Men in dresses dept.; remembering Milton Berle.(The Talk of the Town)(Obituary)

About two hundred and fifty people packed the Friars Club the other day for a memorial tribute to Milton Berle, Abbot Emeritus of the ninety-eight-year-old fraternal association, which is made up mostly of entertainers and comics. Berle was a loyal and active Friar until his death, at the age of ninety-three, earlier this spring, and he was regularly honored by fellow-Friars for his many practical efforts on their behalf, but especially for bravely leading the way in the cause of irreverence, without limits.

The mourners were decidedly unsombre as they greeted one another, with backslaps and hugs. Old-timers in snappy jackets and unmatching pants got kisses planted on their cheeks by younger Friars in dark suits. Soupy Sales, wearing a brown plaid jacket, limped in with a cane and waved cheerfully. Professor Irwin Corey, long gray hair hanging over his collar, shuffled to his seat, but stood there looking affectionately at the crowd, as though he were on the verge of doing his old bumbling-lecturer act.

The tribute was in the hands of Freddie Roman, who has been a Friar for thirty-two years. He introduced a video with scenes from some of Berle's popular early television shows: Berle mugging with Martha Raye Berle pulling open Jerry Lewis's mouth; Dean Martin pulling open Berle's mouth; Berle with Edward G. Robinson, with Elvis Presley, with Frank Sinatra, and others. There was a closeup of Berle's cigar in an ashtray, while he said, in a voice-over, "You're looking at a very changed man." And then the camera moved up and showed Berle -- in a floppy blond wig and a blue dress -- making a move on Jackie Gleason, who responded with a long, icy Jackie Gleason stare. The TV audience and the memorial participants howled as one.

After the video, a tiny, wiry gentleman with a thatch of white hair approached the lectern. He was so short that the top of his head didn't reach the Friars' seal. Freddie Roman raised satanic eyebrows at him and said sharply, "Mickey, stand up!" Mickey Freeman (Private Zimmerman on "Sergeant Bilko") retreated, but shouted to Roman, "I could have been taller, but ...