Milton Berle

[Johnny]

Milton Berle, the world's first TV star, died on March 27, 2002, at the age of 93. Although his death and biography were widely reported, not a single obituary mentioned that Berle had been a pot smoker. Best known for appearing with a cigar, Berle was a marijuana user in his youth, one of a great many reefer-loving entertainers of the era.

We can't confirm if Berle continued to toke in his later years, although he would have been well-advised to toke up after suffering a stroke in 1998.

Harry Anslinger kept tabs on most of his era's greatest toking entertainers, including Jackie Gleason, Bennie Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and many others. Anslinger had hoped to round them all up in a single marijuana sweep, but the plan was quietly nixed by his superiors. Perhaps it was feared that if Americans learned that all their favorite entertainers were tokers the whole nation would rush to try this exciting new herb.

Anslinger was likely equally infuriated by Berle's featuring non-white entertainers on his immensely popular TV show, The Texaco Star Theater. "There is no room for prejudice in our profession," said Berle famously, although neglecting to mention that he had changed his name from the more obviously Jewish Mendel Berlinger.