[rollei_list] Re: OT: Howard McNear
- From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 22:15:17 -0800
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Sadowski" <dsadowski@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 9:27 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: OT: Howard McNear
Character actors on Fibber McGee and Molly? You'd have to
start with
Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, played by Harold Peary.
Gildy became so popular that he got his own spin-off show
(maybe the
first ever) in 1941. There were even a few Gildersleeve
movies during
the war.
This lasted through the mid-50s, although at some point
Peary left in
a contract dispute. The network hired someone else who
sounded just
like him.
Besides doing commercials for Red Goose shoes, in later
years Hal
Peary (as he was later kown) had a dramatic part on Perry
Mason, where
he played the murderer in one episode.
---
Rollei List
Harold Peary left because he thought he could get a
better deal from CBS. After Jack Benny jumped ship a number
of other NBC headliners followed. It turned out that Kraft
Foods was happy with NBC and did not want to move the show.
So, Hal Peary got a good contract but no program. NBC and
Kraft hired Willard Waterman to do the part. Waterman was a
very well known west coast actor with similar vocal
characteristics so he did a good enough job immitating
Peary. However the show was never the same after. Peary did
a show on CBS called Honest Harold but I don't remember ever
hearing it. It does not seem to have been successful.
Peary's giggling laugh was his trademark, Waterman was not
allowed to do it. Willard Waterman did a lot of Whistler
shows.
BTW, Harold Peary was trained as a classical singer. He
never really sings as Gildy but there are a couple of places
where he does.
There is some biography on him at Wikipedia of you look
for Great Gildersleeve.
The CBS raid on NBC got CBS some headliners but the
coming of television damped it. TV, for the most part,
generated its own stars. Some radio personalities did
extremely well, like Milton Berl and Red Skelton, but they
never were quite so popular on radio. Many of the top radio
commedians did not do well. While a sort of version of I
Love Lucy was on radio, as My Favorite Husband, it was not
very popular and certainly not the phemonon ILL was on TV.
I have been told by people who were there that NBC
pretty much conceded to Jack Benny everything he asked for.
One exception was some sort of tax dodge that NBC's
attorneys said was probably illegal. That turned out to be
the case. I think the real reason Benny went to CBS was the
amount of bad blood accumulated during and before the
negotiations. I think there is a great deal more to this,
including American Tobacco's interests and history but I
have few details.
I am off to the mighty TV factory in a few minutes so
more anon.
--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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