Texaco ("The Texas Company") is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand.

Texaco was an independent company until it merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001. It began as the Texas Fuel Company, founded in 1901 in Beaumont, Texas, by Joseph S. Cullinan, Thomas J. Donoghue, Walter Benona Sharp, and Arnold Schlaet upon the discovery of oil at Spindletop. For many years, Texaco was the only company selling gasoline under the same brand name in all 50 US states, as well as Canada, making it the most truly national brand among its competitors. Its current logo features a white star in a red circle (a reference to the lone star of Texas), leading to the long-running advertising jingles "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star" and "Star of the American Road."^{[citation needed]} The company was headquartered in Harrison, New York, near White Plains, prior to the merger with Chevron.

Texaco gasoline comes with Techron, an additive developed by Chevron, as of 2005, replacing the previous CleanSystem3. The Texaco brand is strong in the U.S., Latin America and West Africa. It has a presence in Europe as well; for example, it is a well-known retail brand in the UK, with around 1,100 Texaco-branded service stations.

History[link]

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (November 2010)

A Texaco fuel station in Miami Beach, Florida

A Texaco fuel dispenser in England, United Kingdom

Founding through 1930s[link]

• 1901 – Founded in Beaumont, Texas. Known as the Texas Fuel Company.
• 1905 – Texaco establishes an operation in Antwerp, Belgium, under the name Continental Petroleum Company.
• 1913 – Texaco acquires control of the Central Petroleum Company.^[1]
• 1914 – Occupied new offices in Houston on the corner of San Jacinto and Rusk.
• 1928 – Texaco becomes the first U.S. oil company to sell its gasoline nationwide under one single brand name in all 48 states (50 states after Alaska and Hawaii joined the Union in 1959).
• 1931 – The Texas Company (Texaco's corporate name) purchases Indian Oil Company, based in Illinois, a move that expands Texaco's refining and marketing base in the Midwest and also gives Texaco the rights to Indian's manufacturing processes of Havoline "Wax Free" motor oil, which becomes a Texaco product and provides the company with a higher-quality motor oil product.
• 1932 – Texaco introduces Fire Chief gasoline nationwide, a motor fuel that meets the octane requirements for fire engines, and promotes it through a radio program over NBC hosted by Ed Wynn, the "Texaco Fire Chief."
• 1936 – Texaco begins supplying the Nationalist rebels in Spain with oil, and continues to do so for the duration of the war, delivering some 3,500,000 barrels (560,000 m³).^[2]
• 1936 – Marketing operations east of Suez (including Asia, East Africa, and Australasia) are placed into a joint venture with Standard Oil Company of California – Socal (Chevron) under the brand name Caltex, in exchange for Socal placing its Bahrain refinery and Arabian oilfields into the venture.
• 1937 – Texaco commissions industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague to develop a modern service station design. The resulting "Teague" Texaco station design is a functional white building with green trimmings featuring one or more service bays for "Washing", "Marfak Lubrication", etc., an office area with large plate glass window for display of tires, batteries, and accessories, along with "Men" and "Ladies" restrooms featuring Texaco-green tile walls and floors. The Teague station design is typically built of white porcelain tile but local and regional variations could include painted brick, concrete brick, and stucco materials. Other features include red Texaco stars on the upper facade on outer sidewalls and above the service bays, and red lettering spelling out "TEXACO" above the office area. Stations are identified by the street from Texaco's "banjo" sign.
• 1938 – Texaco introduces Sky Chief gasoline, a premium grade fuel developed from the ground up as a high-octane gasoline rather than just an ethylized regular product. Sky Chief is dispensed from a silver gas pump in contrast with the red pump used for Fire Chief gasoline – a move that lasts many years until the early 1960s.
  

  

  1939 Texaco tanker truck by Dodge on display at the Henry Ford Museum.
• 1939 – Texaco becomes one of the first oil companies to introduce a "Registered Rest Room" program to ensure that restroom facilities at all Texaco stations nationwide maintained a standard level of cleanliness to the motoring public. The "Registered Rest Room" program is later copied by other oil companies and continued at Texaco until the energy crises of the 1970s, which was caused by oil embargoes.

1940s and 50s[link]

• 1940 – Torkild Rieber, CEO, is led to resign when his connections with German Nazism, and his supply of oil to the Fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War are made public^[3][4]
• 1947 – Texaco's European marketing operations are also placed into the Caltex joint venture
• 1947 – Texaco merged its British operation with Trinidad Leaseholds under the name Regent; it gained full control of Regent in 1956,^[5] but the Regent brand remained in use until 1968-9.
• 1954 – Texaco adds the detergent additive Petrox to its "Sky Chief" gasoline, which was also souped up with higher octane to meet the antiknock needs of new cars with high-compression engines. A new plant was built in Port Arthur, Texas specifically to manufacture Petrox.
• 1958 – Texaco became the sole sponsor of The Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC-TV. The nightly newscast had had difficulty retaining sponsors since it first took the air in the fall of 1956.
• 1959 – The Texas Company changes its corporate name to Texaco, Inc. to better reflect the value of the Texaco brand name, which represented the biggest selling gasoline brand in the U.S. and only marketer selling gasoline under one brand name in all 50 states.
• 1959 – Texaco acquires McColl-Frontenac Oil Company Ltd. of Canada and changes its name to Texaco Canada Ltd.^[6]
• Late 1950s – Bought Paragon Oil, a major fuel oil distribution company in the northeastern U.S.

1960s and 70s[link]

• 1961 – Texaco introduces the "The Man who wears the Star" campaign with the "Texaco Star Theme" written by W.A. Fredricks. The radio jingle (as of 1961), went as follows:

Texaco fuel station in Poá (São Paulo), Brazil

Both Fire Chief and Sky Chief gasolines are promoted as "Climate Controlled" as various blends of both gasolines are distributed to Texaco stations in various parts of the country.

• 1964 – Texaco introduces the "Matawan" service station design at a station in Matawan, New Jersey. Features include mansard roofing design, service bays moved to the side of station and sheetrock covering over most exterior walls.^[7]
• 1966 – Texaco replaces the long-running banjo sign with a new hexagon logo that had previously been test-marketed with the "Matawan" station design introduced two years earlier. The new logo featured red outline with TEXACO in black bold lettering and small banjo logo with red star and green T at bottom. Texaco also enters agreement with Howard Johnson's for Texaco credit card to be honored for charging of lodging and food at Howard Johnson motor lodges, a widespread trend of the time among major oil companies that would last until the 1973 oil crisis.
• 1967 – Regent name replaced by Texaco at British petrol stations.^[8]
• 1970 – In response to increasingly stringent federal emission standards that would ultimately lead to mandating of unleaded gasoline in 1975 and later-model cars and trucks, Texaco introduced Lead-free Texaco as the first regular-octane lead-free gasoline at stations in the Los Angeles area and throughout Southern California. Lead-free Texaco would become available nationwide in 1974, in time for the introduction of 1975-model vehicles.
• 1978 – Texaco Canada Ltd. merges with Texaco Explorations Canada Ltd. to form Texaco Canada Inc.^[6]

1980s and 90s[link]

• November 21, 1980 – Lake Peigneur/Jefferson Island disaster
• 1982 – The new service station design emphasizes use of dark colors including, black, red and gray. Gasoline products receive name changes with the advent of self-service including Lead-free Texaco to Texaco Unleaded, Fire Chief to Texaco Regular, and Super Lead-free Sky Chief to Texaco Super Unleaded.

• 1985 – On November 19, Pennzoil (represented by famous Houston litigator Joe Jamail) won a US$10.53 billion verdict against Texaco in the largest civil verdict in US history (Texaco established a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Gordon Getty).
• 1987 – Texaco files for bankruptcy; company continues trading under protection of U.S. bankruptcy laws.
• 1988 – Texaco and Saudi Aramco agree to form a joint venture known as Star Enterprise in which Saudi Aramco would own a 50% share of Texaco's refining and marketing operations in the eastern U.S. and Gulf Coast.^[9]
• 1989 – Texaco introduces System3 gasolines in all three grades of fuel, featuring the latest detergent additive technology to improve performance by reducing deposits that clog fuel injection systems. Texaco Canada Inc sold to Imperial Oil with retail operations converted to Esso brand.
• 1991 – The company was awarded the National Medal of Arts.^[10]
• 1993 – Several dozen tribal leaders and residents from the Ecuadoran Amazon file a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit against Texaco, as a result of massive ecological pollution of the area and rivers around Texaco's Ecuadorian offshore drilling sites, causing toxic contamination of approximately 30,000 residents.^[11]
• 1994 – Texaco's System3 gasolines replaced by new CleanSystem3 gasoline for improved engine performance.
• 1995 – Texaco merges its Danish and Norwegian downstream operations with those of Norsk Hydro under the new brand HydroTexaco. This joint venture was sold in 2007 to Norwegian retail interests as YX Energi, following the purchase of Hydro by Statoil.
• 1996 – Texaco pays over $170 million to settle racial discrimination lawsuits filed by black employees at the company. It was the largest racial discrimination lawsuit settlement in the U.S. at the time, and was particularly damaging to Texaco's public relations when tapes were released containing ethnic slurs used repeatedly by company officers at high-level corporate meetings.^[12]
• 1998 – Formed joint venture Equilon with Shell Oil Company, combining their Western and Midwestern U.S. refining and marketing.^[13] This gave rise to the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust case of Texaco Inc. v. Dagher, which cleared both Texaco and Shell of any antitrust liability concerning the pricing of Equilon's gasoline.
• 1998 – Formed joint venture Motiva with Shell Oil Company and Saudi Aramco in which the Star Enterprise operations were merged with the Eastern and Gulf Coast U.S. refining and marketing operations of Shell.^[13]

2000 to 2010[link]

• 2001 – Texaco purchases right to NiMH battery used in electric vehicles, Chevron Corporation then merges with Texaco six days later. Shell purchases Texaco's interest in the Equilon and Motiva joint ventures.^[14]
• 2002 – Shell Oil Company begins converting its Texaco stations to the Shell brand, a process expected to be complete by June 2004, "the largest retail re-branding initiative in American business history."^[15]
• July 2004 – Chevron regains non-exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the U.S.^[16]
• August 2005 – Texaco introduces the Techron additive into its fuels in the U.S. and parts of Latin America.^[17]
• July 2006 – Chevron regains exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the U.S. and begins opening up gas stations across the U.S. and sold some of its BP and its Citgo stations in the southeast.^[18]
• 2007 – Delek Benelux took over marketing activities for Chevron Global Energy Inc. in Benelux, including 869 filling stations, mostly under the Texaco brand.^[19] Chevron Corporation sold its Conoco stations in Mississippi to the Texaco brand name, a process to be complete at the end of the year.
• April 2010 – Chevron continued to allow independent jobbers to switch to the Texaco brand, such as the small chain of BP gas stations in Mississippi operated by Mississippi Oil/Smith Petroleum as Dandy Dan C-Stores.^[20]
• July 2010 – Chevron and Texaco end retail operations in the Mid-Atlantic US, removing their brand from 1,100 stations in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and parts of Tennessee.^[21]

Corporate headquarters[link]

Prior to the merger, Texaco's headquarters, a 750,000-square-foot (70,000 m²) building, were in Harrison, New York, near White Plains.^[22][23][24] In 2002, Chevron sold the former Texaco headquarters to Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley bought the building and the surrounding 107 acres (0.43 km²) for $42 million.^[22]

Sponsorships[link]

Racing driver Nigel Mansell driving in the 1993 CART IndyCar World Series

Texaco is associated with the Havoline brand of motor oil and other automotive products. It was one of the sponsors of NASCAR with drivers like Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears, and Juan Pablo Montoya. Texaco last sponsored the #42 Dodge driven by Montoya. Havoline sponsored a NASCAR race car continuously from the early 1980s through the 2008 season. At the end of the 2008 NASCAR season, Texaco/Havoline officially ended their sponsorship with NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing. This brought to a close a 20-plus year relationship with the sport. Texaco has also has also been involved in open wheel racing, sponsoring the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston along with sponsoring drivers like Indianapolis 500 winner Mario Andretti and his son Michael.

Texaco was long associated with the Metropolitan Opera as sole sponsor of its radio broadcasts for 63 years. It was identified as well with such entertainment legends as Bob Hope, Jack Benny and Milton Berle (many of their shows were originally sponsored by Texaco – see Texaco Star Theatre, which includes the sponsorship lyrics of the opening theme: "We're the men of Texaco, We work from Maine to Mexico..."). Berle's program was broadcast in the same time slot as Fulton J. Sheen's religious program for a while, thus leading to Berle's oft-quoted quip, "We both have the same boss – Sky Chief!"

In Latin America, Texaco sponsors Brazilian soccer superstar Ronaldinho. In West Africa, Texaco sponsors the soccer-based comic Supa Strikas.

Environmental issues[link]

From 1965–1993, Texaco participated in a consortium to develop the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador. It has been accused of extensive environmental damage from these operations, and faces legal claims from both private plaintiffs and the government of Ecuador. The case has been widely publicized by environmental activists and is the subject of Crude, a 2009 documentary film by Joe Berlinger. Chevron claims that it is being unfairly targeted as a deep pocket defendant, when the actual responsibility lies with the government and its national oil company.

The NiMH chemistry used in modern hybrid vehicles was invented by ECD Ovonics founder, Stan Ovshinksy, and Dr. Masahiko Oshitani of the Yuasa Company^[25][26] In 1994, General Motors acquired a controlling interest in Ovonics's battery development and manufacturing. On October 10, 2001, Texaco purchased GM's share in GM Ovonics, and Chevron completed its acquisition of Texaco six days later. In 2003, Texaco Ovonics Battery Systems was restructured into Cobasys, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) Ovonics.^[27] Chevron's influence over Cobasys extends beyond a strict 50/50 joint venture. Chevron holds a 19.99% interest in ECD Ovonics.^[28] In addition, Chevron maintains the right to seize all of Cobasys' intellectual property rights in the event that ECD Ovonics does not fulfill its contractual obligations.^[29] On September 10, 2007, Chevron filed a legal claim that ECD Ovonics has not fulfilled its obligations. ECD Ovonics disputes this claim.^[30] Since that time, the arbitration hearing was repeatedly suspended while the parties negotiate with an unknown prospective buyer. No agreement has been reached with the potential buyer.^[31] Cobasys's patents relating to NiMH batteries expire in 2015.

In her book, Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, published in February 2007, Sherry Boschert argues that large-format NiMH batteries are commercially viable but that Cobasys refuses to sell or license them to small companies or individuals. Boschert argues that Cobasys accepts only very large orders for these batteries. When Boschert conducted her research, major auto makers showed little interest in large orders for large-format NiMH batteries. However, Toyota employees complained about the difficulty in getting smaller orders of large format NiMH batteries to service the existing 825 RAV-4EVs. Because no other companies were willing to make large orders, Cobasys was not manufacturing nor licensing any large format NiMH battery technology for automotive purposes. Boschert concludes that "it's possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline. Or it's possible that Cobasys simply wants the market for itself and is waiting for a major automaker to start producing plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles."^[32]

In an interview with the Economist, Ovshinsky subscribed to the former view. "I think we at ECD we made a mistake of having a joint venture with an oil company, frankly speaking. And I think it’s not a good idea to go into business with somebody whose strategies would put you out of business, rather than building the business.^[33]"

In December 2006, Cobasys and General Motors announced that they had signed a contract under which Cobasys provides NiMH batteries for the Saturn Aura hybrid sedan.^[34] In March 2007, GM announced that it would use Cobasys NiMH batteries in the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid as well.

In October 2007, International Acquisitions Services, Inc. and Innovative Transportation Systems AG filed suit against Cobasys and its parents for refusing to fill a large, previously agreed-upon order for large-format NiMH batteries to be used in the electric Innovan.^[31]

In August 2008, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. filed suit against Cobasys claiming that Cobasys isn’t delivering the batteries it agreed to build for Mercedes-Benz’s planned hybrid SUV.^[35]

Cobasys was sold^[36] in 2009 to SB Li Motive, which is a joint venture formed by Bosch and Samsung to develop lithium ion batteries for automotive applications. The sale price was not disclosed. The German-Korean company will integrate Cobasys as the North American branch of the company. Cobasys will supply batteries to the new Mercedes ML450 hybrid.

See also[link]

	Hudson Valley portal
	Texas portal
	Companies portal
	Energy portal

• Chevron Corporation
• Caltex – joint venture between Texaco and Chevron, now a major international brand name of Chevron Corporation

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Texaco

• Texaco
• Texaco Car of the Decades
• Texaco Xpress Lube
• Havoline
• Chevron
• Regent
• World Internet News: "Big Oil Looking for a Government Handout," April 2006.
• Texaco Alumni Site

Milton Berle
circa 1950
Born	Milton Berlinger (1908-07-12)July 12, 1908 New York, New York, U.S.
Died	March 27, 2002(2002-03-27) (aged 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Colon Cancer
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Other names	Mr. Television, Uncle Miltie
Alma mater	Professional Children's School
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Years active	1914–2000
Influenced by	Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx
Influenced	Don Rickles, Johnny Carson, Larry the Cable Guy, Nipsey Russell
Home town	New York City, New York
Religion	Judaism and Christian Science
Spouse	Joyce Mathews (1941–1947;1949–1950) Ruth Cosgrove (1953–1989) Lorna Adams (1991–2002)
Children	3

Milton Berle (born Milton Berlinger, July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major American television star^[1] and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during TV's golden age.

Early life[link]

Milton Berlinger was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 W. 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. He chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger (1873–1938), was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1877–1954),^[2] eventually became stagestruck and changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous.

Child actor[link]

Berle entered show business at the age of five when he won an amateur talent contest.^[3] He appeared as a child actor in silent films, beginning with The Perils of Pauline, filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey.^[4] The director told Berle that he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. In Milton Berle: An Autobiography, he explained, "I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. Which is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that."

By Berle's account, he continued to play child roles in other films: Bunny's Little Brother, Tess of the Storm Country, Birthright, Love's Penalty, Divorce Coupons and Ruth of the Range. Berle recalled, "There were even trips out to Hollywood—the studios paid—where I got parts in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, with Mary Pickford; The Mark of Zorro, with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Tillie's Punctured Romance, with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler."

However, Berle's claims to have appeared in many of these films, particularly the 1914 Chaplin Keystone comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance, are hotly disputed by some,^{[citation needed]} who cite the lack of supporting evidence that Berle even visited the West Coast until much later. The newsboy role often claimed by Berle in Tillie was unquestionably played by resident Keystone child actor Gordon Griffith. In 1916, Berle enrolled in the Professional Children's School.

Career[link]

Vaudeville[link]

Around 1920, at age 12, Berle made his stage debut in a production of the musical comedy Florodora. After four weeks in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the show moved to Broadway. It catapulted him into a comedic career that spanned eight decades in nightclubs, Broadway shows, vaudeville, Las Vegas, films, television, and radio. By the early 1930s, he had become a successful stand-up comedian.

In the late 1940s, he canceled well-paying nightclub appearances in favor of doing a radio program.^[5] Berle would revive the structure and routines of his vaudeville shows for his debut on TV.^[6][7][8]

Rising star[link]

In 1933, he was hired by producer Jack White to star in the theatrical featurette Poppin' the Cork, a topical musical comedy concerning the repealing of Prohibition. Berle also co-wrote the score for this film, which was released by Educational Pictures.

Berle continued to dabble in songwriting. With Ben Oakland and Milton Drake, Berle wrote the title song for the RKO Radio Pictures release Li'l Abner (1940), an adaptation of Al Capp's comic strip, featuring Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat.^[9] Berle wrote a Spike Jones B-side, "Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma."

Radio[link]

In 1934–36, Berle was heard regularly on The Rudy Vallee Hour, and he got much publicity as a regular on The Gillette Original Community Sing, a Sunday night comedy-variety program broadcast on CBS from September 6, 1936 to August 29, 1937. In 1939, he was the host of Stop Me If You've Heard This One with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners.^[5]

Three Ring Time, a comedy-variety show sponsored by Ballantine Ale, was followed by a 1943 program sponsored by Campbell's Soups. The audience participation show Let Yourself Go (1944–1945) could best be described as slapstick radio^{[citation needed]} with studio audience members acting out long suppressed urges (often directed at host Berle). Kiss and Make Up, on CBS in 1946, featured the problems of contestants decided by a jury from the studio audience with Berle as the judge. He also made guest appearances on many comedy-variety radio programs during the 1930s and 1940s.^[5]

Scripted by Hal Block and Martin Ragaway, The Milton Berle Show brought Berle together with Arnold Stang, later a familiar face as Berle's TV sidekick. Others in the cast were announcer Frank Gallop, Pert Kelton, Mary Schipp, Jack Albertson, Arthur Q. Bryan, Ed Begley and Brazilian singer Dick Farney. Sponsored by Philip Morris, it aired on NBC from March 11, 1947 until April 13, 1948. Berle's desire to succeed on radio was strong enough to cause him to cancel well-paying nightclub appearances in favor of doing the radio program.^[5]

His last radio series was The Texaco Star Theater, which began September 22, 1948 on ABC and continued until June 15, 1949, with Berle heading the cast of Stang, Kelton and Gallop, along with Charles Irving, Kay Armen, and double-talk specialist Al Kelly. It employed top comedy writers (Nat Hiken, brothers Danny and Neil Simon, Leo Fuld, Aaron Ruben), and Berle later recalled this series as "the best radio show I ever did... a hell of a funny variety show". It served as a springboard for Berle's rise as television's first major star.^[5]

Mr. Television[link]

In 1948, NBC decided to bring Texaco Star Theater from radio to television, with Berle as one of the show's four rotating hosts. For the fall season, NBC named Berle the permanent host. His highly visual style,^{[citation needed]} characterized by vaudeville slapstick and outlandish costumes, proved ideal for the burgeoning^{[citation needed]} new medium.^[10] Berle modeled the show structure and acts directly from his vaudeville shows, and hired writer Hal Collins to revive his old successful routines.^[6][7]

Berle and Texaco owned Tuesday nights for the next several years, reaching the number one slot in the Nielsen ratings and keeping it, with as much as an 80% share of the recorded viewing audience. Berle and the show each won Emmy Awards after the first season. Fewer movie tickets were sold on Tuesdays. Some theaters, restaurants and other businesses shut down for the hour or closed for the evening so their customers would not miss Berle's antics.^[4] Berle's autobiography notes that in Detroit, "an investigation took place when the water levels took a drastic drop in the reservoirs on Tuesday nights between 9 and 9:05. It turned out that everyone waited until the end of the Texaco Star Theater before going to the bathroom".^[11][12]

Berle's 1949 television appearance^[4][13] was only experimental. Berle is credited for the huge spike in the sale of TV sets. (Other comedians turned this into a punchline: "I sold mine, my uncle sold his...") After Berle's show began, set sales more than doubled, reaching two million in 1949. His stature as the medium's first superstar earned Berle the sobriquet "Mr. Television".^[4] He also earned a slightly more familiar nickname after ending a 1949 broadcast with a brief ad-libbed remark to children watching the show: "Listen to your Uncle Miltie and go to bed."^[4]

Berle asked NBC to switch from live broadcasts to filmed shows, to make possible future reruns and residuals, and he was not happy when NBC showed little interest. NBC did consent to make a kinescope of each show — a reference copy filmed directly off a TV screen.

He also risked his newfound TV stardom at its zenith to challenge Texaco when the sponsor tried to prevent black performers from appearing. In his autobiography, Berle recalled the incident:

Berle's mother Sadie was often in the audience for his broadcasts; she had long served as a "plant" to encourage audiences for his stage shows to laugh.^[3] Her unique, "piercing, roof-shaking laugh"^[3][14] would stand out, especially when he would walk onstage in an outrageous costume. He would feign being startled by her laugh, and would pretend she was a stranger or a heckler, then come up with a response. Example: "Lady, you've got all night to make a fool of yourself. I've only got an hour!"

Berle was offered the use of a new device, the teleprompter, and 25% of the company by its inventor, Irving Kahn, if he would simply begin using the new gadget. He turned the offer down.^[15]

Francis Craig and Kermit Goell's Near You became the theme song that closed Berle's TV comedy shows.^[16]

Berle's TV decline[link]

NBC signed him to an exclusive, unprecedented 30-year television contract in 1951. The problem with Berle's 30-year deal was that NBC could not have realized the relatively short lifespan of a comedian on television, compared to radio, where some careers had thrived for two decades. In part, this was due to the more ephemeral nature of visual comedy (those who do not adapt quickly do not survive), and a single television appearance could equal years of exposure on the nightclub circuit. It has also been said that Berle had less appeal with audiences outside the Borscht Belt as television expanded from big East Coast markets to smaller cities. It is also possible that the positioning of the television set itself was a factor. When Berle's program first hit the airwaves, so few people owned the apparatus that many audiences watched it in public places such as bars, clubs and even in appliance store windows; these were perfect venues for Berle's out-sized personality. However, as more and more people acquired their own televisions, they may have adjusted their tastes to suit the privacy of home.^{[citation needed]}

Texaco pulled out of sponsorship of the show in 1953. Buick picked it up, prompting a renaming to The Buick-Berle Show, and the program's format was changed to show the backstage preparations to put on a variety show. Critics generally approved of the changes, but Berle's ratings continued to fall and Buick pulled out after two seasons.^[17] By the time the again-renamed Milton Berle Show finished its only full season, Berle was already becoming history — though his final season was host to two of Elvis Presley's earliest television appearances, April 3 and June 5, 1956.^[18] The final straw during that last season may have come from CBS scheduling The Phil Silvers Show (aka You'll Never Get Rich and Sergeant Bilko) opposite Berle. Ironically, Silvers was one of Berle's best friends in show business and had come to CBS' attention in an appearance on Berle's program. Bilko's creator-producer, Nat Hiken, had been one of Berle's radio writers.

Berle knew that NBC had already decided to cancel his show before Presley appeared.^[19] Berle later appeared in the Kraft Music Hall series from 1958 to 1959,^[20] but NBC was finding increasingly fewer showcases for its one-time superstar. By 1960, he was reduced to hosting a bowling program, Jackpot Bowling, delivering his quips between the efforts of bowling contestants.^[21]

[edit] Life after The Milton Berle Show

In Las Vegas, Berle played to packed showrooms at Caesars Palace, the Sands, the Desert Inn and other casino hotels. Berle had appeared at the El Rancho, one of the first Vegas hotels, in the late 1940s. In addition to constant club appearances, Berle performed on Broadway in Herb Gardner's The Goodbye People in 1968. He also became a commercial spokesman for the thriving Lums restaurant chain.

He appeared in numerous films, including Always Leave Them Laughing with Virginia Mayo and Bert Lahr, Let's Make Love with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Loved One, The Oscar, Who's Minding the Mint?, Lepke, Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose and Driving Me Crazy.

Freed in part from the obligations of his NBC contract, Berle was signed in 1966 to a new, weekly variety series on ABC. The show failed to capture a large audience and was cancelled after one season. He later appeared as guest villain Louie the Lilac on ABC's Batman series. Other memorable guest appearances included stints on The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Lucy Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, Get Smart, Laugh-In, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Hollywood Palace, Ironside, F Troop, Fantasy Island, and The Jack Benny Show.

Like his contemporary Jackie Gleason, Berle proved a solid dramatic actor and was acclaimed for several such performances, most notably his lead role in "Doyle Against The House" on The Dick Powell Show in 1961, a role for which he later received an Emmy nomination. He also played the part of a blind survivor of an airplane crash in Seven in Darkness, the first in ABC's popular Movie of the Week series. (He also played it straight as an agent in The Oscar (1966), and was one of the few actors in that infamous flop to get good notices from critics.)

During this period, Berle was named to the Guinness Book of World Records for the greatest number of charity performances made by a show-business performer. Unlike the high-profile shows done by Bob Hope to entertain the troops, Berle did more shows, over a period of 50 years, on a lower-profile basis. Berle received an award for entertaining at stateside military bases in World War I as a child performer, in addition to traveling to foreign bases in World War II and Vietnam. The first charity telethon (for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation^[22]) was hosted by Berle in 1949.^[23] A permanent fixture at charity benefits in the Hollywood area, he was instrumental in raising millions for charitable causes.

Late career[link]

On April 14, 1979, Berle guest-hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live. Perhaps the comedian saw this as a chance to revisit his live-TV glories of three decades before. Whatever his intention, he seemed to spend as much time trying to upstage the show's youthful cast members as he did trying to work with or complement them. Berle's long reputation for taking control of an entire television production—whether invited to do so or not—was a cause of stress on the set. One of the show's writers, Rosie Shuster, described the rehearsals for the Berle SNL show and the telecast as "watching a comedy train accident in slow motion on a loop." Upstaging, camera mugging, inserting old comedy bits, and climaxing the show with a maudlin performance of "September Song" complete with pre-arranged standing ovation (something producer Lorne Michaels had never sanctioned), resulted in Berle being banned from the show.

As a guest star on The Muppet Show, Berle was memorably upstaged by the heckling theatre critics Statler and Waldorf.^[24] The Statler and Waldorf puppets were inspired by a character named Sidney Spritzer, played by comedian Irving Benson, who regularly heckled Berle from a box seat during episodes of the 1960s ABC series.

Berle at the 41st Primetime Emmy Awards in 1989

Another well-known incident of upstaging occurred during the 1982 Emmy Awards, when Berle and Martha Raye were the presenters of the Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Berle was reluctant to give up the microphone to the award's recipients, from Second City Television, and interrupted actor Joe Flaherty's acceptance speech several times. After Flaherty would make a joke, Berle would reply sarcastically "Oh, that's funny". However, the kindly, smiling Flaherty's response of "Go to sleep, Uncle Miltie" flustered Berle, who could only reply with a stunned "What...?" SCTV later created a parody sketch of the incident, in which Flaherty beats up a Berle look-alike, shouting, "You'll never ruin another acceptance speech, Uncle Miltie!"

One of his most popular performances in his later years was guest starring in 1992 in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as womanizing, wise-cracking patient Max Jakey. Most of his dialogue was improvised and he shocked the studio audience by mistakenly blurting out a curse word. He also appeared in an acclaimed and Emmy-nominated turn on Beverly Hills, 90210 as an aging comedian befriended by Steve Sanders, who idolizes him but is troubled by his bouts of senility due to Alzheimer's Disease. He also appeared in 1995 as a guest star in an episode of The Nanny in the part of her lawyer and great uncle.

Berle appeared in drag in the video for "Round and Round" by the 1980s metal band Ratt (his nephew Marshall Berle was then their manager).

As "Mr. Television," Berle was one of the first seven people to be inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984. The following year, he appeared on NBC's Amazing Stories (created by Steven Spielberg) in an episode called "Fine Tuning". In this episode, friendly aliens from space receive TV signals from the Earth of the 1950s and travel to Hollywood in search of their idols, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, The Three Stooges, Burns and Allen—and Milton Berle. (When he realizes the aliens are doing his old material, Uncle Miltie is thunderstruck: "Stealing from Berle? Is that even possible?") Speaking gibberish, Berle is the only person able to communicate directly with the aliens.

Berle was again on the receiving end of an onstage jibe at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards where RuPaul responded to Berle's reference of having once worn dresses himself (during his old television days) with the quip that Berle now wore diapers. A surprised Berle replied, "Oh, we're going to ad lib? I'll check my brain and we'll start even".

Uncle Miltie offstage[link]

In 1947, Milton Berle founded the Friars Club of Beverly Hills at the old Savoy Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. Other founding members included Jimmy Durante, George Jessel, Robert Taylor, and Bing Crosby. In 1961, the club moved to Beverly Hills. The club is a private show business club famous for its celebrity members and roasts, where a member is mocked by his club friends in good fun.

Unlike many of his peers, Berle's off-stage lifestyle did not include drugs or drinking, but did include cigars, a "who's who" list of beautiful women, and a lifelong addiction to gambling, primarily horse racing. Some felt his obsession with "the ponies" was responsible for Berle never amassing the wealth or business success of others in his position.

Berle was also famous within show business for the rumored size of his penis. Phil Silvers once told a story about standing next to Berle at a urinal, glancing down, and quipping, "You'd better feed that thing, or it's liable to turn on you!" In the short story 'A Beautiful Child', Truman Capote wrote Marilyn Monroe as saying: "Christ! Everybody says Milton Berle has the biggest schlong in Hollywood." Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, who had written many Friars Club jokes about Berle's penis for other comedians, described being treated to a private showing: "He just takes out this— this anaconda. He lays it on the table and I'm looking into this thing, right? I'm looking into the head of Milton Berle's dick. It was enormous. It was like a pepperoni. And he goes, 'What do you think of the boy?' And I'm looking right at it and I go, 'Oh, it's really, really nice.'" At a memorial service for Berle at the New York Friars' Club, Freddie Roman solemnly announced, "On May 1st and May 2nd, his penis will be buried."^[25] Radio shock jock Howard Stern also barraged Berle with an endless array of penis questions when the comedian appeared on Stern's morning talk show on Aug 5, 1988^[26] (Berle was also a guest on the Stern show on Oct 30, 1996^[27]). In Berle's 1988 appearance, when fielding phone calls, Stern purposely asked his producer to only air callers whose questions dealt with Berle's penis.^[28]

Berle was known to have a colorful vocabulary and few limits on when it was used. Surprisingly, however, he "worked clean" for his entire onstage career, except for the infamous Friars Club all-male, private celebrity roasts. Berle often criticized younger comedians like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin about their X-rated humor, and challenged them to be just as funny without the four-letter words.

Hundreds of younger comics, including several comedy superstars, were encouraged and guided by Berle. Despite some less than flattering stories told about Berle being difficult to work with, his son, Bill, maintains that Berle was a source of encouragement and technical assistance for many new comics. Uncle Miltie's son Bob backs up his brother's statement. He was present many times during Berle's Las Vegas shows and television guest appearances. Milton aided Fred Travalena, Ruth Buzzi, John Ritter, Marla Gibbs, Lily Tomlin, Dick Shawn and Will Smith. At a taping of a Donny & Marie, for example, Donny and Marie Osmond recited a scripted joke routine to a studio audience, to little response. The director asked for a retake, and the Osmonds repeated the act, word for word, to even less response. A third attempt, with no variation, proved dismal — until Milton Berle, off-camera, went into the audience, pantomiming funny faces and gestures. Ever the professional, Berle timed each gesture to coincide with an Osmond punchline, so the dialogue seemed to be getting the maximum laughs.

Personal life[link]

After twice marrying and divorcing Joyce Mathews, a showgirl, Berle married Ruth Cosgrove, a onetime publicist on December 9, 1953; she died in 1989.^[14][29] In 1989, Berle stated that his mother was behind the breakup of his marriage to Mathews. He also said that she managed to damage his previous relationships: "My mother never resented me going out with a girl, but if I had more than three dates with one girl, Mama found some way to break it up."^[30] He was married for a fourth time in 1992 to Lorna Adams, a fashion designer 30 years younger than he was, whom he credited for 'keeping him young'. He had two children, Victoria (adopted by Berle and Mathews) and William (adopted by Berle and Cosgrove).^[31] Berle also had two stepdaughters from his marriage to Lorna Adams—Leslie and Susan Brown, who is married to actor Richard Moll.^[32] He also had three grandsons, James and Mathew, the sons of his daughter, Vicki,^[29] and Sgt. Tyler Roe (US Army Iraq/Afghanistan wars), the son of his son, William.

In later life, Berle found solace in Christian Science and called himself a Jew and a Christian Scientist.^[33] Oscar Levant, commenting to Jack Paar about Berle's conversion, quipped, "Our loss is their loss."

Death[link]

In April 2001, Berle announced that he was suffering from a cancerous tumor in his colon, but would not undergo surgery.^[34] At the time of the announcement, Berle's wife said the tumor was growing so slowly that it would take ten to twelve years to affect him in any significant or life-threatening way. Less than one year after the announcement, Berle died on March 27, 2002 in Los Angeles, California from colon cancer.^[32][35]

Berle left detailed arrangements to be buried with his second wife, Ruth, at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank. However, his last wife, Lorna Adams, altered the plan so that he was cremated and interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. In addition to his wife, Berle was survived by a daughter, Victoria, born in 1945; son, William, born in 1961; and Bob Williams, a son, born in 1951.^[36]

Other awards[link]

• On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Berle into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.^[37]

Broadway[link]

• Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1932 (1932) - revue — in the roles of "Mortimer" in the sketch "Mourning Becomes Impossible", "Joe Miller, Jr." in "What Price Jokes", "Frank" in "Two Sailors", "Paul" in "The Cabinet of Doctor X", the "Announcer" in "Studio W.M.C.A." the "Defendant" in "Trial by Jury" and "Milton" in "The Bar Relief"
• Saluta (1934) — musical, co-lyricist and performer cast in the role of "'Windy' Walker"
• See My Lawyer (1939) — play — performer cast in the role of "Arthur Lee"
• Ziegfeld Follies of 1943 (1943) — revue — performer in the role of "Cecil" in Counter Attack, "J. Pierswift Armour" in The Merchant of Venison, "Perry Johnson" in Loves-A-Poppin, "Escamillio" in Carmen in Zoot, "Charlie Grant" Mr Grant Goes To Washington, "'The Micromaniac' Singer" and "'Hold That Smile' Dancer"
• I'll Take the High Road (1943) — play — co-producer
• Seventeen (1951) — musical — co-producer
• The Goodbye People (1968) — performer cast in the role of "Max Silverman"

In popular culture[link]

In the episode titled "The One with the 'Cuffs" of the sitcom Friends, Rachel promises Chandler that she will make him "This generation's Milton Berle", hinting that he had a large penis but "not compared to (Chandler)". In the Family Guy episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", Lois describes her perfect man as having (among other male celebrities' features) "Milton Berle's legendary genitals".

For the initial production of Robert Sherwood's Idiot's Delight starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1936, Lunt went to see Berle perform many times and took lessons from him in joke delivery and soft shoe for his characterization of tenth rate vaudeville performer Harry Van. After Lunt had seen Berle perform numerous times and went backstage to meet him, before any introductions could be made, Berle snapped, "Now look here, nobody steals from me. That's my line of work!" After finding out that his fan was none other than the American stage's most gifted and prestigious actor, Berle was flattered and showed Lunt everything he knew. - From Design for Living, Margot Peters' biography of the Lunts.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Further reading[link]

• Berle, Milton with Haskel Frankel. Milton Berle, an Autobiography. New York: Dell, 1975. ISBN 0-440-15626-2
• Dunning, John. On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-507678-8
• McNeil, Alex. Total Television. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. ISBN 0-14-004911-8
• Shales, Tom and James Andrew Miller. Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. New York: Little, Brown, 2002. ISBN 0-316-78146-0
• Berle, William and Lewis, Brad. "My Father, Uncle Miltie". New York: Barricade Books, 1999. ISBN 1-56980-149-5

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Milton Berle

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Milton Berle

• Milton Berle at the Internet Movie Database
• Milton Berle Interview at Archive of American Television
• Milton Berle at AllRovi
• Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time
• Milton Berle Internet archive Several entries for free stream or download including Texaco Star Theater and Buick Berle Show.
• Museum of Broadcast Communications: Milton Berle
• Museum of Broadcast Communications: The Milton Berle Show
• Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
• Milton 'Berlinger' Berle's birth certificate
• Milton Berle at Find a Grave
• Lum's TV Commercial with Milton Berle
• Literature on Milton Berle

Listen to[link]

• Free OTR: Milton Berle Show (two episodes)
• Episodes of the 'Milton Berle Show' on Radio at Internet Archive

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since February 2010. It may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia's layout guidelines. Tagged since November 2007.

Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones performing in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Rickie Lee Jones
Born	(1954-11-08) November 8, 1954 (age 57) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Origin	Los Angeles and Hollywood, California, United States
Genres	Rock, R&B, singer-songwriter, jazz
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	since 1978
Labels	Warner Bros. (1979–1989; 1997–2000) Geffen (1989–1995) Reprise (1995–1997) Artemis (2000–2003) V2 (2003-06) New West (2006-09) Fantasy (2009-present)
Website	RickieLeeJones.com
Music sample
Chuck E.'s In Love noicon Rickie Lee Jones, Chuck E.'s in Love (Warner Bros., 1979)

Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a five-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards. Her songwriting has been characterized as "a blend of bravado and vulnerability [that] wavers on indefinable borders."^[1] She is also known for her unique singing style, especially in live performances. One concert reviewer, describing her rendering of "We Belong Together," states she "reached her apex, skating from swells into near screams into breathy whispers, from pontillist stacatto scats into brassy, trumpetlike bursts."^[2]

In 1999, Jones was listed at #30 in the VH1 list of 100 greatest women of rock^[3].

Biography[link]

Childhood[link]

Rickie Lee Jones was born on the north side of Chicago to Bettye and Richard Jones. Her paternal grandfather, Frank 'Peg Leg' Jones, and her grandmother, Myrtle Lee, a dancer, were Vaudevillians based in Chicago, Illinois. A singer/dancer/comedian, Peg Leg Jones' routine consisted of playing the ukelele, singing ballads, and telling stories. One of four children, her father was a WW2 veteran. A singer, song writer, painter, and trumpet player, Mr. Jones worked as a waiter. Her mother, Bettye, was raised in orphanages in Ohio with her three brothers until she was old enough to leave. Bettye and Richard met in a drug store coffee shop. Rickie Lee was born the third child of four, in Chicago, 1954.

The family moved to Arizona in 1959, and the dry, desolation and heavenly skies ( Little Puffy Clouds) would provide the emotional landscape of her lyrical imagery (Last Chance Texaco, Flying Cowboys) that marks her early music. Her childhood in the Jones family was lonely, her imagination flourished. She grew up riding horses, studying dance, practicing swimming with her AAU coach before and after school. Her brother's accident, when she was 10 years old, changed the direction of her life. Her family moved to Olympia, Washington, where her father finally left the family for good. Rickie Lee finally dropped out of school in her 11th year, took her 'ged' and enrolled in college in Tacoma. She moved to Huntington Beach, California on her 18th birthday, and found her way to Venice, California, and to the boyfriend Mark Vaughan, who would support her in these formative years, as she worked odd jobs and enrolled in Santa Monica College, studying anthropology and music.

Early career[link]

At the age of 21, Jones began to play in clubs in Venice. She met Alfred Johnson, a piano player and song writer, and the two wrote some of her most famous songs in the first week they wrote together, including Company and parts of Weasel and the White Boys Cool. Nick Mathe, a neighbor, took an interest in her music, helped her get publicity photos with Bonnie Shiftman, then at A&M, in the off hours the three of them shot Miss Jones' first pictures. Rickie Lee played her music in showcases, worked with cover bands in clubs, sat in with Venice jazz bands, where her 'my Funny Valentine' became something of a local legend. But it wasn't until she moved to Hollywood that her career took off. She came to the attention of Dr. John and Little Feat's Lowell George in early 1978 through the efforts of Ivan Ulz, and it was Lowell who recorded her song "Easy Money" as the single for his first solo record. Jones also met Tom Waits and Chuck Weiss, whom she wrote about, and for a time, hung out with. When Lenny Woronker and Tommy LaPuma heard about her in 1978, a bidding war ensued, and Jones was signed to Warner Bros. for a five record deal, as an unknown, a girl on unemployment, whose life was about to change the course of pop music at a time when it was highly divided by genre. For if her early career accomplished one thing, it was to bring women out of the folkrock genre and into a more expansive idea. Jones multi genre music and provocative stage show forged the way for all who came after her.

Rickie Lee Jones met Tom Waits at The Troubadour in 1977 after an Ivan Ulz show in which she had sang a few of her songs - and her father's song, the Moon is Made of Gold. The two would-be lovers at the onset of her career, creating a life long association with one another, and harnessing her with his name long after their love affair was over. They were a popular couple at the time (Second City TV skits...) and they moved in together, Waits leaving his Tropicana days, Jones coming off a world wide tour in which she was booked as 'the new voice of America' in Germany, France and England. After their break up, Jones hooked up with pal Sal Bernardi. This long-time collaborator, who inspired her "Weasel and the White Boys", would remain a personal and musical partner for decades. Nominated for 6 grammies, she told her mentor Bob Regher she would not attend the ceremony. Calling him at the last minute, they raced to the event just in time for her to walk up and collect her 'best new artist' trophy, in her leather jacket and boa, signature beret and gloves. Her popular acceptance speech, in which she thanked her lawyer and accountant (this was the year most of the winners, from Dylan to Diamond, were thanking God), became the hallmark, again, for speeches to come.

Jones and Waits were lovers of such enigmatic appeal it would be many decades before the media stopped asking them about one another. In fact, even after the break up, Francis Ford Coppola asked Rickie Lee to collaborate with Mr. Waits on the upcoming film, One from the Heart, but she balked, citing the recent breakup. Francis responded that it would be perfect for the film, since the two characters are separated, and he asked her to reconsider. Realizing the pressure to reunite with Tom Waits, Jones refused the job. It was then that Waits met his future wife, and Jones began work on Pirates, one of the 100 must-hear CDs, a 5 star Rolling Stone record, including We Belong Together, garnering praise from every corner of rock media at the time. Steely Dan, Randy Newman, the Brecker Brothers, and Steve Gadd, are a few of the A-list folk inducted to create the 18 month ordeal that gave birth to her second 'sophomore' effort, a study in the end of her love affair and the darkness that followed.

Early success: 1978–82[link]

By 1977, Jones was performing original material at the Ala Carte club in Hollywood with Alfred Johnson, with whom she had composed "Weasel and the White Boys Cool" and "Company". She was noticed there by rock journalist/attorney Stann Findelle, who wrote about her in Performance Magazine and advised her in her career for a short time. Jones' success on the club scene soon translated into songwriting kudos, when her friend Ivan Ulz introduced Lowell George of Little Feat to Jones' composition "Easy Money" by singing it to him over the telephone. George included the song on his album Thanks, I'll Eat it Here in 1978. It became the only single for George's first solo attempt, and final record before his death. The announcement of George's death was recorded on the same Rolling Stone cover featuring Rickie Lee Jones crouching in a black bra and white beret - an issue that would become the largest selling issue in the magazine's history up to that time.^{[citation needed]} Her appearance - as an unknown (her debut record had been released less than a month before) - on Saturday Night Live television show on April 7, 1979 sparked an overnight sensation. She performed "Chuck E's in Love" and "Coolsville".

A four-song demo of material was circulated around the L.A. music scene in 1978, with Emmylou Harris later recalling that she had heard an early version of "The Last Chance Texaco" on the demo tape. The recordings came to the attention of Lenny Waronker, producer and executive at Warner Bros. Records. Jones was signed to the label, and work commenced on her debut album, co-produced by Waronker and Russ Titelman. Jones was courted by the major labels, and chose Waronker because of his work with Randy Newman, and because, she said, she had a vision of standing in his office the moment she saw his name on the back of Newman's Sail Away album.

Rickie Lee Jones was released in March 1979 and became a hit, buoyed by the success of the jazz-flavored single "Chuck E.'s In Love" (#4 Billboard Hot 100, 1979) and its accompanying video. The album, which included guest appearances by Dr. John, Randy Newman, and Michael McDonald, went to US #3 on the Billboard 200 and produced another US Top 40 hit with "Young Blood" (#40) in late 1979.

Following a successful world tour, the cover of Rolling Stone magazine ^[4], Jones secured five nominations at the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, Song of the Year ("Chuck E.'s in Love"), and Best New Artist, which she won at the January 1980 ceremony. She was also voted Best Jazz Singer by Playboy magazine's critic and reader polls. Jones was covered by Time magazine on her very first professional show, in Boston, and they dubbed her "The Duchess of Coolsville."

After moving to New York City, Jones spent the majority of 1981 working on a follow-up album, written and recorded partly in reaction to the break-up of her relationship with Tom Waits sometime between late 1979 and early 1980^{[citation needed]}. The songs were written between September 1979 and June 1981 - when the last lyrics to "Traces of the Western Slope" and the last bass on "A Lucky Guy" were put down. The recording sessions finally yielded Pirates in July 1981.

Rolling Stone remained fervent supporters of Jones, with a second cover feature in 1981 ^[5]; the magazine also included a glowing five-star assessment of Pirates, which became a commercially successful follow-up by reaching US #5 on the Billboard 200. A single, "A Lucky Guy", became the only Billboard Hot 100 hit from the album, peaking at #64, but "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" and "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" became minor Top 40 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. More importantly, historically, is the fact that in America "Woody and Dutch..." became a kind of commercial mainstay. The finger snaps and jive talk beat were imitated in advertisements for McDonald's, Dr. Pepper, and others.

Jones' quirky fashion as well became quickly edified as well, her skin-tight lycra pant suit, elbow length fingerless gloves, the famous red beret and the red high heels showed up in some capacity everywhere. Pat Benetar can be seen in Rickie Lee suits. Jones' career suffered from a lack of guidance after her mentor Bob Regher died in 1986, and her signature vocal sound was imitated by so many, few people born after 1990 seem to know who she is. Aside from being the first video star (her 11 minute WB short film was so successful in promoting her image that a year later MTV came into being), her influence on pop and jazz was prominent in the early years of her career.

Voted best jazz singer two years in a row by audiences and critics (Playboy and Rolling Stone polls, 1980, 1981), her insistence on covering jazz in a career that clearly was a pop career might have damaged her marketability, but it certainly opened the door for a wider scope of music from pop singers in general. Obscure jazz standards began to show up on the sudden rush of established pop singers to cover jazz standards (the obscure Billy Barnes ballad "Something Cool," for instance, had a rise in popularity after Jones introduced it in concert to rock audiences on her debut tour). Jones' impact on pop music may be rarely measured by the rock media, she was associated with no movement (punk, new wave, country rock) to bring her mileage when her own work was ebbing, but there is no doubt that her appearance turned the tide of pop music from disco to singer songwriter.

Another lengthy and successful tour into 1982 followed, before Jones moved back to California, settling in San Francisco. A partial tour memento, the EP Girl at Her Volcano, was issued originally as a 10" record in 1983, featuring a mix of live and studio cover versions of jazz and pop standards, as well as one Jones original, "Hey, Bub," which was recorded for Pirates. Jones then relocated to Paris.

Period of transition: 1983–89[link]

The remainder of the 1980s found Jones falling out of favor commercially and pursuing a more complex and experimental sound.

Jones settled in France and recorded new material, some of which was released on her third full-length solo album, The Magazine, in September 1984. The Magazine found Jones combining the melodic, jazz-inspired sound of her debut with the complex structures of Pirates, with a more synth-driven sound, owed to working closely with composer James Newton Howard on the album. Alongside the more commercially appealing material, Jones included a three-song suite, subtitled "Rorschachs", exploring multi-tracked vocals and synth patterns. Only the upbeat "The Real End" made it into the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, peaking at #82.