Bob Shreve
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Robert Gerald Shreve (July 16, 1912 – February 20, 1990) was a first-generation television broadcasting personality based in
Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
.


Biography

Described by Cincinnati television producer Len Goorian as "the closest thing I've ever seen to a living leprechaun," the
Plymouth, Indiana Plymouth is a city in Marshall County, Indiana, United States. The population is 10,214 in the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Marshall County. Plymouth was the site of the first retail outlet of defunct U.S. retailer Montgomery Ward in 192 ...
-born Shreve broke into radio following a stint in the U.S. Navy as a singer on ''Hoosier Hop'' and ''Calling All Poets'' for
WOWO WOWO (1190 AM) – branded News/Talk WOWO 1190 AM 107.5 FM – is a commercial talk radio station licensed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, serving primarily the Fort Wayne metropolitan area. Currently owned by Federated Media via licensee Pathfinder ...
in Fort Wayne. He subsequently appeared on "
National Barn Dance ''National 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''. ''National Barn Dance'' also set the stage for other ...
" for WLS in Chicago, and ''Club Matinee'' for
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in New York, before accepting an offer from
WLW WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One. WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...
in Cincinnati. As a staff tenor for WLW, he sang the favorite hits of the day, sometimes duetting with other local talent such as Betty Clooney, the sister of
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", ...
and aunt of later Hollywood star
George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by George Clooney, numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Awards, British Academy Film A ...
. In 1950, WLW added television to its service and Shreve was in the vanguard of talent to make the leap from radio to TV. In August 1950, he appeared in comedy skits on
WLWT WLWT (channel 5) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Young Street, and its transmitter is located on Chickasaw Street, both in the ...
's ''Cincinnati at Sunset'', the first local program to receive national broadcast via NBC. Thereafter, he proved himself able to provide whatever the hungry airwaves needed: an on-air announcer, a mellow singing voice, a movie host, an able vaudevillian, a soft-shoe dancer, or a cornpone comedian. It was in the latter category that he made his first significant local success in ''The General Store'', a half-hour comedy show in the style of ''Lum and Abner'' that aired on WLWT Mondays through Fridays at 3:30 p.m. Set in the mythic rural burg of Broken Tooth, Measley County, USA (Population: 43), ''The General Store'' top-lined Bill Thall as store proprietor Willie, but Shreve stole every episode as his brain-dead employee Elmer Diffledorfer, who wore a sideways deerstalker cap and a necktie that stood up on its own accord. That was the same outfit that he wore portraying the "Country Cousin Alvin" on the "Old American Barn Dance" on the DuMont Television program of the 1953 summer replacement season. Remarkably, except for a basic scripted premise, each of the daily episodes was wholly improvised and the setting of the program allowed for easy accommodation of the sponsors' products. The show was a quirky comic phenomenon of its time, and Thall and Shreve made numerous personal appearances as Willie and Elmer in Cincinnati and other cities in the region, sometimes reprising the characters on WLWT's nationally broadcast country music show, ''
Midwestern Hayride ''Midwestern Hayride'', sometimes known as ''Midwest Hayride'' and later ''Hayride'', was an American country music show originating in the 1930s from radio station WLW and later from television station WLW-T in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the 1950s ...
.'' During his tenure at WLWT, Shreve was also a frequent performer on the popular Ruth Lyons daytime show ''The 50/50 Club''. In 1954, after ''The General Store,'' Shreve was lured over to fledgling television station
WCPO-TV WCPO-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based E. W. Scripps Company, which has owned the station since its inception. WCPO-TV's ...
, where he co-hosted an afternoon show with Wanda Lewis and Colin Male and played Lucky the Clown and Roger the Robot on the station's long-running morning children's program '' The Uncle Al Show''. He also played "Butchie" and then "Weasel" on Bud Chase's afternoon show ''The Bean's Clubhouse.'' Circa 1959-60, he hosted ''
The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...
'' shorts, wearing a trademark bowler hat, plaid coat, and Elmer's old saluting necktie, and
Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in popular culture, pop culture ...
,
Doodles Weaver Winstead Sheffield Glenndenning Dixon "Doodles" Weaver (May 11, 1911 – January 17, 1983) was an American character actor, comedian, and musician. Born into a wealthy West Coast family, Weaver began his career in radio. In the late 1930s, he p ...
, and
The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...
themselves. In 1963, Shreve's combined experience in vaudeville, comic improvisation, and salesmanship crystallized when he became one of the pioneers of all-night broadcasting. It was then that Shreve made his first appearance as the bartender host of WCPO's ''The Schoenling All Night Theater'', sponsored by a local brewery, which ran from 1:30 am to 6:00 am on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings. Taking a page from
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 ...
's popular skits with
Frank Fontaine Frank Fontaine (April 19, 1920 – August 4, 1978) was an American stage, radio, film and television comedian, singer and actor. Early years and personal life Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fontaine came from a family of entertai ...
on ''
The Jackie Gleason Show ''The Jackie Gleason Show'' is the name of a series of American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970, in various forms. ''Cavalcade of Stars'' Gleason's first variety series, which aired on the DuMon ...
'', Shreve would greet the viewer as a visitor to his bar and prepare to pour the first of the evening's mugs of Schoenling beer by singing the show's theme song set to the tune of "Sailing, Sailing": "Schoenling, Schoenling / That is the beer for me / It has the taste of malt and hops / Of finest quality / Schoenling, Schoenling / My choice for purity / I've tried the rest, Schoenling's best / It's Schoenling beer for me!" As the show went on, the comedy increased with Shreve lip-synching songs like Irving Taylor's ''When the Crabgrass Blooms Again'' and Leona Anderson's ''Limburger Lover'' and sometimes making surprise "cameo appearances" in the movies being shown. The show's cast of characters included Chickie, a rubber chicken that Shreve sometimes stretched past the breaking point; Garoro, an ugly severed head; Spidel, a large stuffed spider that would swing into frame to knock hats off Bob's head, and many others. During his commercial breaks, Shreve would also read on the air the names of viewers who phoned in, and it became the fashion for callers to invent preposterous names for themselves, just to get an amusing reaction from Shreve. Typically, the show mellowed to a more reflective mood around 4:00 am, with Shreve breaking into standards like "Me and My Shadow" and sometimes stepping out from behind the bar to indulge in a soft-shoe dance. The show became so popular that Shreve was invited to host an identical program (called ''The Schoenling Nite People Theater'') live from the studios of
WHIO-TV WHIO-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It has been owned by Cox Media Group since its inception, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by Cox (alongside company f ...
in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday nights/Saturday mornings, which lasted for several years. In 1968-69, Shreve would follow a full night's work on the Saturday overnight show by sticking around to host WCPO's ''Cartoons A Go Go'' on Sunday mornings. Also during this period, when the popularity of the all-night show seemed at its height, he recorded an album, ''Good Olé icBob Doing His Thing'' for Cincinnati's King Records with the Dee Felice Trio backing him. The album eschewed his popular comedy routines to present a mellow, sentimental showcase for Shreve's warm Irish tenor voice and his affection for pop standards like "That Old Gang of Mine" and "Walkin' My Baby Back Home." With a cover sporting the King Records legend of "A
James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
Production," the album is now one of the most coveted Shreve (and Brown) collectibles; only two or three thousand copies were pressed. When ''The Schoenling All Night Theater'' was unceremoniously canceled by WCPO in 1970, it was quickly picked up by WLWT, Shreve's old stomping grounds, as ''The Schoenling Nite People Theater.'' (The Dayton show of the same title was by this time discontinued.) Unfortunately, it did not last there more than a year or two. In 1975, the show moved to
WKRC-TV WKRC-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to MyNetworkTV affiliate WSTR-TV (channel 64) under a loca ...
, then Cincinnati's ABC affiliate, with the new ''
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
''-influenced title ''The Past Prime Playhouse" (''SNL'' was a new program at the time). Schoenling beer was no longer the show's sponsor, having been replaced by new advertisers such as LaRosa's Pizza, Hemsath Sound Centers, and Mayor's Jewelers. WKRC would give the show (nicknamed "The PPP") its longest run; it stayed on the late night airwaves for a full ten years, even though Shreve's shenanigans had been toned down since the WCPO days. Among the celebrity visitors to the PPP set over the course of that decade were Adam West,
Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...
, comedian
Pete Barbutti Pete Barbutti (born May 4, 1934) is an American comedian and musician. He made about 15 appearances on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,'' from 1971 through 1992. In the early 1980s Barbutti also hosted a short-lived variety show called ...
, and the buxom stripper
Morganna Morganna Roberts (born July 4, 1947) is an entertainer who became known as Morganna or Morganna, the Kissing Bandit in baseball and other sports from 1969 through 1999. She was also billed as "Morganna the Wild One" when appearing as a dancer in ...
(known at the time as "baseball's kissing bandit"). During the latter years of the PPP, WKRC introduced ''Garoro's Theater of Horrors'', a spin-off show of sorts for Shreve's "gamey" severed-head sidekick, the channel's weekly horror feature, introduced at the outset by the heretofore voiceless Garoro, who had somehow gained the power of
Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
-like speech. It was widely rumored at the time that WKRC was losing sponsors for the show owing to Shreve's tendency to poke fun at and upstage his advertisers, but the truth behind the show's cancellation had more to do with the arrival of cable television, home video, and
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s. With more and more homes equipped to play movies on videocassette or having access to basic (networks such as TBS and
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) and even pay cable (
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and
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), the "all-night movies" aspect of shows like ''The Past Prime Playhouse'' began to lose appeal to viewers. Rather than spend money to produce live all-night programming, local stations like WKRC saw more profit in low-rated timeslots, not just overnights, being occupied by advertisers instead. As the PPP disappeared, so did most station-originated all-night programming across the United States. A shy man in private life, Shreve did not take comfortably to retirement. Able to keep himself only intermittently busy with voice work and the occasional
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interview, his health began to wane. In February 1990, he died at the age of 78 at Jewish Hospital, where he was being treated for
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
, after suffering a debilitating bout with the
flu Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...
. In 1992, Bob Shreve was posthumously inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Broadcast Hall of Fame. The honor was accepted by his widow, Jane (the former Mary Jane Keller, whom he married in August 1948), and his son Robert Shreve, Jr.


External links


WKRCTV Vault featuring Bob Shreve's Past Prime Playhouse video clips
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shreve, Bob American television personalities Television personalities from Cincinnati People from Plymouth, Indiana 1912 births 1990 deaths