton told me once that he never used "hell" or "damn." When he had to say the word helicopter, he'd call it a "heck-a-copter." And what about the Hoover Dam? He referred to it as "Hoover Darn."

And now he's gone for a moment, along with Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen, Red Skelton, Al Jolson, George and Gracie, the Marx Brothers, Jackie Gleason and Lucy ... only Bob Hope is left. And yet they ALL live on in the great medium that they manufactured and made such a centerpiece of our lives.

Uncle Milty, you led the way in a whole new art form! Indeed, as Winchell said, "You were not only the 'Thief of Bad Gags,' but you gave us a whole new brand of show business."

Can't you hear it now ...

We're the men of Texaco.
We work from Maine to Mexico.
We'll wow you with an hour full of howls
from a shower full of stars.
We're the merry Texaco men.
Tonight we may be showmen,
tomorrow, we'll be servicing your cars ...
Ladies and gentlemen –
We give you Milton Berle!

Thank you, Milton!

The legendary George Putnam is 87 years young and a veteran of 67 years as a reporter, broadcaster, commentator ... and is still going strong. George is part of the all-star line-up of Southern California's KPLS Radio – Hot Talk AM 830.

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