The Tale of Two Milton’s

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One was a silly uncle who made millions laugh their heads off Tuesday nights, while the other blew roofs off one wicked Wednesday some 70 years later. That plus the liquidity consequences the first Milton had on water levels, the second on gas shortages, and other horrors that were hardly a laughing matter.

One thing for sure, despite many decades apart, the two mighty Miltons were both record setters.? One enjoyed unprecedented public favor, while the other terrorized with tornadic ferocity.? Both broke all the rules of decorum and sanity in their respective time periods and in dramatically different ways were gigantic hits.

Many decades ago, dressed as a woman, btw illegal back in the 1950’s unless you acted like a man, Milton Berle cracked up millions glued to his riotous Texaco Star Theater that made him “Mr. Television.” ?The hit television show on NBC ruled Tuesday Evenings.

The chubby jokester, silly slapstick Uncle Miltie was the 1950’s big hit, while the other was a mean Milton, an unfriendly monster that hit Florida catastrophically hard on 10/9, knocking out power to millions, killing at least dozen poor souls and injuring many more.

In its heyday, Berle’s Texaco Star Theater was the first hit show on television (1948-1953).?

When I was 12 years old, my mom and dad and I living on Bellfield Avenue in the world’s playground Atlantic City, would watch Uncle Miltie.

He’d make us laugh making faces and telling whoppers on NBC, the network where 30 some years later I would become vice president, assistant to the president, another TV wunderkind, Fred Silverman.?

Back when he was king of comedy, Berle doubled the number of TVs in American homes. When the series?debuted, fewer than two percent of American households had a television set; when Berle left the air in 1956, TV was in 70 percent of the country’s homes, and Berle had earned the nickname “Mr. Television.”

Not only did Berle’s?Texas Star Theater?increase the number of TVs in America, it also made making plans for a Tuesday night near impossible. This was well before VCRs, DVR, and streaming services. If you weren’t home on Tuesday at 8 pm to watch Milton, you didn’t get to see it, period.

Uncle Miltie was not only a big deal, but a huge puzzle for the Water Commissions: Why were water levels dropping drastically on Tuesdays between 9:00 and 9:05 pm? ?What was happening during this five-minute span?

It turned out that Americans were putting off going to the bathroom until Uncle Miltie had finished his show—and then everyone went at once. ?When you affected the water supply, you?knew?you had a hit!

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Milton Leaves Gas Stations Dry

Last week across Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, the hurricane Milton left almost two-thirds of?gas?stations without fuel, and nearly a quarter of the roughly 7,900 gas stations?in the state had run dry. Port Tampa Bay, which says it handles?more than 43 percent?of the state's petroleum imports, was disrupted due to power outages.

In the meantime, residents were encouraged to visit?gas?stations connected to stores and download apps?tracking?gas?availability.?

Gay Ban A man dressing up as a woman was actually against the law in the 1950s. So, why was Berle allowed to do it??The reason was awful.?As long as he made very clear he was?not?gay, he was allowed to do drag—as this was the subtext of the anti-drag law. As long as you were straight you could get away with dressing as a woman. Well now, organizations like Stonewall National Museum & Archives have corrected that injustice to the LGBTQ+ community.

Cleanup from?Hurricane Milton?and it’s even more beastly predecessor Helene, was underway last week as residents returned home after the?storm barreled?across Florida,?spawning those killer tornadoes, knocking out power to millions, damaging homes and leading to hundreds of rescues by brave rescuers.

While there was significant damage in certain areas, Milton wasn’t as bad as had been feared. Flooding from Milton’s heavy rains was still causing problems as rescues of people and animals stranded in rising waters continued. A busy Gov. Ron DeSantis kept warning people not to let down their guard and to be aware of hazards, including downed power lines and flooded areas.

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Fortunate were we, Cat 5 went to 3

Milton came ashore Wednesday evening as a?Category 3 storm?near Siesta Key, a barrier island of white sand beaches on the Gulf Coast, yet would spawn deadly tornadoes on its pathway east. The storm made landfall about 70 miles south of the?Tampa Bay area, sparing the?densely populated area a direct hit.

It was awesome watching on television Milton toppling a?crane in St. Petersburg that was working on a 46-story building?and?destroyed the roof?of Tropicana Field, home to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team.?

On Friday afternoon, over 2 million customers in Florida were still without power, according to?poweroutage.us.

Six people were killed when a tornado hit the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village near Fort Pierce, on the Atlantic Coast.

This was not far from where my daughter Adrienne lives nervously in flood-prone Port St. Lucie.? But she survived.? And so did Rita and I in Boca Raton, and thank God so were millions of our fellow Floridians also spared the brunt of this devastating Milton. ?

Far from the former Milton, this one was definitely no laughing matter!

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When Tom Madden is not ducking hurricanes, he’s cranking out his weekly blog at www.maddenmischief.com or writing books including his latest PlanetaryLifeguard, Blowing the Whistle on Climate Change that’s causing such intense hurricanes as Helene and Milton.? And when he’s not doing that, he’s assisting his daughter Adrienne Mazzone running the family’s award-winning international PR firm, TransMedia Group. ?