Joe Delaney remembers 1957: Milton Berle at original El Rancho Vegas casino

Friday, Aug. 25, 2000 | 9 a.m.

Milton Berle, who appeared at the original El Rancho Vegas, was "Mr. Nightclub" as well as "Mr. Television" during the 1940s and 1950s. Today at age 92 Uncle Miltie can still hold his own with the best at the L.A. Friars Club. In the '50s Berle would open the show, dance with the Dunhills, ogle well-endowed vocalist Betty George, duet on harmonica with Stan Fisher and be the seventh member of the Metropolitan Sextet, a hilarious burlesque bit, then close the show, with rapid-fire one-liners and clever parodies of radio and television commercials -- the first to do this. Berle made his debut at age 5 as a Buster Brown Shoes ad model.

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