Milton Berle: By Himself

There's nothing timely about this, except to say that it was just posted on You Tube today. But I wanted to direct all Nosers to this very strange, beautiful, classic clip of good ol' Uncle Milty, from the long-gone Buick Berle Hour on NBC. You've never really seen the comic like this, all down-in-the-mouth 'n' sad 'cuz everyone else is having all the fun, and slinking backstage as he sings "I'm By Myself" over the soundtrack. It's an agile, noiry look behind the scenes, predating Saturday Night Live's reflexive jaunts into Lorne Michaels' office by 25 years. Plus, it takes a positively David-Lynch-by-way-of-Vincente-Minnelli turn at about the four minute mark that makes you wonder if, the next day, NBC execs were scratching their heads, wondering if Milton had gone around the bend from all that dress-wearin'. At any rate, this is total TV-centric fun, so I hadda post it here.