George Leslie Gobel (May 20, 1919 – February 24, 1991) was an American
comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain members of an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, best known as the star of his own weekly NBC television show,
The George Gobel Show, from 1954 to 1960 (the last season on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
, alternating with
The Jack Benny ProgramThe Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series which ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century comedy.-Radio:...
).
Gobel was born in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
. He graduated from Chicago's Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1937. Initially a country music singer, he appeared on the
National Barn DanceNational Barn Dance, broadcast by WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois starting in 1924, was one of the first American country music radio programs and a direct precursor of the Grand Ole Opry....
on
WLSWLS is a Chicago radio station. The call letters stand for World's Largest Store . The station operates on an AM clear channel frequency of 890 kHz with a power of 50,000 watts, with IBOC during the day, and C-QUAM AM Stereo at night...
radio and, after service in World War II, turned to comedy.
George Leslie Gobel (May 20, 1919 – February 24, 1991) was an American
comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain members of an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, best known as the star of his own weekly NBC television show,
The George Gobel Show, from 1954 to 1960 (the last season on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
, alternating with
The Jack Benny ProgramThe Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series which ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century comedy.-Radio:...
).
Radio
Gobel was born in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
. He graduated from Chicago's Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1937. Initially a country music singer, he appeared on the
National Barn DanceNational Barn Dance, broadcast by WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois starting in 1924, was one of the first American country music radio programs and a direct precursor of the Grand Ole Opry....
on
WLSWLS is a Chicago radio station. The call letters stand for World's Largest Store . The station operates on an AM clear channel frequency of 890 kHz with a power of 50,000 watts, with IBOC during the day, and C-QUAM AM Stereo at night...
radio and, after service in World War II, turned to comedy. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Gobel served as a flight instructor on
AT-9The Curtiss-Wright AT-9 Jeep was a twin-engined advanced trainer aircraft used by the United States during World War II to bridge the gap between single-engine trainers and twin-engine combat aircraft...
aircraft at
Altus, OklahomaAltus is a city in Jackson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 21,447 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Jackson County....
and later on
B-26B26, B-26 or B.26 may refer to:*A-26 Invader, by Douglas Aircraft Company, which carried the designation "B-26" from 1948 until 1962 and then reverted to the A-26 designation...
aircraft at
Frederick, OklahomaFrederick is a city in Tillman County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 4,637 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Tillman County. This is an agriculture based community primarily with wheat, cotton, and cattle. The public school team name is the Bombers, and they play football...
.
Television
In 1954 he began a television series on NBC, a comedy show that showcased Gobel's quiet, homespun style of humor, a low-key alternative to what audiences had seen on
Milton BerleMilton Berle was an Emmy-winning American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , he was the first major star of US television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
's shows. A huge success, the popular series made the crew-cut Gobel one of the biggest comedy stars of the 1950s.
Its centerpiece was a monologue about situations and experiences that had supposedly happened to him, as well as stories allegedly about his real-life wife, Alice (nicknamed "Spooky Old Alice" and played by actress
Jeff DonnellJeff Donnell was an American film and television actress. Born Jean Marie Donnell, she grew up at an all-male reformatory in South Windham, Maine...
). Gobel's hesitant, almost shy delivery and penchant for tangled digressions were the chief sources of comedy, more important than the actual content of the stories. His monologues popularized several catch phrases, notably "Well then there now" (repeated by James Dean in
Rebel Without a CauseRebel Without a Cause is a 1955 film directed by Nicholas Ray that tells the story of a rebellious teenager played by James Dean, who comes to a town, meets a girl, disobeys his parents, and defies the local high school bullies. It was an attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth,...
), "Well, I'll be a dirty bird" and "You don't hardly get those any more."
Gobel described himself as "Lonesome George," and the nickname stuck for the rest of his career. The TV show typically included a segment in which Gobel appeared with a guitar, started to sing, then got sidetracked into a story, with the song always left unfinished after fitful starts and stops. He had a special version of the Gibson L-5 archtop guitar built, featuring diminished dimensions of neck scale and body depth, befitting his own small stature; a series of several dozen of this "L-5CT" or "George Gobel" model was produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He also played
harmonicaThe harmonica is a free reed wind instrument which is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes. The pressure caused by blowing or drawing air into the reed chambers causes a reed or multiple reeds to vibrate up and down creating sound...
.
In 1957 three B-52 Stratofortress bombers made the first nonstop round-the-world flight by turbojet aircraft. One of the aircraft was christened "Lonesome George." The crew appeared on George Gobel's prime-time television show and recounted their mission which took them 45 hours, and 19 minutes.
Lonesome GeorgeLonesome George is the last known individual of the Pinta Island Tortoise, subspecies Geochelone nigra abingdoni, one of eleven subspecies of Galápagos tortoise native to the Galápagos Islands. He has been labelled the rarest creature in the world, and is a potent symbol for conservation efforts...
, the tortoise, is also named after Gobel.
From 1958 to 1961 Gobel appeared in
Las VegasThe Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada. A small portion of the Strip lies in Las Vegas, but most of it is in the unincorporated areas of Paradise and Winchester...
at the
El Rancho VegasEl Rancho Vegas was the very first hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip . It was located at 2500 Las Vegas Boulevard, at the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara, and opened on April 3, 1941. Up until 1942, it was the largest hotel in Las Vegas with 110 rooms. The hotel was...
and in
Reno-Places:United States*Reno, Nevada*Reno, Indiana*Reno, Ohio*Reno, Pennsylvania*Reno, Lamar County, Texas*Reno, Parker County, Texas*Reno County, Kansas*Reno Township, Michigan*Reno Township, MinnesotaCanada*Reno No...
at the
Mapes HotelThe Mapes Hotel was a hotel/casino located in Reno, Nevada, next to the Truckee River on Virginia Street. It was built in 1947, and opened on December 17 of that year. It was the first skyscraper built in the Western United States since the start of World War II...
.
Gobel was a guest on various TV programs, including
The Bing Crosby ShowThe Bing Crosby Show is a 28-episode television situation comedy starring crooner, film star, iconic phenomenon, and businessman Bing Crosby and actress Beverly Garland as a middle-aged couple, Bing and Ellie Collins, rearing two teenaged daughters during the early 1960s...
and
Johnny Carson's The Tonight ShowThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992....
. In an often-replayed segment from a 1969 episode of
The Tonight Show, Gobel followed
Bob HopeBob Hope, KBE, KCSG was an American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO tours entertaining American military personnel...
and
Dean MartinDean Martin was an American singer, film actor and comedian. He was one of the best known musical artists of the 1950s and 1960s. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "Mambo Italiano", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That A Kick In The...
, walking onstage with a plastic cup with an unidentified drink. Gobel ribbed Carson about coming on last and having to follow those major TV stars. He quipped to Carson, "Did you ever get the feeling that the world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?" After the laughter died down, Carson asked Gobel about his career in World War II as a fighter pilot. Gobel feigned bewilderment at why people laugh when he says that he spent WWII in Oklahoma, pointing out that no Japanese plane ever got past Tulsa. Gobel also began to get some unexpected laughs, being unaware that Dean Martin had begun flicking his cigarette ashes into Gobel's drink. Observing all of this, Carson finally asked rhetorically, "Exactly what time did I lose control of the show?!"
In the 1970s, Gobel was a regular panelist on the television game show
Hollywood SquaresThe Hollywood Squares is an American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by an entertainer seated at a desk and facing the contestants...
hosted by Peter Marshall. He also lent his voice to 1974 animated special
Twas the Night Before Christmas. In the early 1980s, Gobel played Otis Harper, Jr., the mayor of
Harper ValleyHarper Valley is the fictitious community named in the 1968 hit song "Harper Valley PTA" as well as the movie and television series of the same name. The community, supposedly located in Ohio near Cincinnati, was founded by the Harper family and in the movie and television series, was personified...
in the television series based on the film
Harper Valley PTAHarper Valley PTA is an early 1980s American television sitcom based on the 1978 film Harper Valley PTA, which was itself based on the 1968 song recorded by country singer Jeannie C. Riley, written by Tom T...
.
Films
thumb
When ratings soared on
The George Gobel Show (rated in the top ten of 1954-55), Paramount promoted Gobel as their new comedy star, casting him as the lead in
The Birds and the BeesThe Birds and the Bees is a 1956 screwball comedy film with songs, starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor and David Niven. A remake of Preston Sturges' film The Lady Eve, which was based on a story by Monckton Hoffe, the film was directed by Norman Taurog and written by Sidney Sheldon.-Plot:George...
(1956), a remake of
The Lady EveThe Lady Eve is a screwball comedy film about a mismatched couple who meet on a luxury liner, written by Preston Sturges based on a story by Monckton Hoffe, and directed by Sturges, his third directorial effort, after The Great McGinty and Christmas in July...
(1941). However, Gobel's TV success did not translate to the big screen. The film performed so poorly at the box office that release was delayed on his second Paramount movie,
I Married a Woman, filmed in 1956 but not released until 1958. Although scripted by
Goodman AceGoodman Ace , born Goodman Aiskowitz, was an American humourist, working as a radio writer and comedian, a television writer, and a magazine columnist....
, it also resulted in disappointing ticket sales, and Gobel's career as a Paramount movie star came to an abrupt end. He settled into an endless succession of TV guest star appearances and did not return to movie screens until years later as a character actor in Joan Rivers'
Rabbit Test (1978), followed by
The Day It Came to Earth (1979) and
Ellie (1984). He made nine TV movies during the 1970s and 1980s.
Death
George Gobel died in 1991, shortly after undergoing heart surgery. He was survived by his wife Alice and three children. He is interred in the
San Fernando Mission CemeteryThe San Fernando Mission Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery located at 11160 Stranwood Avenue in the Mission Hills community of the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, near the San Fernando Mission....
in
Mission Hills, Los Angeles, CaliforniaMission Hills is a suburban community in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California.It is located near the northern junction of the Golden State Freeway and the San Diego Freeway . The Ronald Reagan Freeway bisects the neighborhood. Mission Hills is the northern...
.
External links