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Pastimes : Laughter is the Best Medicine - Tell us a joke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ian@SI who wrote (6119)	7/11/1998 9:38:00 PM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 62549

Subject: LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE .. TELL US A JOKE ~~ If laughter is the best medicine this post is about when of the best docters! dailynews.yahoo.com Saturday July 11 3:36 PM EDT 'Uncle Miltie' Milton Berle turns 90 By Steve James LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Believe it or not, but comedian Milton Berle -- "Mr. Television" and "Uncle Miltie" to the postwar generation that grew up watching his wacky antics on flickering black-and-white screens -- turns 90 Sunday. To pay him tribute, a virtual Who's Who of American comedy -- from Sid Caesar to Jerry Seinfeld -- was expected to turn up for the Berle birthday bash at the Beverly Hilton. "He feels like a 30-year-old," Berle's agent Scott Stander told Reuters Friday. "He's very excited." Typically, Berle, whose roots are in the risque humor of vaudeville, turned the question of his age into a joke during an interview with Los Angeles TV station KABC. "I feel like a 20-year-old," he said with a grin as he sucked on a fat cigar. Then, with perfect comic timing, he added slyly: "... but there's never one around." It was perhaps meant as no more than a throwaway quip, but the one-liner takes on a darker significance following revelations of womanizing made by one of Berle's three children recently. According to New York publishers, son Bill is circulating a tell-all book proposal in which he paints a darker side to his father's image as one of America's most beloved comedians. The New York Post quoted the 36-year-old Bill Berle's co-author Brad Lewis, as saying in excerpts from the proposed book, "Near You," that Berle was an absentee father, a chronic gambler, a womanizer and a tyrant when he was at home. The younger Berle writes that he lost his virginity when his father hired a Las Vegas showgirl to dress as a maid and seduce his son in his hotel room. The son's account also alleges his father, by then well into his 70s, would have sex with a woman and then call his son into the hotel room and offer the woman to him immediately afterward. Buddy Arnold, a producer for Milton Berle, was quoted by the Post as saying Bill Berle's allegations were false. But despite the apparent dark side that often accompanies many comedians, most fans will remember Berle for making them laugh when TV was young, fresh and funny. Berle himself is in no mood to take it easy now and is preparing to go back on the road. He will tour the United States in the new year, just as he did in the early 1920s as a young boy on the vaudeville circuit. "He's going to celebrate with his fans and it will be a big birthday party every night," said Stander. Born Milton Berlinger on July 12, 1908, in New York City, he won a talent contest impersonating Charlie Chaplin at the age of 5 and by the time he was 12, he and his sister were touring the country. He appeared on the New York stage in "The Ziegfeld Follies" and made several films before the Second World War. But it was in the early days of television that Berle became a household name in America, when his show ran every Tuesday night from 1948-56. He became known as "Mr. Television" after his success as the wildly comic host of "The Texaco Star Theater" (1948-53), which became the top-rated "The Milton Berle Show" (1954-56). As much as any individual, Berle is credited with establishing television as a form of popular entertainment. While his show was on the air, the number of television sets in the United States jumped from 190,000 to 21 million.