Milton Berle – 1908-2002

Born Milton Berlinger in New York, Berle earned his living as a vaudevillian, movie actor (in silent films and talkies), nightclub comic, and marginally successful radio comedian until he was tapped in 1948 to host the Texaco Star Theatre on the fledgling medium of television. Berle proved to be a comic sensation, perfectly suited to “the tube” and so popular that his presence drove sales of television sets and was instrumental in establishing the medium. He was justly dubbed “Mr. Television.”