Low comedy is a type of comedy characterized by "horseplay", slapstick or farce. Examples include somebody throwing a custard pie in another's face. This definition has also expanded to include lewd types of comedy that rely on physical jokes, for example, the wedgie.

History[link]

This type of comedy has been a fixture ever since Greek plays. Low comedy was first denoted as comedy for the commoners because it was most often practiced by street performers. Over time as low comedy began to include lewd jokes and more physical comedy, more mainstream performers began to practice this type of comedy: stand-up comedians, musicals, etc. This type of comedy also was employed in most children's cartoons.

Low comedy today[link]

Today low comedy can be seen in almost any production. Sitcoms often base most of their plot on this type of comedy. Modern adaptations of Shakespeare's plays also use low comedy to convey a different understanding of the play.

See also[link]

• Buffoon. A word for people who act (voluntarily or not) funny.
• Three Stooges, three comedic performers who used primarily slapstick humor.

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2007)

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Dylan Moran
Born	(1971-11-03) 3 November 1971 (age 40) Navan, County Meath, Ireland
Medium	Stand up, Film, Television
Nationality	Irish
Years active	1992–present
Genres	Observational comedy, Deadpan, Satire, Surreal humour
Subject(s)	Politics, Family, Current events
Notable works and roles	Bernard Black in Black Books (also writer of; 2000–2004) David in Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Website	http://www.dylanmoran.com/
Youngest winner of Perrier Comedy Award (1996)
BAFTA Awards
Situation Comedy Award 2005 Black Books (writer) Situation Comedy Award 2001 Black Books (writer)

Dylan Moran (born 3 November 1971) is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer, actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his sardonic observational comedy, the UK television sitcom Black Books (which he co-wrote and starred in), and his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run. Moran also appeared as one of the two lead characters in the Irish black comedy titled A Film with Me in It in 2008. He is a regular performer at national and international comedy festivals including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Kilkenny Comedy Festival. In 2007 he was voted the 17th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 14th greatest stand-up comic. In 2012, he became the first professional English-speaking comedian ever to perform in Russia, after two sold-out shows in neighboring Estonia, with his routine referencing Russia's new law banning "homosexual propaganda" and jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.^[1]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Moran was born in Navan, County Meath, Ireland. He attended St. Patrick's Classical School, where he experimented early on with standup, (with fellow comic Tommy Tiernan and Hector Ó hEochagáin) and left at age 16^[2] with his Leaving Certificate. After leaving school, it has been said that Moran spent four years unemployed "drinking and writing bad poetry".^[3] At one point, Dylan worked as a florist but quit after a week because he hated the job.^[3]

Career[link]

Dylan Moran came to comedy at age 20 after watching Ardal O'Hanlon and other comedians perform at Dublin's Comedy Cellar, a small fifty-seater comedy club with no microphone in the upstairs of The International Bar on South Wicklow Street. He began his stand up there in 1992 and, although nervous, got a good reception.^[2] In 1993, he won the So You Think You're Funny award at the Edinburgh Festival. He went on to become the youngest person to win the Perrier Comedy Award in 1996 at the Edinburgh Festival at age 24.^[3] Gurgling For Money was Moran's first major one man stand up UK tour in 1997. He went on to perform at many other festivals including the Hay Festival, Montreal comedy festival, Vancouver Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. Between 1995 and 1997 Moran wrote a weekly column for The Irish Times.

Moran won his first major television role in 1998 playing Ian Lyons in the BBC 2 sitcom How Do You Want Me?, with Charlotte Coleman.^[2] He went on to appear in a small role in the 1999 movie Notting Hill as Rufus the thief. In 2000, Black Books was launched on Channel 4. The sitcom, about a miserable, unsociable, drunken, chain-smoking, and disorganized book shop owner, Bernard Black, was the original idea of Moran and brought into existence with the aid of co-writer and fellow Irishman Graham Linehan, and producers Mark Buckley and Albert Kenny of Kenley Studios. The second series was televised in 2002, and the third, which aired in 2004, was greeted with great enthusiasm by critics and fans alike.^[2] In the same year Moran appeared in his first major film role playing David in the comedy Shaun of the Dead.

Moran toured his new shows Monster I and Monster II in 2004, including performances in New York and Milan, as well as a tour across Britain and Ireland, culminating in a week-long run at London's Palace Theatre, before two shows at Dublin's Vicar Street, and finally an appearance at the Hay Festival. The tour was described by The Times as a "masterclass of comic charisma: swinging from topic to topic in a manner seemingly spontaneous but actually tightly organised".^[2]

A live DVD of the Monster II tour, filmed on 28 May at Dublin's Vicar Street, was released that year, as Moran's first live stand-up DVD. After a successful run at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York City in 2004 as part of the British/Irish Comedy Invasion (including performances by top British and Irish comedians such as Eddie Izzard, fellow Black Books star Bill Bailey and Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan) Moran returned to New York for a month-long run at the Village Theatre. He then performed a two-week London West End run at the Wyndham's Theatre, 1–13 November 2004.

His third major tour, Like, Totally, opened at the Buxton Opera House on 3 May 2005,^[2] and as with his previous tours the stand-up routine was accompanied by projected cartoons drawn by Moran. A DVD of the tour was released in December 2005. Moran appeared as the character of Gordon in the comedy film Run, Fat Boy, Run, released in September 2007 which cast Moran as the best friend to Dennis (Shaun of the Dead co-star Simon Pegg), having played an adversary to Pegg's character in Shaun of the Dead.

In June 2008, Moran appeared with Ardal O'Hanlon & Tommy Tiernan at the Echo Arena in 'The Three Fellas',^[4] a one-off comedy event, part of the city's 'European Capital of Culture 2008' celebrations. Between October and December 2008, Moran embarked on a new UK tour entitled What It Is, starting at the Grand Opera House in York, and ending at Oxford's New Theatre. Other notable venues include Colston Hall at Bristol, Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall, The O2 Arena (London), the Waterfront Hall Auditorium in Belfast and the Corran Halls in Oban. The tour was extended into 2009 and has now been released on DVD.

A compilation DVD of highlights from Dylan's three previous stand up shows was made available in November 2010 called Dylan Moran: Aim Low.

Yeah, Yeah, a stand-up tour of Scandinavia, the Baltic states, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK began in April 2011.

Awards and commendations[link]

At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe he has won the 'So You Think You're Funny? Award' in 1993, and the Perrier Award in 1996, but later dismissed the latter as "a load of media rubbish," stating Bill Bailey deserved it more.

A popular poll commissioned by Channel 4 ranked him the 14th Greatest Comedy Stand-up.^[5] Moran was declared "the greatest comedian, living or dead" by the French newspaper Le Monde in July 2007.^[6] He has also twice won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Situation Comedy, both for Black Books.

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

• How Do You Want Me? (Ian Lyons) (1998-1999)
• Black Books (Bernard Black) (2000-2004) (also creator and writer)

Film[link]

• Notting Hill (Rufus the Thief) (1999)
• The Actors (Tom Quirk) (2003)
• Shaun of the Dead (David) (2004)
• A Cock and Bull Story (Dr. Slop) (2005)
• Tell It to the Fishes (Finn) (2006)
• Run Fatboy Run (Gordon) (2007)
• A Film with Me in It (Pierce) (2008)
• The Decoy Bride (Charley) (2011)

Stand-up DVDs[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dylan Moran

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dylan Moran

• Dylan Moran Official Website
• Dylan Moran at the Internet Movie Database
• Channel 4 interview
• BBC review of Monster tour
• LF Interview during Yeah Yeah tour

Ken Blackwell
Ohio Secretary of State
In office January 8, 1999 – January 8, 2007
Governor	Nancy Hollister Bob Taft
Preceded by	Bob Taft
Succeeded by	Jennifer Brunner
Ohio State Treasurer
In office March 1, 1994 – January 8, 1999
Governor	George Voinovich Nancy Hollister
Preceded by	Mary Ellen Withrow
Succeeded by	Joe Deters
Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio
In office 1979–1980
Preceded by	Bobbie L. Sterne
Succeeded by	David S. Mann
Personal details
Born	John Kenneth Blackwell (1948-02-28) February 28, 1948 (age 64) Cincinnati, Ohio
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	Xavier University
Profession	Politician & Syndicated Columnist
Religion	Evangelical

John Kenneth Blackwell (born February 28, 1948) is an American politician and activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 1979 to 1980 and Ohio Secretary of State from 1999 to 2007. A Republican, he was the first African-American to be the candidate for governor of a major party in Ohio. In 2006, Blackwell was the Republican candidate for the seat of Governor of Ohio. He is currently Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee's Platform Committee and was a candidate for chairman of the RNC.^[1] Additionally, he currently serves as senior fellow for family empowerment at the Family Research Council.

Blackwell gained national prominence for his dual roles as Chief Elections Official of Ohio and honorary co-chair of the "Committee to re-elect George W. Bush" during the 2004 election. Allegations of conflict of interest and voter disenfranchisement led to the filing of at least sixteen related lawsuits naming Blackwell. Regarding voter disenfranchisement, a federal appellate court ruled, in agreement with Blackwell, that provisional ballots cast in the wrong polling location should not be counted in the election, but the court overturned his directive to poll workers that they refuse to issue provisional ballots unless satisfied as to the voter's residence. Blackwell was also named in a 2006 lawsuit related to his office's public disclosure of the Social Security numbers of Ohio residents.

A staunch conservative, Blackwell successfully led the campaign for the 2004 Ohio Constitution Amendment banning state recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions,^[2] despite opposition from many other Republican leaders.^[3] He is a proponent of gun ownership rights, and has stated that he is against abortion except in order to protect the life of the mother. He was defeated by Ted Strickland in the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election.

Early years[link]

Blackwell was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to George (a meatpacker) and Dana (a part-time nurse) Blackwell. He has two brothers, Carl and Charles. He married his wife Rosa in 1969 while he was in college. They have three children, Kimberly, Rahshann (a Denver resident and Ohio Northern Law School graduate) and Kristin.

Blackwell attended Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio on a football scholarship. Blackwell received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Xavier in 1970 and his Master of Education degree, also from Xavier, in 1971. He taught at Xavier from 1974 to 1991 and has served as a trustee of Wilberforce University and Wilmington College. After college, he was invited to the Dallas Cowboys' training camp; he gave up football when he was told he would have to convert from linebacker to offensive lineman.^[4]

Political career[link]

This section includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2009)

From 1979 to 1980, Blackwell served as Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio. Earlier, he had been a member of the Cincinnati city council.

One of the first orders of business of Blackwell's administration as mayor of Cincinnati was the establishment of a crowd control task force stemming from the deaths of 11 concert fans at a concert by the British rock group The Who at Riverfront Coliseum on December 3, 1979.

Blackwell was a member of the Charter Party, Cincinnati's third party, which is generally supported by left-leaning voters. However, when he began to consider statewide and national offices, he became a Republican.

Blackwell served in the administration of President George H. W. Bush as undersecretary in the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1989 to 1990. He returned to Cincinnati to run for the first district seat in the United States House of Representatives being vacated by Tom Luken. Blackwell lost to Luken's son, Charlie Luken, by a narrow 51% to 49% margin. Following his close defeat, President Bush appointed Blackwell ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Blackwell served in that post from 1992 to 1993.

Blackwell was appointed Ohio State Treasurer by then-Gov. George Voinovich in 1994 to complete the term of Mary Ellen Withrow, who was appointed U.S. treasurer by President Bill Clinton. Blackwell was elected treasurer in 1994 and was elected Ohio Secretary of State in 1998. That year, Blackwell considered a run for governor, but Ohio Republican Party chairman Robert T. Bennett persuaded Blackwell to run for secretary of state instead, leaving the governorship open to Bob Taft.^{[citation needed]} Blackwell was national chairman of longtime friend Steve Forbes' presidential campaign in 2000.^[5] Blackwell was re-elected secretary of state in 2002.

Blackwell, a strict fiscal and social conservative, has become a vocal critic of the moderate wing of the Ohio Republican Party, including Taft, for adopting tax increases in the face of budget shortfalls in recent years.^{[citation needed][when?]} He has also demanded the resignation of Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican, whose staff became embroiled^[when?] in fund-raising scandals.^{[citation needed]}

He was also^[when?] the most prominent Republican to support adding an amendment to the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.^{[citation needed]} The state's Republican U.S. Senator George Voinovich and then-Senator Mike DeWine opposed the amendment's broad language, fearing it could bar not only same-sex marriage but also civil unions, domestic partnerships, and possibly wills and any legal contracts for homosexuals.^{[citation needed]} Taft later^[when?] also came out against the amendment, expressing his concern that its ambiguous language would have unintended consequences and leave the state open to a number of lawsuits.^{[citation needed]} During the campaign Blackwell lobbied hard for this measure and was widely credited^{[by whom?]} with attracting many conservative evangelical African Americans to the polls to vote for the measure and for Bush's re-election. The amendment passed with the approval of 61.64% of the voters.

Ohio Secretary of State[link]

Involvement in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election[link]

As Secretary of State of a hotly contested swing state, Blackwell played a prominent role in the 2004 national election. As Secretary of State, Blackwell held the position of Chief Elections Officer, overseeing Ohio's elections process. In Congressional testimony, Blackwell stated that every Republican holder of statewide office in Ohio was named an honorary "co-chair" of the Bush campaign, that the position carried no responsibilities, and that previous Ohio Secretaries of State from both parties had held similar honorary positions.^[6]

Blackwell also announced he would enforce an Ohio State election law decreeing that any person who appeared at a polling place to vote but whose registration could not be confirmed would be given only a provisional ballot; if it were later determined that the person had attempted to vote in the wrong precinct, then their provisional ballot would not be counted. He also directed poll workers to refuse to distribute provisional ballots unless they were satisfied as to the voter's residence. The Democratic party promptly filed a lawsuit claiming that the policy was "intended to disenfranchise minority voters" and in violation of federal election law, specifically section 302 of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).^[7]

On October 21, 2004, U.S. District Court Judge James G. Carr issued an order rejecting Blackwell's policy.^[8] Blackwell said that he would go to jail rather than comply.

Blackwell appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. On October 26, 2004, the Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed in part and reversed in part. The court agreed with the plaintiffs and the District Court that Blackwell's directive violated HAVA to the extent that it empowered poll workers to withhold a provisional ballot based on their "on-the-spot determination at the polling place." The court also ruled, however, that if a subsequent review concluded that the voter was not entitled to vote in that precinct, then the provisional ballot would not be counted. (pdf)(pdf) In accordance with the Court of Appeals ruling, provisional ballots cast in the wrong precincts were not counted in Ohio's 2004 elections.

Democratic members of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary asked Blackwell to explain irregularities in the Ohio election in two letters, (pdf) (pdf) and requested his presence at a Public Congressional Hearing. (pdf) He did not attend the hearing, but responded to the first letter, refusing to comply with their requests for explanation, noting that he was already responding to requests from the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Justice. (pdf)

Keith Olbermann interviewed Blackwell regarding the 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy.^[9]

On December 27, 2004, Blackwell requested a court order to protect him from being interviewed in the Moss v. Bush case, a challenge of the presidential vote, and fought a subpoena, arguing that the litigation was frivolous.^[10]

List of legal suits and rulings[link]

As Ohio Secretary of State, Blackwell has been a party to many election-related lawsuits.^[11] Some of these include:

• Moss v. Bush; Dismissed at request of plaintiff after certification of electoral votes
• Beacon Journal Publishing Company, Inc. and Charlene Nevada v. J. Kenneth Blackwell and the Board of Elections; Ohio was ordered to permit reporters to enter polling places during the Fall 2004 election, notwithstanding ORS § 3501.35.(pdf)
• Lucas County Democratic Party et al. v. Blackwell^[12]
• The Sandusky County Democratic Party v. J. Kenneth Blackwell; Blackwell was forced to pay nearly $65,000 in legal fees to the Sandusky County Democratic party.^[13][14]
• The League of Women Voters of Ohio et al. v. Blackwell^[15]
• Miller et al. v. Blackwell et al.^[16]
• Spencer v. Blackwell^[17]
• Summit County Democratic Central and Executive Committee et al. v. Blackwell et al.^[18]
• American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. et al. v. Blackwell^[19]
• State of Ohio Ex Rel. Matthew Wolf, et al. v. Blackwell^[20]
• Sarah White v. J. Kenneth Blackwell and the Board of Elections of Lucas County, Ohio^[21]
• Nader et al. v. Blackwell^[22]
• Schering v. Blackwell^[23]
• Ohio Democratic Party v. Blackwell; Upheld in federal appeals court in favor of Blackwell^[23]
• Anita Rios et al. v. Blackwell^[24]
• State ex. rel David Yost et al. v. National Voting Rights Institute et al.^[24]

Release of Ohio Social Security numbers[link]

On March 1, 2006 Blackwell's office accidentally published a list of 1.2 million Social Security numbers of Ohio citizens on a website along with their business filings. A Federal class-action lawsuit was filed by Darrell Estep who claimed that the release of the data had caused his Social Security number to appear three times on the website.^[25] The lawsuit was settled on March 28, 2006 after the numbers were removed from the website, a registration process was enacted to view the data and Blackwell's office agreed to make monthly progress reports to the court.^[26] The data was part of a centralized voter database, required by Federal law. At that time, Blackwell promised to only retain the last four digits of the Social Security number in the database to prevent future problems.^[27]

However, on April 26, 2006, Blackwell's office disclosed Ohio Social Security numbers again, mailing out computer disks containing the names, addresses, and the Social Security numbers of 5.7 million registered voters in Ohio (80% of all registered voters in the state).^[28] The list was released as a standard practice under the Freedom of Information Act and Help America Vote Act. Blackwell's office apologized, indicating that the release of the Social Security numbers was accidental and attempted to recall all 20 of the disks. At least one recipient of the disks has refused to comply.

Jim Petro, then Republican Attorney General of Ohio, has launched an investigation into the disclosure, citing a legal requirement to "investigate any state entity where there may be a risk of a loss of private data." Blackwell stated that he considered the issue to be closed, but Petro disagreed, saying that he will use "maximum due diligence" to ensure that the data was not copied before it was returned. Ohio law requires that individuals be notified if their Social Security numbers are compromised.^[29][30]

Diebold controversies[link]

Ohio State Senator Jeff Jacobson asked Blackwell in July 2003 to disqualify Diebold Election Systems' bid to supply voting machines for the state, after security problems were discovered in its software,^[31] but was refused.^{[citation needed]} Blackwell had ordered Diebold touch screen voting machines, reversing an earlier decision by the state to purchase only optical scan voting machines which, unlike the touch screen devices, would leave a "paper trail" for recount purposes.^{[citation needed]}

On April 4, 2006, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Blackwell "owned stock [83 shares, down from 178 shares purchased in January 2005] in Diebold, a voting-machine [and ATM] manufacturer, at the same time his office negotiated a deal" with the company. After discovering the stock ownership, Blackwell promptly sold the shares at a loss.^[32] He attributed the purchase to an unidentified financial manager at Credit Suisse First Boston who he said had, without his knowledge, violated his instructions to avoid potential conflict of interest.^[33]

When Cuyahoga County's primary was held on May 2, 2006, officials ordered the hand-counting of more than 18,000 paper ballots after Diebold's new optical scan machines produced inconsistent tabulations, leaving several local races in limbo for days and eventually resulting in a reversal of the outcome of one race for state representative. Blackwell ordered an investigation by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections; Ohio Democrats demanded that Blackwell, due to his prior role in acquiring the Diebold equipment as well as his status as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in this election, recuse himself from the investigation due to conflicts of interest, but Blackwell did not do so.^[34]

2006 Ohio gubernatorial campaign[link]

Campaign and national significance[link]

Blackwell was the Republican candidate for Governor of Ohio in 2006. He beat state Attorney General Jim Petro in the 2006 Republican primary. (The then current governor, Republican Bob Taft, could not run because of term limits.) Blackwell's opponents in the general election were Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland, Libertarian professor emeritus Bill Peirce and Green Bob Fitrakis. Blackwell chose Ohio State Representative Tom Raga to be his running mate. Blackwell was the first African-American to be nominated as a candidate for the Ohio governorship by either major political party.

There had been increased national attention on the ability of the Republican party to maintain control in Ohio. On a national level, The New York Times went so far as to suggest that the results of the election would be a "bellwether" for the 2008 US presidential election.^[35]

Blackwell faced an uphill battle; according to a broad survey reported by The Plain Dealer on April 30, 2006, Ohio voters would "prefer to see a Democrat occupy the governor's mansion."^[36][37] Still, he had his supporters. John Stemberger, president and general counsel for the Florida Family Policy Council, was quoted as saying that Blackwell could "potentially be president of the United States someday, and the first black president at that."^[38] Blackwell's campaign relied heavily on accusations that Ted Strickland was not a resident of Ohio, and later that Ted Strickland was gay.^[39] Both of these accusations played heavily in campaign literature that failed to resonate with Ohio voters. Due to his poor management of this campaign, Blackwell's ability to compete on a national stage was called into question.

On November 7, 2006 Ted Strickland was elected Governor, defeating Blackwell by a 24% margin.^[40]

Conservative platform[link]

Blackwell has taken some very conservative positions. In 2005, he supported keeping Terri Schiavo on life support indefinitely, saying, "I really do think that life is sacred, no matter how painful." When asked on Hardball with Chris Matthews if he would keep her on life support for 30 years, Blackwell said he would.

In his 2002 campaign for re-election to the post of Secretary of State, Blackwell took the position that he would favor abortions in the case where the life of the mother was at stake. He has since taken a more conservative position of opposing abortions even in the case where the mother's life is at risk.^[41]

May 2 primary[link]

Blackwell won the Republican Primary on May 2, 2006 against Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro with 56% of the vote.^[42] Blackwell's strongest support came from his home town of Cincinnati and much of rural Ohio.^[43] The run up to the primaries was dominated by strongly critical television ads that Blackwell and his opponent Jim Petro ran against one another.^[44]

Blackwell was criticized by Petro, for declining to engage in three planned debates which had been organized by the Dayton Daily News and the City Club of Cleveland. The debate at the City Club of Cleveland occurred on April 25, 2006, despite Blackwell's absence. The event was originally scheduled to be broadcast on public television around Ohio. According to the Columbus Dispatch, "Blackwell said he has 'shared plenty of forums' with Petro and that he wants to focus on talking to Republicans in the final days of the campaign." ^[45]

On April 29, the Hamilton County Democrats publicly demanded that Ken Blackwell pull radio ads which urged unregistered Democrats to ask for Republican primary ballots on May 2, 2006 (rather than the issues only ballot which unregistered voters normally get) and thereby become registered Republicans. The Democrats argued that the ads are using "illegal and unethical political tactics."^[46]

Campaign finance[link]

During the primary, Blackwell led the Republican candidates in his ability to raise significant amounts of money for his campaign. He raised $1.09 million between January 31, 2006 and April 12, 2006, from approximately 12,000 individuals and businesses. This was nearly $800,000 more than his main competition, Jim Petro, but less than the $1.1 million raised by his main Democratic competition, Ted Strickland.^[47][48] Blackwell, along with 14 other candidates, (including Petro and Strickland) were accused by the Ohio Citizen Action group of failing to meet Ohio's campaign contribution law which requires best efforts to disclose the names, addresses, employment status, employer, and place of employment of individuals who donate $100 or more to a political campaign. Blackwell, Petro, and Strickland all received a "B letter grade" from the group for their levels of disclosure.^[49]

On April 16, 2006, the Toledo Blade reported that Blackwell had accepted more than $1 million dollars in campaign contributions from "employees of firms seeking business with the statewide offices he's held over the past 12 years." Furthermore, the same organizations donated $1.34 million dollars to the Ohio Republican Party, $1.29 million of which was forwarded directly to Blackwell's campaign fund. Several of the firms which have been awarded contracts from Blackwell's office have also been hired on to his gubernatorial campaign. The investigators argue that the suggestion of quid pro quo based on the actions of contributors raise an issue of a serious conflict of interest. Petro has responded by demanding that a law which bans political contributors from being awarded state contracts. Blackwell has stated that no illegal activity took place. In response to Petro's call for reform, Blackwell stated "If you are asking me ... 'Am I advocating for campaign spending limits?' No. Never have. Never will." ^[50]

After winning their respective primaries, both Blackwell and his Democratic opponent were able to raise record sums, in part because of the national attention paid to the race. As of September 9, 2006, Strickland led Blackwell, $11.2 million to $10 million.^[51]

Support from religious groups[link]

Blackwell had been well supported by many religious leaders in Ohio both politically and financially; according to campaign filings, Blackwell has received $25,031 from clergy and more than 27 times as much as Strickland.^[52]

However, on January 16, 2006, a group of 31 pastors, led by Rev. Eric Williams, pastor of North Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) in Columbus, Ohio wrote a 13-page letter to the IRS alleging that Blackwell has enjoyed "special treatment" by two Ohio "mega-churches," World Harvest Church and Fairfield Christian Church. In the letter, the pastors accused the two organizations of sponsoring at least nine events with Blackwell as the sole invited politician, "partisan voter-registration drives," and distribution of biased voting guides. Rev. Russell Johnson, pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, Ohio defended his actions by saying that the event in question was not a "meet the candidate forum," but rather he was giving Blackwell "an award for courageous leadership." ^[53] Blackwell later called the group of 31 pastors "bullies." ^[54]

On April 19, 2006, e-mails sent on behalf of the Blackwell campaign by Johnson on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006, came to light in the Columbus Dispatch.^[55] Both the Blackwell campaign and Russell Johnson, on behalf of Fairfield Christian Church, denied all wrong-doing. The e-mails in question subsequently emerged on various online media outlets, clearly showing that the e-mails had been sent from within Johnson's church office on the evening of Easter Sunday to Church personnel and employees of the church-owned Fairfield Christian Academy.^[56]

On May 7, 2006, the members of the Lord of Life Lutheran church in Columbus, Ohio publicly complained that Blackwell's campaign workers placed fliers on the windshields of those attending the church service on April 30, two days before the May 2 primary. The church pastor, Rev. Jim Wilson, stated "the tactic was offensive and suggested the church was endorsing Blackwell." Wilson said that he had tried to contact the Blackwell campaign in response to the incident but did not get a "satisfactory response." When questioned, Blackwell's campaign said the practice was "standard... for Republicans and Democrats." ^[57]

On Wednesday, May 14, 2007, Ken Blackwell was appointed a senior fellow at the well-known conservative religious, political group Family Research Council.^[58]

As the organizations are 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, not-for-profit organizations, they are explicitly barred from campaigning for, endorsing candidates or "becoming involved in any activity which is beneficial or harmful to any candidate." ^[59][60] Johnson and Rev. Rod Parsley, pastor of World Harvest church have argued that the investigation is politically motivated and violates their constitutional right to free speech. Mark Everson, commissioner of the IRS responded "you don't have an automatic or constitutional right to a tax exemption, and that's where the line has been drawn." ^[61]

Support from pro-gun organizations[link]

Ken Blackwell has earned an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Political Victory Fund. Blackwell is also endorsed by the Ohio Gun Collectors Association, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Gun Owners of America.

"I unequivocally support the Second Amendment right of every law-abiding Ohioan to keep and own firearms for hunting, personal protection and any other lawful purpose," said Blackwell. "I am proud to receive the NRA’s highest rating and will be an unflinching advocate for gun owners as governor."

RNC Chairman Election[link]

Blackwell announced his intentions to run in the 2009 RNC Chairmanship Election, but withdrew after the 4th round of voting. He won early endorsement from the state chairmen in Louisiana (Roger F. Villere, Jr.), Texas (Tina Benkiser), and Oklahoma (Gary Jones).^{[citation needed]}

RNC Chairman Vote

Source: CQPolitics,^[62] and Poll Pundit ^[63]

     Candidate won that Round of voting

     Candidate withdrew

    Candidate won RNC Chairmanship

Association with Family Research Council (FRC)[link]

Family Research Council identifies Ken Blackwell as a Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment.^[64] According to the organization's 2010 form 990 filing with the Internal Revenue Service, Blackwell was paid $162,000 as an independent contractor.

Bibliography[link]

• Kenneth Blackwell and Jerome R. Corsi. Rebuilding America: A Prescription for Creating Strong Families, Building the Wealth of Working People, and Ending Welfare. WND Books, May 4, 2006. ISBN 1-58182-501-3
• Kenneth Blackwell and Ken Klukowski. The Blueprint: Obama's Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency. Lyons Press, April 27, 2010. ISBN 0-7627-6134-2

See also[link]

• Election Results, U.S. Representative from Ohio, 1st District

References[link]

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (October 2007)

• "Broadening the Field for 2008" by Tara Ross, The American Enterprise Online, December 2, 2004, retrieved October 29, 2005

External links[link]

Find more about Ken Blackwell on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Ken Blackwell profile, at NNDB
• The Chicago Tribune: The anti-Obama
• Ken Blackwell's site - Blackwell for RNC chairman site
• Hardball with Chris Matthews, March 22, 2005, Terri Schiavo case

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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