Word: gaggingly
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...Berle. Through the years, hard-working Comic Berle drove himself so overbearingly to fulfill his destiny that many a bitter show-business colleague came to regard him as a gag-stealing braggart. Now, having conquered at last, Milton seems to be living down his bad reputation. Success agrees with him. Says George Jessel: "He doesn't have to try so hard now, and so he's not so liable to be stepping on other people's toes." Once damned by many who had to work with him on the way up, he now has the respect...
...fall, are still feeling pain from an old Berle-inflicted wound. Berle ("The Thief of Badgags") has always" been so intoxicated by the sound of audience laughter that he could never resist using likely material-even if someone else had used it first. He is firmly convinced that any gag sounds better leaving his own mouth, and, argues his faithful flock, all jokes are public property any how. An understanding friend explains: "The guy just can't help imitating something that has entertained . . . His heart is in his work. He isn't happy unless he's entertaining...
...fancy buffet lunch (courtesy of the Southern Pacific), a woman sword swallower had dropped in from a circus to swallow three swords, and Mayor Fletcher Bowron had read a proclamation making Campbell "mayor of the day." The Chamber of Commerce sent a chamber pot as a good-natured gag, and W. R. Hearst wired his congratulations...
Like Father. The most successful of the young crop is lean, 28-year-old Dr. Gary Middlecoff, the Memphis dentist. When he gets set to hit a tee-shot, the stock gag with his fellow pros is: "This won't hurt a bit... Ouch!" He has a loose swing, hits a long straight ball, steadies down under pressure like a real pro, works well on the greens with his unorthodox putter (a gooseneck with the blade extending forward from the shaft instead of backward...
...against his father; another young fellow would oppose his father-in-law for a seat on the village board. They rounded up 48 votes, figured that they thus controlled better than half of the votes usually cast. The trick was to pretend that their campaign was all a gag, so that the oldsters wouldn't get stirred...