Today, we tell the story of Milton Berle. He was famous for his funny programs in the early years of American television. To many Americans, he was known simply as Mister Television.
Milton Berle performed in theaters, on radio and in movies. Yet he is best known as a television performer. He began working in television in nineteen forty-eight. At the time, television was so new that few people could receive it.
Milton Berle's weekly program was so popular that it may have influenced many Americans to buy their first television. Years ago, Americans who did not own a television often went to the home of someone who did to watch his shows. Many others watched it in stores that sold televisions.
Milton Berle became so famous that some Americans considered him as part of their family. He was often called Uncle Milty. Like a family member, he was loved when his jokes were funny and even when they were not.
He was born in New York City on July twelfth, nineteen-oh-eight. His parents, Moses Berlinger and the former Sarah Glantz, were Jews. They named him Mendel Berlinger. He was one of five children.
One day, Mendel put on some of his parents' old clothes. All the adults who saw him said he looked like a small version of the film actor Charlie Chaplin. So, at the age of five years, he entered -- and won -- a local Chaplin look-alike competition.
He became a child actor a short time later. In nineteen fourteen, he appeared in his first film, "The Perils of Pauline." He was just six years old. The same year, he appeared with Charlie Chaplin in another movie.
Mendel was given a chance to join a vaudeville act. Vaudeville was the most popular form of show business in the United States in the early nineteen hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, comedians who told jokes, and other acts.
Sarah Berlinger supervised her boy's rise in show business. She pushed him to be a success. Missus Berlinger attended all of her son's performances.
"I reached millions of people, who fortunately couldn't reach me. There was one laugh that projected out of the top of them all. That was my mother. And, if people didn't laugh that sat next to her, she used to shove them with the arm and say, 'Laugh it up. That's my son.'"
In nineteen twenty -- at the age of twelve – Mendel first appeared in a show on Broadway in New York City. He formed a vaudeville act with a girl named Elizabeth Kennedy. Later, he formed his own group. As the years passed, his act improved and he worked as a single performer.
By the age of sixteen, he was forced to make changes. He had grown too tall to be a child actor.
Mendel Berlinger changed his name to Milton Berle. He began performing at New York's famous Palace Theater in nineteen thirty-one. He was twenty-three years old. Later, he appeared in several Broadway shows, including "Ziegfeld Follies."
Early in his adult life, Milton Berle was moderately successful in movies and on radio. He was better known as a comedian who told jokes in nightclub shows for adults. He was reported to be one of the best-paid performers in the country.
Yet, Berle did not become truly famous until he appeared on the "Texaco Star Theater" television program in June, nineteen forty-eight. Three months later, the Texaco Company offered him a permanent position with the program.
The "Texaco Star Theater" opened with four men who looked like gasoline station employees. They sang a song that the company used to sell its oil and gasoline products.
"Oh, we're the men of Texaco. We work from Maine to Mexico. There's nothing like this Texaco of ours. Our show tonight is powerful. We'll wow you with an hour-full of howls from a showerful of stars. We're the merry Texaco men. Tonight we may be showmen. Tomorrow, we'll be servicing your cars..."
Milton Berle was a performer who won the love of a crowd by not being lovable. He developed a show business personality that was funny, yet not always pleasant. He acted aggressive, and often appeared to be selfish or uncivilized. Sometimes, he greeted people with the saying, "Good evening, ladies and germs."
One thing that made Berle's television shows popular was the way he
appeared. He knew how to use funny movements and clothing to make people laugh. He would do anything for a laugh. He sometimes wore women's clothing and beauty products. In one show, he explained that he had just paid his taxes. He wore only an empty wooden container, which suggested that the government had taken everything, including his clothes.
Other comedians accused Berle of stealing their jokes. Yet many of the best-known performers in the United States appeared on the "Texaco Star Theater." Like any vaudeville show, his program also offered a mix of singers, dancers and animal acts.
One Tuesday night, trained elephants appeared on the program. The animals left large droppings on the floor. This was a big surprise to the next act -- a group of dancers.
Berle's programs were filled with lots of energy, as we hear in this example.
TEXACO MEN:"And now ladies and gentlemen, introducing America's number one television star, who gets his nose into everybody's act, your Cyrano de Bergerac, Milton Berle..."
BERLE:"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen..." (laughing) "Don't laugh, lady. You and I go to the same plastic surgeon..." (laughing) "That's your own nose. I like it. It's my basketball nose. I just had it fixed..."
Milton Berle had a weekly television series from the late nineteen forties into the middle of the nineteen fifties. More than one hundred shows competed on other networks against his program. They all failed. During one period, four of five Americans who watched television on Tuesday nights watched the program.
In nineteen fifty-one, Berle signed a long-term agreement with NBC, the network that provided his program to television stations across the country. Under the agreement, NBC agreed to pay him two hundred thousand dollars a year for thirty years, even if he did not work.
Berle was tired from performing countless shows. So he demanded the right to take a rest from the program one week in every month. He later said that decision proved to be a mistake. The program began to lose its popularity.
The taste of the American public was changing, and new funny acts were developing. The program also lost popularity when an opposing network added a series of religious talks.
Berle left weekly television in nineteen fifty-six. In the late nineteen fifties, he appeared in a few NBC shows, but then the work seemed to stop.
Berle returned to his roots as a comedian who told jokes, mainly at nightclub shows. He appeared in plays and movies. They included, "Let's Make Love," "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," and "Broadway Danny Rose." He also made appearances on television.
Milton Berle was known for his work with non-profit groups. He performed for soldiers during World War Two. He appeared in thousands of shows that helped to raise money for different kinds of organizations. In nineteen forty-nine, he helped to organize a television show for the Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund. It may have been the first time that television was used to raise money for a non-profit group.
Berle was married two times to a showgirl named Joyce Matthews. Each time, they agreed to end their marriage. Later, he was married more than thirty-five years to another woman, Joyce Cosgrove. After she died in nineteen eighty-nine, he married Lorna Adams.
For many years, Milton Berle remained a funnyman loved by Americans. He produced projects for several media, and collected awards for his work in television. The Television Academy Hall of Fame added him as one of its members. The story of his life led to the nineteen ninety-two film, "Mister Saturday Night." He also wrote books of jokes and his memories.
Milton Berle had colon cancer. He died at his Los Angeles home on March twenty-seventh, two thousand two. He was ninety-three years old. He had spent more than eighty-five years making people laugh.
Source：VOA
【People in America/美國人物】
Mary Lyon（瑪莉·裡昂）
Harriet Tubman：哈麗特•塔布曼
Shel Silverstein：謝爾·希爾弗斯坦
Walt Disney: 沃爾特·迪士尼
Ella Fitzgerald：艾拉·費茲傑拉
Ray Kroc：雷·克拉克
Cochise: 柯奇斯人
Lou Gehrig：盧·格裡克
Walt Whitman：沃爾特·惠特曼
Louis Armstrong: 路易斯·阿姆斯特朗
Alan Shepard: 艾倫-謝潑德
Edith Wharton：伊迪絲·華頓
Buffalo Bill Cody：水牛比爾
Maria Callas：瑪麗亞·卡拉斯
Gunther Gebel-Williams：格貝爾-威廉士
Pocahontas：波卡洪塔斯
Thurgood Marshall：瑟古德·馬歇爾
Philo Farnsworth：菲洛·法恩斯沃思
Ronald Reagan：隆納·雷根
Neillie Bly: 娜麗·布萊
Casey Jones：凱西·瓊斯
Edward R. Murrow：愛德華·默羅
Barbara Jordan: 芭芭拉·喬丹
Clare Boothe Luce：柯列爾.布茲.盧斯
Issac Stern: 艾薩克·斯特恩
Five Labor Leaders
Georgia O'Keeffe：託特·奧·吉弗
Rain-in-the-Face
Ralph Waldo Emerson：拉爾夫·沃爾多·愛默生
Doctor Spock: 斯波克醫生
Elizabeth Blackwell：伊莉莎白·布萊克威爾
John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet：約翰·路易斯
Marlon Brando：馬龍·白蘭度
Red Adair: 保羅•尼爾•阿代爾
Dian Fossey：黛安 佛西
Oppenheimer and Fermi 羅伯特·奧本海默和恩裡克·費米
Movie Pioneers：美國電影先驅者
Patsy Cline
Margaret Sanger: 瑪格麗·特桑格
Nat King Cole：納京高
The Marx Brothers:馬克思兄弟
芭芭拉·庫尼
Artie Shaw：阿迪爾·簫
Frank and Jesse James：詹氏兄弟
Shirley Chisholm：雪莉·奇澤姆
Julia Ward Howe：朱莉亞·沃德·豪
Arthur Miller: 阿瑟·米勒
Elvis Presley:貓王
Gwendolyn Brooks：格溫德琳·布魯克斯
Lucille Ball：露西爾·鮑爾
Jackie Robinson: 傑基·羅賓森
Langston Hughes: 蘭斯頓·休斯
Mary Kay：玫琳凱
Aaron Copland: 亞倫·科普蘭
Louisa May Alcott: 露易莎·梅·奧爾科特
Carl Rowan：卡爾·羅旺
Jack Benny: 傑克·本尼
Barbara McClintock:芭芭拉·麥克林託克
George Gershwin：喬治·格什溫
Charlie Parker：查理·帕克
Susan B. Anthony: 蘇珊·布朗奈爾·安東尼
Leonard Bernstein: 倫納德·伯恩斯坦
Jassica Tandy: 傑西卡·坦迪
Louis Khan:甘路意
Bella Abzug：貝拉.艾布扎格
Cesar Chavez:凱薩·查維斯
Dorothy West: 多蘿西·韋斯特
Arthur Ashe: 阿瑟·阿什
Willis Conover:威利斯·康諾弗
Roger Miller: 羅傑·米勒
Willa Cather: 薇拉·凱瑟
Jackson Pollock:傑克遜·波洛克
Bessie Coleman：貝西·科爾曼
Ann Landers: 安·蘭德斯
James Rouse:詹姆斯·勞斯
Rosa Parks：羅莎·帕克斯
George Abbott：喬治·艾伯特
Janis Joplin：詹尼斯·喬普林
Marian Anderson: 瑪麗安·安德森（I）
Marian Anderson: 瑪麗安·安德森（II）
Diane Arbus：黛安·阿勃絲
Shirley Horn:雪莉·荷恩
Mark Twain:馬克·吐溫
Winslow Homer：溫斯洛·霍默
Susan Sontag：蘇珊·桑塔格
Radio Pioneers：美國廣播先鋒人物
Duke Ellington: 愛德華·甘迺迪·艾靈頓
Babe Ruth: 貝比·魯斯
Winslow Homer:溫斯洛·霍默
Andy Warhol:安迪·沃霍爾
Mae West: 梅·韋斯特
Hank Williams：漢克·威廉士
Eugene McCarthy：尤金·麥卡錫
Scott Joplin: 斯科特·喬普林
Celia Cruz：塞利娜·克魯茲
Milton Hershey：米爾頓·赫爾希
Clara Barton：克拉爾·巴頓
Todd Duncan：羅伯特·託德·鄧肯
Anne Morrow Lindbergh：安妮·莫羅·林德伯格
Betty Friedan：貝蒂·弗裡丹
Woody Guthrie: 伍迪·格思裡
Woody Guthrie: 伍迪·格思裡(II)
Katharine Graham:凱薩琳·格雷厄姆
Roberto Clemente：羅伯託·克萊門特
Margaret Mead: 瑪格麗特·米德