for the
record:

Interviewed June 11, 1996 by Dan Pasternack in Los Angeles

milton
berle

“That is the name of the game, taking a chance and coming through.”

M ilton Berle, known as “Mr Television,” is considered the impetus for spurring thousands of families to buy their first television sets. At the height of his popularity, he was known as “Uncle Miltie.” Here are selections from his Archive interview.

Dan Pasternack: Tell me about your early influences.

Milton Berle: Mother [was the] greatest for me. Her name was Sara, a terrific woman. She worked terribly hard. Father was pretty sick and mother had to take three jobs at once. [She] first enlisted as a policewoman in the New York Police Department, private detective she owned her own agency, and she was a department store detective. She dedicated her whole life to me. I was the apple of her eye....Mother wanted to go into show business, so she poured all her energies into me. She dragged me around studios looking for jobs in New Jersey. She knocked her brains out schlepping me to auditions.

DP: Without her driving behind you, would you have gone into the entertainment industry?

MB: I suppose so. When I was four, I first discovered a mirror and I would make funny faces. Uncle Charley would say: “would you get that damned kid away from the mirror, he is going to turn into an idiot.”

DP: Briefly touch on the highlights of your career as a child performer.

MB: I was one of the Buster Brown boys for Buster Brown shoes. I was a boy model, modeled hats, sweaters for “Boys Life” and kids magazines....I did 16 silent pictures. [I was] discovered by Charlie Chaplin. I made about twelve to fifteen Chaplin shorts. I learned so much from him.

DP: Then you moved into vaudeville?

MB: I started out as a straight actor. If you are a straight man you know how to feed a comedian. I played small towns....But there was always my mother in the audience, she was my best audience.

DP: How did your years in vaudeville influence your television career?

MB: Those ad-libs came from training in television. If you flopped in vaudeville you had another chance, you didn't have another chance in television.

DP: What was the attitude among your colleagues about the new medium of television?

MB: “You're taking a shot, you're taking a chance.” I was discouraged by my fellow comedians who would say: “why are you doing this?”

I knew I had the experience of working in front of a live audience. They said “I wouldn't do it!”....They said, “why take a chance?” That is the name of the game, taking a chance and coming through.

DP: How did the Texaco Show come about?

MB: I was doing a radio show for Texaco in 1947....While we were on, I was approached by Texaco...the only idea I had...this is going to be visual. I've been in vaudeville for so many years. I think we should do a variety show. It started out as “Texaco Star Theatre Vaudeville” and I said I can do exactly what I did in vaudeville. I've got a lot of experiences, no story line, just myself introducing the acts, this is pre-Sullivan. All I can do is put on a vaudeville show and I can be the emcee. They couldn't guess what the first Texaco Show cost for actors, costumes, broadcasting facilities, stage hands. It cost $15,000 for the whole hour.

DP: Were you nervous?

MB: No. But some actors I had on the show were nervous. The success of that show made me a success. We had a rating of 83.9. When they took a rating in Brooklyn between eight and nine [p.m.] the water level was way down. Why? They wouldn't go to the bathroom.

DP: Where did your material come from for your first shows?

MB: Budget was so small, [I] couldn't afford writers. I just remembered bits from vaudeville.

DP: When did you bring writers on?

MB: Buddy Arnold joined me for the first show. We collaborated just he and I on all the material.

DP: From the beginning, there were certain staples of the Texaco show, aspects that people looked forward to each week: the theme song, wild costume entrances...

MB: I used to come in with a straight suit and would dress on Valentines day...wild. We started to run out of costumes. I was passing Frederick's of Hollywood. I see...a model in a June bride outfit. I went in and said: “do you have one of these dresses?” Told him to watch it next week.

That dress was bad luck for me. I nearly got into a terrible accident. We shot the show and we were rolling. Scenery rolled up and I forgot that there was a train on the wedding gown. I got too close to the roller drop. The train got stuck into the roller drop, before you know it I was up there [points up] and I was hanging. I ad-libbed “I feel so high tonight.” I nearly fell down but the stage hands caught me.

DP: Part of early, live television was the fact that many things went wrong. Are there other stories?

MB: I had Red Buttons on the show, [I had] written “Confiden-tial Auto Loan.” He comes in for an auto loan, in the middle of the scene, I say “Take off your clothes.” He says, “I don't want to.” My sister Rosalind made Buttons a suit with Velcro. I pull it, everything was supposed to come off in one piece. I grab the clothes they wouldn't break. I pull it from his undershirt, pulled the whole top and bottom and his shorts and he stood there naked. I jump in front of him and said, “for the next little act.”

DP: Describe a typical work week, from pre-production to airtime.

MB: We didn't have a big budget, not much time for rehearsal pre-preparation for the show...Preparation was difficult, fighting the clock ...Blood, sweat and cheers and a lot of tears. Tremendous pressure, nothing bothered me...when the show went off after 156 shows...our full length shows...I was healthy. The minute I left...I took a hiatus, I got ulcers...you stay healthy by working against it.

DP: Talk about directing rehearsals with a whistle.

MB: I would save my voice for the show. To stop, cut. Then I had a microphone, so, I didn't have to yell.

DP: How do you envision television in the next century?

MB: I see a tremendous faster progress in the 21st century, actually the word television will be obsolete. Everything will be done by machines...computers. It's going to be a mechanical world.

– Compiled by Beth Eras

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