Milton Berle | |
|---|---|
 Berle in a publicity photo, 1953 | |
| Born | Mendel Berlinger (1908-07-12)July 12, 1908 Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Died | March 27, 2002(2002-03-27) (aged 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Other names |
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| Education | Professional Children's School |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1913–2000 |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 3 |
Milton Berle (bornMendel Berlinger;Yiddish:מענדעל בערלינגער; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host ofNBC'sTexaco Star Theatre (1948–1953), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during thefirst Golden Age of Television. He was honored with two stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV.
Milton Berle was born into aJewish[1] family in a five-story walkup in theHarlem neighborhood ofManhattan. His given name was Mendel Berlinger,[2][3][4] but he chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger (1872–1938), was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1877–1954),[5] changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous. He had three older brothers (from oldest to youngest): Phil, Frank, and Jack Berle. For many years, the latter two worked on Berle's TV production staff while Phil was a programming executive at NBC.[6]
Berle entered show business in 1913 at the age of five when he won a children's Charlie Chaplin contest.[citation needed] He also worked as a child model and was "Buster Brown" forBuster Brown shoes.[7][8] He appeared as achild actor insilent films. He claimedThe Perils of Pauline as his first film appearance, playing the character of a young boy, although this has never been independently verified.[9] InMilton Berle: An Autobiography, he explained that the director told him that he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. He said, "I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. This 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 andRuth of the Range. Berle recalled, "There were even trips out to Hollywood—the studios paid—where I got parts inRebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, withMary Pickford;The Mark of Zorro, withDouglas Fairbanks, Sr.; andTillie's Punctured Romance, withCharlie Chaplin,Mabel Normand andMarie Dressler."[10] However, Berle's claim to have appeared inTillie's Punctured Romance has been disputed by film historians including Glenn Mitchell, who in his book,The Chaplin Encyclopedia, writes that Berle's alleged role was most likely played by child actorGordon Griffith.[11]
In 1916, Berle enrolled in theProfessional Children's School.[10]
Around 1920 at age 12, Berle made his stage debut in a revival of the musical comedyFlorodora inAtlantic City, New Jersey, which later moved toBroadway. By the time he was 16, he was working as a master of ceremonies in vaudeville. He is also known to have played small bit parts in several silent films in the 1910s and 1920s, although his presence in some is disputed (see Filmography, below). In 1932, he starred inEarl Carrol's Vanities, a Broadway musical. By the early 1930s, he was a successful stand-up comedian, patterning himself after one of vaudeville's top comics,Ted Healy.[citation needed]
In 1933, Berle was hired by producerJack White to star in the theatrical featurettePoppin' the Cork, a topical musical comedy concerning the repealing of Prohibition. Berle also co-wrote the score for this film, which was released byEducational Pictures. Berle continued to dabble in songwriting: withBen Oakland and Milton Drake, he wrote the title song for theRKO Radio Pictures releaseLi'l Abner (1940), an adaptation ofAl Capp's comic strip, featuringBuster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat.[12] Berle co-wrote aSpike Jones B-side, "Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma".[citation needed]
From 1934 to 1936, Berle appeared frequently onThe Rudy Vallee Hour and attracted publicity as a regular onThe 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 ofStop Me If You've Heard This One with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners.[13]
In the late 1940s, he canceled well-paying nightclub appearances to expand his radio career.[13]Three Ring Time, a comedy-variety show sponsored byBallantine Ale, was followed by a 1943 program sponsored byCampbell's Soups. The audience participation showLet Yourself Go (1944–1945) could best be described as "slapstick radio",[14] 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. Berle also made guest appearances on many comedy-variety radio programs during the 1930s and 1940s.[13]
Scripted byNat Hiken andAaron Ruben,The Milton Berle Show also featuredArnold Stang, later a familiar face as Berle's TV sidekick. Others in the cast werePert Kelton, Mary Schipp,Jack Albertson,Arthur Q. Bryan,Ed Begley, Brazilian singerDick Farney and announcerFrank Gallop. Sponsored byPhilip Morris, it aired on NBC from March 11, 1947, until April 13, 1948.[15] It ran for an additional season (with new sponsorTexaco), keeping the same format but running concurrently with Berle's better known TV series, from September 22, 1948, to June 15, 1949.[15]
Berle later described 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 emergence as television's first major star.[13]
Berle first appeared on television in 1929 in an experimental broadcast inChicago which he hosted in front of 129 people.[16] He would return to television 20 years later.[17]
Berle would revive the structure and routines of his vaudeville act for his debut on commercial TV, hosting TheTexaco Star Theatre on June 8, 1948, over theNBC Television Network.[18][19][20] They did not settle on Berle as the permanent host right away; he was originally part of a rotation of hosts (Berle himself had only a four-week contract).Jack Carter was the host for August. Berle was named the permanent host that fall. Berle's highly visual style, characterized by vaudeville slapstick and outlandish costumes, proved ideal for the new medium.[21] Berle modeled the show's structure and skits directly from his vaudeville shows and hired writer Hal Collins to revive his old routines.[18][19]
Berle dominated Tuesday night television for the next several years, reaching the number one slot in theNielsen ratings with as much as a 97% share of the viewing audience.[22] Berle and the show each wonEmmy 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.[9] Berle's autobiography notes that inDetroit, "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 theTexaco Star Theatre before going to the bathroom."[23][24]
Television sales more than doubled afterTexaco Star Theatre's debut, reaching two million in 1949. Berle's stature as the medium's first superstar earned him the sobriquet "Mr. Television".[9] He also earned another 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".[25]Francis Craig andKermit Goell's "Near You" became the theme song that closed Berle's TV shows.[26]
Berle risked his newfound TV stardom at its zenith to challenge Texaco when the sponsor tried to prevent black performers from appearing on his show:
I remember clashing with the advertising agency and the sponsor over my signingthe Four Step Brothers for an appearance on the show. The only thing I could figure out was that there was an objection to black performers on the show, but I couldn't even find out who was objecting. "We just don't like them," I was told, but who the hell was "we?" Because I was riding high in 1950, I sent out the word: "If they don't go on, I don't go on." At ten minutes of eight—minutes before showtime—I got permission for the Step Brothers to appear. If I broke the color-line policy or not, I don't know, but later on, I had no trouble bookingBill Robinson orLena Horne.[27]
Berle's mother Sadie was often in the audience for his broadcasts; she had long served as a "plant" to encourage laughter from his stage show audiences.[8] Her unique, "piercing, roof-shaking laugh"[8][28] would stand out, especially when Berle made an entrance in an outrageous costume. After feigning surprise he would "ad-lib" a response; for example: "Lady, you've got all night to make a fool of yourself. I've only got an hour!"
Berle asked NBC to switch from live broadcasts to film, which would have made possible reruns (and residual income from them); he was angered when the network refused. However, NBC did consent to make akinescope of each show. Later, Berle was offered 25% ownership of theTelePrompTer Corporation by its inventor,Irving Berlin Kahn, if he would replacecue cards with thenew device on his program. He turned down the offer.[29]
A frequent user of tranquilizers, Berle frequently endorsedMiltown on his show and became one of its leading advocates in 1950s America. Due to his promotion of the drug, Berle was dubbed "Uncle Miltown" byTime magazine.[30]
For Berle's contribution to television, he was inducted to theHollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.[31]
Berle's imperious, abrasive and controlling manner on the show was the inspiration for the 1957CBSPlayhouse 90 production of "The Comedian". starringMickey Rooney as egomanaical TV comic Sammy Hogarth, who ran his weekly show through explosive tantrums, intimidation, bullying and cruelty. WriterErnest Lehman had been assigned to profile Berle for a magazine, and captured Berle's high-handedness so completely that the magazine declined to run it, but suggested he fictionalize it and recast it as a novella. When it was picked up for the show,Rod Serling wrote the teleplay.John Frankenheimer directed the live production which received considerable acclaim. The cast includedEdmond O'Brien,Kim Hunter and jazz singerMel Tormé in his first dramatic role, portraying Hogarth's spineless brother Lester. While some speculated the play was based onJackie Gleason's loud, controlling personality, Berle, aware the production echoed his own reputation, was quoted as saying, "I wasn't that bad". The episode won twoEmmy Awards.[citation needed]
In 1951, NBC signed Berle to an unprecedented 30-year exclusive television contract at a million dollars a year.[32]
In 1953, Texaco pulled out of sponsorship of the show butBuick picked it up, prompting a renaming asThe Buick-Berle Show. The program's format was changed to include the backstage preparations for the variety show. Critics generally approved of the changes, but Berle's ratings continued to fall, and Buick pulled out after two seasons.[33] In addition, "Berle'spersona had shifted from the impetuous and aggressive style of theTexaco Star Theater days to a more cultivated but less distinctive personality, leaving many fans somehow unsatisfied."[10]
By the time the again-renamedMilton Berle Show finished its only full season (1955–56), Berle was already becoming history—though his final season was host to two ofElvis Presley's earliest television appearances, April 3 and June 5, 1956.[34] The final straw during that last season may have come from CBS schedulingThe Phil Silvers Show opposite Berle. Silvers was one of Berle's best friends in show business and had come to CBS's 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.[35] He later hosted the first television version of the popular radio variety series, TheKraft Music Hall from 1958 to 1959,[36] but NBC was finding increasingly fewer showcases for its one-time superstar. By 1960, he was reduced to hosting abowling program,Jackpot Bowling, delivering his quips and interviewing celebrities between the efforts of that week's bowling contestants.[37]
In Las Vegas, Berle played to packed showrooms atCaesars Palace,the Sands, theDesert Inn, and other casino hotels. Berle had appeared at theEl Rancho, the first Las Vegas Strip full service resort, starting in the late 1940s. In addition to constant club appearances, Berle performed onBroadway inHerb Gardner'sThe Goodbye People in 1968. He also became a commercial spokesman for the thrivingLum's restaurant chain.[38]
He appeared in numerous films, includingAlways Leave Them Laughing (released in 1949, shortly after his TV debut) withVirginia Mayo andBert Lahr;Let's Make Love withMarilyn Monroe andYves Montand;It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World;The Loved One;The Oscar;Who's Minding the Mint?;Lepke;Woody Allen'sBroadway Danny Rose; andDriving Me Crazy.
Freed in part from the obligations of his NBC contract, Berle was signed in 1966 to a new weekly variety series onABC.[39] Unrelated to the 1950s Texaco Star show, the new 1966 ABC series was also calledThe Milton Berle Show.[40] made its debut on September 9, 1966, and ABC announced its cancellation within two months.[41] The show failed to capture a large audience and was canceled after half a season.[42] with the final show running on January 6, 1967.[43] Berle later appeared as guest villainLouie the Lilac on ABC'sBatman series. Other appearances included stints onThe 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,The Mod Squad,I Dream of Jeannie,CHiPs,The Muppet Show, andThe Jack Benny Program.[citation needed]
Like his contemporaryJackie Gleason, Berle proved a solid dramatic actor and was acclaimed for several such performances, most notably his lead role in "Doyle Against the House" onThe Dick Powell Show in 1961, a role for which he received anEmmy nomination. He also played the part of a blind survivor of an airplane crash inSeven in Darkness, the first in ABC'sMovie of the Week series. He also played a dramatic role as atalent agent inThe Oscar (1966) and was one of the few actors in that movie to get good notices from critics.[citation needed]
During this period, Berle was named to theGuinness Book of World Records for the greatest number of charity performances made by a show-business performer. Unlike the high-profile shows done byBob 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 inWorld War I as a child performer, in addition to traveling to foreign bases duringWorld War II and theVietnam War. The first charitytelethon (for theDamon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation) was hosted by Berle in 1949.[44] A permanent fixture at charity benefits in the Hollywood area, he was instrumental in raising millions for charitable causes.
On April 14, 1979, Berle guest-hosted NBC'sSaturday Night Live. 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. In addition, he appeared skeptical about the show's satirical bent. One of the show's writers,Rosie Shuster, described the rehearsals for the BerleSNL show and the telecast as "watching a comedy train accident in slow motion on a loop." Upstaging, camera mugging, doingspit-takes, inserting old comedy bits, and climaxing the show with a maudlin performance of "September Song" complete with a pre-arranged standing ovation (something producerLorne Michaels had never sanctioned) resulted in Berle being banned from hosting the show again. The episode was also barred from being rerun until surfacing in 2003 because Michaels thought it brought down the show's reputation.[45][46]
As a guest star onThe Muppet Show,[47] Berle was memorably upstaged by the heckling theater criticsStatler and Waldorf.[48] The Statler and Waldorf puppets were inspired by a character named Sidney Spritzer, played by comedianIrving Benson, who regularly heckled Berle from a box seat during episodes of the 1960s ABC series. Milton Berle also made a cameo appearance inThe Muppet Movie as a used car dealer, taking Fozzie Bear's 1951 Studebaker in trade for a station wagon.[citation needed]
In 1974, Berle had a minor altercation with a younger actor/comedianRichard Pryor when both appeared as guests onThe Mike Douglas Show. At the time, Berle was discussing the emotional fallout from an experience he had with impregnating a woman with whom he was not married, having to then decide whether or not they would keep the child. During his talk, Pryor let out a laugh, to which Berle took exception and confronted him, stating, "I wish, I wish, Richard, that I could have laughed at that time at your age when I was your age, the way you just laughed now, but I just couldn't ... I told you this nine years ago, and now I'll tell you on the air in front of millions of people: Pick your spots, baby." This prompted Pryor to mockingly quip back, "All right, sweetheart" in a Humphrey Bogart voice.[49]
Another well-known incident of upstaging occurred during the 1982Emmy Awards, when Berle andMartha Raye were the presenters of the Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Berle was reluctant to give up the microphone as the award's numerous recipients fromSecond City Television (SCTV) flooded the stage. Berle interrupted actor/writerJoe Flaherty's acceptance speech several times, with comments like, "Hurry up, we're 15 minutes over." After Flaherty made a joke about the size of theSCTV crew rivalingHill Street Blues, Berle replied sarcastically, "That's funny." Flaherty's follow-up response of "Sorry, Uncle Miltie ... go to sleep," flustered Berle.[50]
In 1984, Berle appeared indrag in the video for"Round and Round" by the 1980s metal bandRatt (his nephew Marshall Berle was then their manager).[51] He also made a brief appearance in the band's "Back For More" video as a motorcyclist.[52]
In 1985, he appeared on NBC'sAmazing Stories (created bySteven Spielberg) in the episode "Fine Tunin'". In it, friendly aliens from space receive TV signals from the Earth of the 1950s and travel toHollywood in search of their idols,Lucille Ball,Jackie Gleason,The Three Stooges,Burns and Allen, and Milton Berle. When Berle 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.[53]
One of Berle's most popular performances in his later years was guest-starring in 1992 inThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alongsideWill Smith 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 onBeverly Hills, 90210 as an aging comedian befriended bySteve Sanders, who idolizes him, but is troubled by his bouts of senility due toAlzheimer's disease. He also voiced the Prince of Darkness, the main antagonist in the Canadian animated television anthology specialThe Real Story of Au Clair De La Lune. He appeared in 1995 as a guest star in an episode ofThe Nanny as her lawyer and great uncle.[citation needed]
In 1994, Berle released a fitness videotape titled "Milton Berle's Low Impact/High Comedy Workout" which was targeted towards seniors.[54]
Berle was again on the receiving end of an onstage gibe at the 1993MTV Video Music Awards whenRuPaul 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 by recycling a line he had delivered toHenny Youngman on hisHollywood Palace show in 1966: "Oh, we're going toad lib? I'll check my brain and we'll start even."[citation needed]
In 1947, Milton Berle was one of the founding members of theFriars Club of Beverly Hills at the old Savoy Hotel onSunset Boulevard. In 1961, the club moved toBeverly Hills. The Friars is a private show business club famous for its celebrity members androasts, where a member is mocked by his club friends in good fun.[55]
Berle avoided consuming drugs and alcohol, but was an avidcigar smoker,womanizer, and gambler; primarily gambling onhorse racing. His proclivity for the latter may have been responsible for Berle never equaling the wealth of many of his contemporaries.[56]
Although Berle "worked clean" for his entire career, excluding the Friars Club privatecelebrityroasts, he reportedly used profane language extensively in private.
Berle was famous within show business for the rumoredsize of his penis.[57][58][59]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!".[60] In the short storyA Beautiful Child,Truman Capote wroteMarilyn Monroe as saying, "Christ! Everybody says Milton Berle has the biggest schlong in Hollywood."[61] At a memorial service for Berle at theNew York Friars' Club,Freddie Roman solemnly announced, "On May 1st and May 2nd, his penis will be buried".[62] In 2023, on episode 1478 ofWTF with Marc Maron,Arnold Schwarzenegger recalled how he joked during Berle's eulogy, saying, "Look, even though the son of a bitch is dead, they still had a difficult time putting the top on his casket".[63][64]
Radioshock jockHoward Stern barraged Berle with an array of penis questions during his appearances on Stern's morning talk show in 1988 and 1996.[65][66] In Berle's 1988 appearance, when fielding phone calls, Stern purposely asked his producer to air only callers whose questions dealt with Berle's penis.[67][68] In his autobiography, Berle tells of a man who accosted him in a steam bath and challenged him to compare sizes, leading a bystander to remark, "Go ahead, Milton, just take out enough to win".[69] Berle attributed this line to comedianJackie Gleason and said, "It was maybe the funniest spontaneous line I ever heard".[70] In the oral historyLive From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live,SNL writerAlan Zweibel describes how Berle opened his bathrobe in his dressing room to show his penis size to Zweibel, only to have cast memberGilda Radner walk into an uncomfortable scene.[71]
After twice marrying and divorcing showgirl Joyce Mathews, Berle married publicist Ruth Cosgrove (née Rosenthal) in 1953; she died of cancer in 1989.[28][72] In 1989, Berle stated that his mother was behind the breakup of his marriages 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."[73] He married a fourth time in 1992 to Lorna Adams, a fashion designer 30 years his junior. He had three children, Victoria (adopted by Berle and Mathews), William (adopted by Berle and Cosgrove) and a biological son, Bob Williams, with showgirl Junior Standish(née Jean Dunne Arthur; 1925–2006).[74] Berle had two stepdaughters from his marriage to Adams: Leslie and Susan Brown.[75] He also had three grandchildren: Victoria's sons James and Mathew,[72] and William's son Tyler Daniel Roe, who died in 2014.[76]
Berle's autobiography contains many tales of his sexual exploits. He claimed relationships with numerous famous women includingMarilyn Monroe andBetty Hutton, columnistDorothy Kilgallen, and evangelistAimee Semple McPherson.[77] The veracity of some of these claims has been questioned.[78] The McPherson story, in particular, has been challenged by McPherson's biographer[79] and her daughter, among others.[80]
In later life, Berle found comfort inChristian Science and subsequently characterized himself as "a Jew and a Christian Scientist."[81]Oscar Levant, when queried byJack Paar about Berle's adoption of Christian Science, quipped, "Our loss is their loss."[82]
Berle was aDemocrat who endorsedLyndon B. Johnson in the1964 United States presidential election.[83]
Berle guest-starred as Uncle Leo in theKenan & Kel special "Two Heads Are Better than None", which premiered in 2000. This would be his last acting role.[citation needed]
In April 2001, Berle announced that a malignant tumor had been found in his colon, but he had declined surgery.[84] Berle's wife said the tumor was growing so slowly that it would take 10 to 12 years to affect him in any significant or life-threatening way. However, one year after the announcement, on March 27, 2002, Berle died inLos Angeles fromcolon cancer. He died on the same day asDudley Moore andBilly Wilder.[75][85]
Berle reportedly left arrangements to be buried with his second wife, Ruth, atMount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery inBurbank, but his body wascremated and interred atHillside Memorial Park Cemetery inCulver City. (Warren Cowan, Berle's publicist, toldThe New York Times, "I only know he told me he bought plots at Hillside, and it was his idea.")[86] In addition to his third wife, Lorna Adams, Berle was survived by his three children and extended family.[87][88][89]
Berle had hired the writer Hal Collins to revive old vaudeville, burlesque, and radio routines that Berle has used successfully. ... The shows were clearly vaudeville brought into the home. ... Berle was the ringmaster, the master of ceremonies who did his opening monologue and introduced each new act. Keeping to his own vaudeville tradition of entering into the acts of other performers, Berle often interrupted or joined in the act. When "Buffalo Bob" Smith came on, Berle appeared dressed as Howdy Doody.
Texaco Star emulated a vaudeville variety hour, with several guests each week, including singers, comedians, ventriloquists, acrobats, dramatic performances, and so forth.
. When the program premiered on Tuesday, June 8, 1948, onNBC Television, the format was strictly vaudeville, with dancers, jugglers, acrobats, and guest stars in sketches--in short, a close approximation of the show that Berle was already doing for ABC on Wednesday nights.
Radio exists as an aural medium, and no matter how physically animated a performer may be or how clownish his or her costume ... Berle's comedic gift shone in slapstick, something he had mastered in his vaudeville experiences. Many radio stars found it difficult to make the transition to TV ... Not so Berle. Radio had confined the comedian, making him reliant on his wealth of jokes and little else. ... Berle clearly considered no costume too outlandish, no stunt too foolish.
The city of Detroit was baffled when the reservoir water levels dropped each Tuesday evening shortly after 9:00 pm. An investigation revealed that Detroit's citizens were waiting until Berle was off the air to go to the bathroom; the simultaneous flushing of thousands of toilets created havoc with Detroit's water works.
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