Editing Milton Berle (section)

==Child actor==
Berle entered show business in 1913 at the age of five when he won a children's Charlie Chaplin contest.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} He also worked as a child model and was "Buster Brown" for [[Caleres|Buster Brown]] shoes.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-14-tv-3253-story.html|title=Milton Berle - First in Comedy|date=July 14, 1991|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref><ref name="childwonder">"[https://web.archive.org/web/20090420045337/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853738,00.html The Child Wonder]". ''Time'', May 16, 1949.</ref> He appeared as a [[child actor]] in [[silent films]]. He claimed ''[[The Perils of Pauline (1914 serial)|The Perils of Pauline]]'' as his first film appearance, playing the character of a young boy, although this has never been independently verified.<ref name="tvmuseum">{{cite web|url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/berlemilton/berlemilton.htm|title=The Museum of Broadcast Communications – Encyclopedia of Television|work=museum.tv|access-date=July 26, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050910183857/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/berlemilton/berlemilton.htm|archive-date=September 10, 2005|url-status=dead}}</ref> In ''Milton Berle: An Autobiography'', he explained that the director told him that he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. He said, "I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. This is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that."

By Berle's account, he continued to play child roles in other films: ''Bunny's Little Brother'', ''[[Tess of the Storm Country (1914 film)|Tess of the Storm Country]]'', ''Birthright'', ''Love's Penalty'', ''Divorce Coupons'' and ''Ruth of the Range''. Berle recalled, "There were even trips out to Hollywood—the studios paid—where I got parts in ''[[Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm]]'', with [[Mary Pickford]]; ''[[The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)|The Mark of Zorro]]'', with [[Douglas Fairbanks|Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.]]; and ''[[Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914 film)|Tillie's Punctured Romance]]'', with [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Mabel Normand]] and [[Marie Dressler]]."<ref name=Newcomb/> However, Berle's claim to have appeared in ''Tillie's Punctured Romance'' has been disputed by film historians including Glenn Mitchell, who in his book, ''The Chaplin Encyclopedia'', writes that Berle's alleged role was most likely played by child actor [[Gordon Griffith]].<ref>Mitchell, Glenn: ''The Chaplin Encyclopedia'' (B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1997), p. 260.</ref>

In 1916, Berle enrolled in the [[Professional Children's School]].<ref name=Newcomb>Newcomb, Horace. Editor, ''Encyclopedia of Television'', vol. I, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, (1997) pp. 163-165</ref>