When he was only 12 years old, an aspiring vaudeville performer named Mendel Berlinger decided he needed a more ethnically palatable stage name. In 1920, he changed his name to Milton Berle and continued to refine his comic persona on radio.
Milton Berle was a fairly well known when NBC started migrating much of its radio programming to television. In the summer of 1948, when Texaco Star Theater began a trial run on television, audience response to Berle was so overwhelming the network made him the permanent emcee when the program started its regular run that fall.
Berle’s elastic face, flamboyant costumes, and rapid-fire comedy were perfectly suited to the new medium. Television needed a breakout star, and it wasn't long before Milton Berle started calling himself "Mr. Television."
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