MILTON BERLE - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 05/27/1941 - HFSID 257341

MILTON BERLE
The Vaudeville turned screen actor signs a typed 1941 letter begging "on bended knees" to write the column of a Hollywood reporter while she's on vacation
TLS: "Milton Berle", 1 page, 7¼x10½. Essex House, New York, 1941 May 27. To Elizabeth Copeland, suggesting that he write a column for her paper while she is on summer vacation. In part: "I'd like to suggest a guest column by Milton Berle. I know it sounds hammy but writing a weekly column, 'The Berl-ing Point' for Variety, I'd like to make the 'big time' and write a column for a daily, if even for only one day. In offering you this suggestion (offering----I'm begging you on bended knees a la Jolson) I'd bear in mind that you are mainly concerned with l'affairs Hollywood and my offering would be in that vein. I'll also try to make it a funny column, I hope...." With the encouragement of the quintessential stage-mother, Milton Berle (1908-2002) played small supporting roles in silents, including the part of a newsboy in the first-ever feature-length comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), starring Charlie Chaplin. Berle then moved into vaudeville and became a headliner, with occasional stopovers on Broadway and in Hollywood, into the WWII years. His lengthy starring role in the 1943 edition of Broadway's Ziegfeld Follies established him as a star. After only moderate success on radio and in films, Berle made a spectacular television debut as star of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre in 1948, becoming known as "Mr. Television" and everyone's Uncle Miltie. Shaded at blank left margin from light mounting glue on verso. Fine condition.