Here's a clip from the occasion of Jonathan Winters receiving the Mark Twain Award at the Kennedy Center in 1999. There's a story associated with this that I've heard from a couple of different sources. I'm going to tell it here with the caveat that I have no idea if it's true or not.
Winters is sitting home, shortly after the award is announced but some months before the ceremony. The phone rings. It is Milton Berle.
Berle says, "Jonathan, I know you and I were never close. We worked together and I always respected you. I don't know if I ever made it clear how much respect I have for you. You are truly one of the greatest comic geniuses of all time."
He continues: "Now, I know you don't owe me anything but I'm going to ask you for something. I'm 91 years old. I've had a great life. I've done everything I could ever have wanted to do. I've had every honor a comedian can possibly have but one. The only thing I've ever wanted and not achieved is to win the Mark Twain Award. I don't have many years left. It would be the perfect capper to my career."
By now, there were tears in his voice as he got to the point: "Now, you deserve it as much as anyone in the world. You probably deserve it more than I do. I am asking…no, I'm begging you. I might not live to win it next year or the year after. Just imagine if you went to the Kennedy Center people and said, 'Please, give it this year to Milton Berle while you still can.' They would have to say yes and everyone would say what a wonderful, selfless human being Jonathan Winters is to do something like that for an old man.' And of course, you'd win it next year. Or maybe they'd even give out two this year. I would be proud to accept one alongside you. But you're 74 and there's time for you to get it in the future. Could you…would you possibly see your way to helping me win it before I go?"
The conversation is so unexpected and so startling that Winters has no idea what to say. He gasps and he stammers and he finally says, "Milton, let me think this over and call you back."
He hangs up, thinks about it for three minutes, then calls Berle back. He says, "Milton…just think of it this way. You have the huge dick and I have the Mark Twain Award."
I don't know for sure that happened. If I had to bet, I'd bet it didn't. But in some ways, I kinda hope it did.
There will be a very long post about Jonathan on this blog later today. For now, here's the video of him and the Mark Twain Award, including a rather serious interview with Jim Lehrer…