Robert Q. Lewis (born Robert Goldberg; April 25, 1921 – December 11, 1991)
was an American
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
and
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
personality, comedian, game show host, and actor. Lewis added the middle initial "Q" to his name accidentally on the air in 1942, when he responded to a reference to radio comedian
F. Chase Taylor
Stoopnagle and Budd were a popular radio comedy team of the 1930s, who are sometimes cited as forerunners of the Bob and Ray style of radio comedy. Along with Raymond Knight ('' The Cuckoo Hour''), they were radio's first satirists.
Musician W ...
's character, Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, by saying, "and this is Robert ''Q.'' Lewis." He subsequently decided to retain the initial, telling interviewers that it stood for "Quizzical."
Lewis is perhaps best known for his game show participation, having been the first host of ''
The Name's the Same
''The Name's the Same'' is an American game show produced by Mark Goodson, Goodson-Bill Todman, Todman for the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network from December 5, 1951 to August 31, 1954, followed by a run from October 25, 19 ...
'',
and regularly appearing on other
Goodson-
Todman
Todman (7 October 1954 – 1976) was one of the greatest Australia, Australian Thoroughbred racehorses and an important sire. He was perhaps best known as the winner of the inaugural STC Golden Slipper in 1957, being the first of Star Kingdom ...
panel shows. He also hosted and appeared on a multitude of television shows of the 1940s through the 1970s.
His most distinguishing feature was his
horn-rimmed glasses
Horn-rimmed glasses are a type of eyeglasses. Originally made out of either horn or tortoise shell, for most of their history they have actually been constructed out of thick plastics designed to imitate those materials. They are characterized by ...
,
to the point that the title card for his second ''Robert Q. Lewis Show''
featured a pair of such glasses as a logo, and they were mentioned in the title of his lecture. As a frequent guest panelist on ''What's My Line?
''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...
'', Lewis's blindfold featured a sketched pair of glasses.
Biography
Early life
Lewis was born Robert Goldberg in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
to Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
immigrants from Imperial Russia
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
. At age ten he set up a microphone and record player at home and became the family's disc jockey.
Radio
Lewis made his radio debut in 1931, at age ten, on a local radio show, "Dr. Posner's Kiddie Hour". He enrolled in the University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1938, where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Delta
Phi Sigma Delta (), colloquially known as Phi Sig, was a fraternity established in 1909 with a predominantly Jewish membership at Columbia University. It eventually opened at least 47 chapters. The Fraternity merged with Zeta Beta Tau in 1970, reti ...
fraternity (later merged into Zeta Beta Tau
Zeta Beta Tau () is a Greek-letter social fraternity based in North America. It was founded on December 29, 1898. Originally a Zionist youth society, its purpose changed from Zionism in the fraternity's early years when in 1954 the fraternity beco ...
).
In 1942 he left to enlist in the U.S. Army during the Second World War and became a radio operator in the Signal Corps.
After the war, he became an announcer and disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
.
Among those who served as writers on Lewis's radio programmes were playwright Neil Simon
Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...
, author and dramatist Paddy Chayefsky
Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky (January 29, 1923 – August 1, 1981) was an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for writing both adapted and original screenplays.
He was ...
, and radio comedy writer Goodman Ace
Goodman Ace (January 15, 1899 – March 25, 1982), born Goodman Aiskowitz, was an American humorist, radio writer and comedian, television writer, and magazine columnist.
His low-key, literate drollery and softly tart way of tweaking trends ...
. Simon, Chayefsky and Ace headed a CBS team of comedy writers that acted largely as "script doctors" for existing shows in need of fixing. Ace was frustrated over a CBS revamp of the show he assembled for Lewis, ''The Little Show'': "I give them a good, tight, fifteen-minute comedy show", Ace told ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', "and what do they do? Expand it to half an hour and throw in an orchestra and an audience. Who the hell said a comedy show had to be half an hour, Marconi? Ida Cantor
A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds.
In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...
?"
In 1949, Lewis had a 30-minute sustaining program
A sustaining program is a radio or television program that, despite airing on a commercial broadcast station, does not have commercial sponsorship or advertising. This term, mostly used in the United States, was common in the early days of radio, b ...
that was broadcast on CBS Monday - Friday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The Ames Brothers
The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet, consisting of four siblings from Malden, Massachusetts, who were particularly famous in the 1950s for their traditional pop music hits.
Biography
The Urick brothers were born in Malden, Massachusetts ...
and Eugenie Baird
Eugenie Baird (November 19, 1923 – June 12, 1988) was an American big-band, jazz, and radio singer.
Career
Baird was from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Eugene Baird, whose obituary described him as a construction foreman ...
were regular performers, and the Howard Smith Orchestra provided music. In addition to Lewis's comedy, the show also included audience participation as several people in the studio answered a question posed by Lewis. A review in the trade publication ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called Lewis "a bright spot on the afternoon spectrum".
Future talk-show host and producer Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own ta ...
often sang on Lewis's network radio show.[ Besides his many guest appearances on variety programs and game shows in the early years of television, Lewis's favorite medium as host continued with radio, first for CBS and later as a disc jockey in Los Angeles.] One of his radio series, ''Robert Q.'s Waxworks'', was devoted to playing old records, setting a pattern that later radio personalities like Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograp ...
would follow. His interview-based program was heard locally on KFI
KFI (640 AM) is a radio station in Los Angeles, California, owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. It began operations in 1922 and became one of the first high-powered, clear-channel Class A stations. It was the first U.S. station west of Chi ...
, Los Angeles, in 1972.
Television
Lewis was an early arrival on network television, presiding over more than one series at a time. ''The Robert Q. Lewis Show'' had a six-month run on CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
's Sunday night television lineup from July 16, 1950, to January 7, 1951. At the same time he also hosted CBS's TV talent-search variety program ''The Show Goes On The Show Goes On may refer to:
* ''The Show Goes On'' (film), a 1937 British musical comedy film
* ''The Show Goes On'' (1936 film), or ''Three Maxims'', a British drama directed by Herbert Wilcox
* ''The Show Goes On'' (TV series), a 1950–195 ...
'' from January 19, 1950, to February 16, 1952. He also had two daytime variety shows on CBS. The first, ''Robert Q's Matinee'', was a 45-minute daily show, which lasted 14 weeks, from October 16, 1950, to January 19, 1951. The second, more successful ''The Robert Q. Lewis Show'' ran on CBS-TV from January 11, 1954, to May 25, 1956.
Lewis was often recruited to fill in for performers who were ill or otherwise unable to perform. He frequently sat in for Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...
, who was considered his tutor. Lewis often credited Godfrey with giving him his first big breaks in show business. Jackie Gleason
John Herbert Gleason (February 26, 1916June 24, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, writer, composer, and conductor known affectionately as "The Great One." Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was know ...
invited "Robert Q. Lewis and His Gang" to take over his ''American Scene Magazine'' time slot while he was away. These emergency replacements became part of Lewis's comic monologue; he'd tell of how he phoned his mother to watch him on CBS, only to hear her say, "Oh? Who's sick?"
Robert Q. became a fixture on television quiz shows in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1952, he settled into his most enduring game show role as host of ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's ''The Name's the Same
''The Name's the Same'' is an American game show produced by Mark Goodson, Goodson-Bill Todman, Todman for the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network from December 5, 1951 to August 31, 1954, followed by a run from October 25, 19 ...
''. In 1954, Lewis gave up the show to devote more time to his variety program; several times during his tenure, contestants appeared on the show bearing the name Robert Q. Lewis. In 1958, he hosted the short-lived original version of ''Make Me Laugh
''Make Me Laugh'' was an American television game show in which contestants watch three stand-up comedians performing their acts, one at a time, earning one dollar for every second that they could make it through without laughing. Each comedian ha ...
''. In 1962, he substituted for and ultimately replaced Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own ta ...
as host of ''Play Your Hunch
''Play Your Hunch'' was an American game show first hosted by Merv Griffin from 1958 to 1962, and then hosted by Robert Q. Lewis until 1963. The announcers for the show were, respectively, Johnny Olson, Wayne Howell and Roger Tuttle. In 2001, ' ...
''. In 1964, he hosted the short-lived game show '' Get the Message'' on ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
.
He was a frequent participant on the panel show ''What's My Line?
''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...
'', making 40 appearances on the show. He first appeared as a panelist in 1951, about a year into the show's run. His most regular run on the show was alternating weeks with comedian Fred Allen
John Florence Sullivan (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist, topically pointed radio program ''The Fred Allen Show'' (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and for ...
following the departure of regular panelist Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...
, beginning in 1954 through early 1955; Fred Allen ultimately took the spot on the panel on a regular basis for approximately a year until his death. Lewis continued to make regular guest appearances on the panel right up to the show's final year in 1967. He also made one appearance as the show's "Mystery Guest" in 1955. He was also a guest panelist/player on a number of Goodson-Todman shows, including '' To Tell The Truth'', '' Get The Message'' and both the original and 1970s versions of ''Match Game
''Match Game'' is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelist ...
''.
Records
Lewis was always an enthusiast of vintage music. He frequently revived old Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...
tunes on his radio and TV shows, and in his very popular nightclub act. From the 1940s he sang for Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
, MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...
, and Coral Records
Coral Records was a subsidiary of Decca Records that was formed in 1949. Coral released music by Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, the McGuire Sisters and Teresa Brewer.
Coral issued jazz and swing music in the 1940s, but after Bob Thiele became head o ...
. He scored his biggest hit in 1951 with the dialect novelty song, "Where's-a Your House?", an answer record An answer song, response song or answer record, is a song (usually a recorded track) made in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist. The concept became widespread in blues and R&B recorded music in the 1930s to the 1950s. Answer son ...
to the Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as " Botch-a-Me", " Mambo Italiano", ...
hit "Come On-a My House
"Come On-a My House" is a song performed by Rosemary Clooney and originally released in 1951. It was written by Ross Bagdasarian and his cousin, Armenian-American Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan, while driving across New Mexico i ...
". In 1967, he recorded ''I'm Just Wild About Vaudeville'' for Atco Atco or ATCO may refer to:
Businesses
* ATCO, a Canadian diversified company involved in manufacturing, utilities, energy and technologies
** ATCO Electric, a subsidiary of the above company
* Atco (British mower company), a mower manufacturing com ...
—this collection of circa-1930 songs has Lewis cleverly imitating different singing styles of the day.
Movies, TV, and theater
Lewis's fondness for show-business nostalgia was well known within the industry, and in 1949 he was hired to narrate the "lighter side" segment of the feature-length ''March of Time
''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945. The "voice" of both series was Westbrook Van Voorhis. Pr ...
'' documentary film ''The Golden Twenties''. He was too busy to pursue a movie career at the time because of his hectic radio, television, and nightclub schedule.
Later in his career, Lewis acted in a few movies, notably ''An Affair to Remember
''An Affair to Remember'' is a 1957 American romance film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Filmed in CinemaScope, it was distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is considered among the most romantic films of all ...
'' (1957), ''Good Neighbor Sam
''Good Neighbor Sam'' is a 1964 American Eastman Color screwball comedy film co-written and directed by David Swift, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Jack Finney. The film stars Jack Lemmon, Romy Schneider, Dorothy Provine, Michael C ...
'' (1964), ''Ski Party
''Ski Party'' is a 1965 American musical-comedy film directed by Alan Rafkin and starring Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman. It was released by American International Pictures (AIP). ''Ski Party'' is considered as a beach party film spin-off, wi ...
'' (1965), '' Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)'' (1972), ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' may refer to:
* ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' (book), a 1952 book written by Shepherd Mead and the inspiration for the musical of the same name.
* ''How to Succeed in Bu ...
'' (1967), and the TV movie ''The Law'' (1974), in which he played a dinner speaker at a lawyers' convention. He also appeared on a number of television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
, including '' Room for One More''; ''The Hathaways
''The Hathaways'' is a 26-episode situation comedy, which aired on ABC from October 6, 1961, to March 30, 1962, starring Peggy Cass and Jack Weston as suburban Los Angeles "parents" to a trio of performing chimpanzees. Weston portrayed Walter Hath ...
''; '' Branded''; ''The Patty Duke Show
''The Patty Duke Show'' is an American television sitcom created by Sidney Sheldon and William Asher. The series ran on ABC from September 18, 1963, to April 27, 1966.
The series was developed as a vehicle for teenage star Patty Duke, who had w ...
''; ''Ichabod and Me
''Ichabod and Me'' is an American situation comedy television series starring Robert Sterling and George Chandler that aired in the United States during the 1961–1962 television season. It depicts the life of a New York City newspaper reporte ...
''; ''Bewitched
''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typic ...
''; ''Love, American Style
''Love, American Style'' is an anthology comedy television series that aired on ABC from 1969 to 1974. The series was produced by Paramount Television. During the 1971–72 and 1972–73 seasons, it was a part of ABC's Friday primetime lineup ...
''; and ''Emergency!
''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing the two short-lived situatio ...
'', among others.
During the 1960s, Lewis became a familiar face on the live-theater circuit, starring in road-company versions of Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
hits, including '' Bells Are Ringing'', ''Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
'', and ''The Odd Couple Odd Couple may refer to:
Neil Simon play and its adaptations
* ''The Odd Couple'' (play), a 1965 stage play by Neil Simon
** ''The Odd Couple'' (film), a 1968 film based on the play
*** ''The Odd Couple'' (1970 TV series), a 1970–1975 televisi ...
''. He continued to make sporadic acting appearances until a few years before his death.
Personal life
Lewis was a long-time smoker, and was frequently seen smoking cigarettes
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the oppo ...
on the air in the early days of television. At that time smoking was not uncommon on panel shows and was even encouraged, especially because a number of those programs were sponsored by cigarette brands. He died in 1991 at age 70 of emphysema
Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
A collection of Robert Q. Lewis's personal papers, notes, and scripts, covering roughly the years 1940 until 1960, is located at Thousand Oaks Library in Thousand Oaks, California
Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown. It is named af ...
.
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
Kinescope of "The Robert Q. Lewis Show" at the Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Robert Q.
1921 births
1991 deaths
United States Army personnel of World War II
American male film actors
American male television actors
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Deaths from emphysema
American game show hosts
Jewish American male actors
Radio personalities from New York City
20th-century American male actors
University of Michigan alumni
United States Army soldiers
20th-century American Jews