Booksteve Reviews-The Great Gildersleeve by Kristine Ohkubo

 

 

Watching TV with my parents in the 1960s, they would often see an actor with a mustache and a sarcastic delivery and say, “There’s old Gildersleeve!” Sometimes it was Harold Peary, other times Willard Waterman. Unfortunately, it was just as often Frank Nelson or Dick Wilson, which left little me really confused! Who the heck was this “Gildersleeve,” anyway?

 

Around 1980, a local college radio station began running The Great Gildersleeve every Friday morning at 11:30 AM. From memory, I could see the character in my mind as a pretentious man with a mustache and over time pieced together the story as to how Willard Waterman replaced Hal Peary on the series and played the character for another nine years, on both radio and television.

 

Leading a surreal life as I do, a decade later, I found myself actually meeting and working with Willard Waterman in radio re-creations, and a few years beyond that actually appearing in a Great Gildersleeve re-creation—as Judge Hooker—with him, as well as two other original co-stars, Shirley Mitchell and Louise Erickson.

 

My wife and I also got to have lunch once with the late Charlie Stumpf, a well-respected author on nostalgic subjects. Stumpf wrote early books on Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve, and Walter Tetley, who played Gildy’s nephew, Leroy. 

 

The new book, From Girdle Maker to Water Commissioner—The Great Gildersleeve, written by Kristine Ohkubo, builds on the research of Stumpf and other OTR experts who have gone before her. The author has compiled not so much a history of the show’s individual seasons and story arcs but of the backgrounds of the show itself—one of the very first sitcoms as we know them today—and highly informative biographical sections on all involved.

 

By her own admission, this is not intended for the hardcore Gildy fans but more as an introduction to the great man’s world and those creators who brought it to life for nearly 20 years. Nevertheless, I learned quite a bit that I didn’t know! After a lengthy section detailing the history and background of the parent show, Fibber McGee and Molly, the bulk of the rest of the book consists of biographical chapters on the stars of The Great Gildersleeve. Peary and Waterman, naturally, but also the secondary stars, and even some major guest stars are presented with equal treatment, giving us coverage of not only Shirley Mitchell and Lillian Randolph but also lesser players like Gloria Holliday (Peary’s real-life wife at one point) and future screen star Richard Crenna (the Rambo movies), whose character married the Commissioner’s niece, Marjorie. Parley Baer (another old friend from the OTR cons) is covered, as is Jim Backus, Gale Gordon, Olan Soule, and Joseph Kearns—all with their unmistakable radio voices. 

 

Each of the subjects gets a photo or two and, in fact, the photos throughout the book are extremely well chosen and mostly rare, new even to a longtime fan like myself. Some amazing pictures!

 

  

The reader also gets some basic coverage of the Gildersleeve character’s appearances in movies in the 1940s and on television in the 1950s. The mix-up that left Waterman custody of the Water Commissioner role on NBC led to Hal Peary developing his own similar series (too similar, many might say) for CBS, and that is rightly covered here as well. The backmatter offers a known episode checklist for The Great Gildersleeve and a fun trivia section.

 

All in all, Kristine Ohkubo has done an impressive job, and both her enthusiasm and her professionalism show through. Despite documenting many of her sources, a few minor mistakes managed to creep in, perhaps inevitably, but for pure enjoyable reading about one of my all-time favorite radio series, From Girdle Maker to Water Commissioner—The Great Gildersleeve would make an ideal introduction to arguably the first true sitcom for anyone who just likes good entertaining comedies…with a little bit of drama and romance…and music!

 

  

I once wrote that without younger generations discovering old time radio for its pure entertainment value, and not just out of rapidly fading nostalgia, it would go the way of Sanskrit, only to be studied in museums rather than actively enjoyed. Kristine Ohkubo discovered it, and is here presenting it to others. I hope she continues to write books on classic radio series she likes!

 

Booksteve recommends. 

Buy it direct here at a discounted price!   

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Michael Schlesinger & Me-- R.I.P.

 

MICHAEL SCHLESINGER & ME

 

Nothing drives home one’s mortality like a friend you’ve known for more than half your life dying on your birthday. Michael Schlesinger was a bit older than me and had been in the hospital for weeks. 

 

I first heard of Mike when he and Larry Thomas co-hosted weekend movies with C. Fred Baum on Cincinnati’s then-new Channel 64 back in 1980. Between the two of them, Mike and Larry seemed to know everything about classic movies. As a still budding film buff, I naturally idolized them both. 

 

The pair also teamed to open a downtown repertory cinema called, at first Moviola (later “The Movies). Between Channel 64’s output and Moviola’s monthly playlists, I began to discover for the first time vintage classics, cult films, foreign films, rare versions, and, best of all, an annual curated cartoon marathon!

 

Michael also began to host a call-in radio trivia game on WAIF-FM once a month late on a Saturday night. The Guessable Solution alternated with another, similar trivia series. Guessable was distinguished from the other show by the fact that players could always win points by guessing the movie on Michael’s t-shirt. 

 

I was 22 and a self-styled trivia expert but had never been able to play the late-night trivia games as I still lived at home and the phone was hard-wired into my parents’ bedroom. I did discover a non-competitive daytime trivia series on WVXU-FM and was able to call in for that one each week to the point where they invited me to come out and be a studio guest several times. The Myers twins, Kathy and Michelle, also played as a team on the WAIF trivia shows. All this was around the time that restrictions were lessened to the point where you could buy your own phones. We got our first push-button phone, and with it a 25-foot cord so I could stretch it into my bedroom and close the door. I wasn’t part of a team so when I first played on The Guessable Solution, I gave my points to the Myers twins.

 

Not long afterwards, I got a call from Larry Ashcraft, co-host of the WVXU series with the twins. They had told him how good I was at the competitive trivia so when Warner Amex-QUBE came to Larry to recommend someone good enough to appear as a contestant on their interactive TV game show, Screen Test, Larry and the Myers girls recommended me. The reason they needed a strong contestant was that my opponent was to be…Michael Schlesinger. 

 

Meanwhile, on Guessable, it was announced that Michael would be moving to Hollywood to try to make it as a screenwriter. WAIF sponsored an annual Trivia Picnic at Ault Park in Cincinnati and everyone was encouraged to come out to the picnic to give Michael a big send-off the next day. I didn’t drive but I managed to get there and met Michael for the very first time. I introduced myself as his opponent on the upcoming Screen Test face-off. He was funny, sarcastic, self-deprecating, and we played Trivial Pursuit as we munched on chicken. To this day that was the only time I ever played Trivial Pursuit. No one ever wanted to play with me as everyone said I was too much a pro. I got a ride home that day from another young lady I met at the picnic, Cathy Gabbard. As we were both from Kentucky, we discussed my possibly joining her trivia team with her sister Susan. 

 

Later that week, I arrived at the QUBE TV studio. QUBE was an experimental interactive concept whereby home viewers had a controller which allowed them to participate in every show in one way or another. Screen Test had been running for a year or two, hosted by Columbus’s kids show legend, Flippo the Clown, unknown this far south. The QUBE channels were not available at all across the river where I was in Kentucky so I got the Myers twins to tape the episode for me…or rather their mother, as both of them came to the studio to cheer me on. 

 

Coming to cheer Michael on was Terri Riegler, a name I had heard numerous times on the Channel 64 movies as she would often write in or send little gifts to Larry and Mike. (Larry was also in the audience.) Micheal and I renewed our acquaintance in the green room before the show and then went out into the studio, ready for a good battle. It wasn’t my first time on television but it was my first as myself. 

 

Flippo was great, and gave us both signed photos, but that night there were electrical problems. Since the show was, of necessity, broadcast live, we went on the air anyway, with missing lights and a scoreboard not working. It was a tough game but, in the end, Mike won, beating me, if not by much! After the show, he introduced me to Terri, whom I have now known for more than 43 years. She would become “Best Man” at my wedding as well as godmother to my son. That night, though, I convinced Michael that the winner buys, and he treated Terri, myself, and a young woman who worked on the show, to dinner. Terri drove me home, and we also discussed joining forces for the trivia shows. I told her about Cathy. Eventually, the three of us—and Susan—formed our own, new team, the Not Ready for Drive-Time Players. We debuted on what would be Mike’s final regular episode of The Guessable Solution and we won. 

 

In fact, we won so often after that that we started our own Newsletter and sent it out free to the hosts and the other trivia team members. We even sent Michael copies in California. When we did fake Playboy-style “centerfold” questionaries, we had Mike do one. Our newsletter ran 23 issues!

 

With Mike off in Hollywood, Screen Test came to me as the next-highest scoring player that season to compete in their season championship finals. After several more episodes, I would be eliminated, only to return two seasons later to win the championship. 

 

Meanwhile, Mike—who had nicknamed me “Dr. Steve”— began writing me regularly from L.A. and filling me in on his attempts to sell scripts, get dates, and climb the ladder at the studios. His letters were hilarious, never once signed with his own name, and filled with Jewish humor.

 

With his family still in Dayton, he would return from time to time to see his old friends here in town and have some Graeter’s ice cream and Skyline Chili. While it was still on, he was even guest-hosting The Guessable Solution. In time, that series ended up on WNOP-AM where I actually co-hosted, with then-host Chris Barkley (another Screen Test veteran), what turned out to be its final episode. 

 

Terri and I remained fast friends even after the trivia shows disappeared. Once we even drove up to Columbus to surprise Mike at a film convention. He invited us to stay over in his room but I had to work the next day. Terri, however, would get together with him several times a year and every once in a while, I would be included in dinner plans when he was visiting her.

 

Over the years, I’d see copies of his unproduced film or TV scripts, his wonderful commentaries on DVDs such as Godzilla 2000 (of which he produced the US edit) or Road to Bali, or even speak to him on the phone occasionally. Facebook brought us closer together again and I was able to follow his life and career path. I was so proud to know him. His achievements may have been under most people’s radar, but to me, they were always impressive, as was his non-stop wit.

Well…non-stop until now. 

 

As I said, nothing drives home one’s mortality like a friend you’ve known for more than half your life dying on your birthday.

 

R.I.P. Michael Schlesinger

 

 

Bob Bell in Cincinnati, Pre-Bozo

Bozo the Clown was franchised to different cities throughout the US for many years. Bob Bell played Bozo the Clown on Chicago's WGN fro the 1960s well into the 1980s, by which time he was seen nationally on WGN's major cable feed. 

I just learned, though, that before he ended up in Chicago he was actually playing a lot of goofy characters here in the Cincinnati area on WLW-T until the mid-1950s.

 

Tower of Shadows

I see where Marvel is releasing soon a collection of the new stories from their horror mags that began in 1969 with TOWER OF SHADOWS # 1. 

I was 10 years old when that first issue of TOWER OF SHADOWS came out. That Steranko story inside scared me half to death. I had nightmares! Almost immediately, I traded that comic to my pal Terry for something more familiar (but now long forgotten). I read the story again in COMIX! a few years later, albeit small and in black and white. Less intimidating. Some 44 years later, I was pawing through the dollar box at my LCS when I spotted a copy of that ToS # 1 and I decided to buy it again. I was in my 50s by that point and I had met Steranko a couple of times! No way it could creep me out now! So I get it home, I take it out of its bag and open it up and what's the first thing I see? MY INITIALS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FIRST PAGE!!!!! Back in '69, I wrote my initials in a circle on all my comic books! This was MY original scary copy!!!! I hadn't seen Terry in ages and the book had a price sticker on the front as well as a penciled price on the back. It had clearly been through several sales over the years but it had finally found its way back to me, its original owner!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAA..........!!!!!

 

HaPpY NeW YeAr! 2025 Marks Our 20th Year!

 

Thelma Todd 1906-1935

Beautiful blonde actress and comedienne Thelma Todd died mysteriously 89 years ago this week. There was a ton of newspaper coverage including images of her corpse in an open casket display, attended by huge crowds!

 

Christmas in Toyland by Brandon Walsh and Royal King Cole, 1935

Here's a sweet and funny holiday strip that ran in newspapers through most of December in 1935. According to strip expert Allan Holtz, who ran different versions of these strips on his own blog back in 2007, this 1935 strip--bylined Brandon Walsh but signed "King Cole"-- is actually drawn by a man with the wonderful name of Royal King Cole. After a while, Royal K. Cole headed west and became the chief author of many a movie serial in the 1940s including CAPTAIN AMERICA, SUPERMAN, AND BATMAN AND ROBIN!