Milton Berle 'joke file' to go on sale
7. "The Milton Berle Show": Launched in 1948, this show made an entire nation buy TV sets just to watch. Credit: AP
Milton Berle's famed joke file is going on sale. Yes, the one and the same joke file that yielded this: "We owe a lot to Thomas Edison-if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candlelight.”
Sure, a bit clunky, you say. But back in the day, more than half the nation (or at least the "half" that owned television sets) roared at that one.
Bonhams, the New York auction house, will put the bulk of his literary estate on the market in early May — estimated proceeds, $200,000 to 300,000, per Catherine Williamson, Bonhams' director of Entertainment Memorabilia.
"This is certainly the bulk of Berle's literary estate: his working copies, plus revised final bound copies of nearly all of his performances. Much of this material was housed in his office over the years, including the file cabinets with the joke cards," Williamson said by email.
Joke cards!
So what does this include? Here's the laundry list:
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