Robert S. Cottle (August 7, 1920April 25, 1999) was an American television host.

Early life

Robert Cottle was the son of Earle W. and Gladys E. (Pierce) Cottle. He grew up and attended local schools in Brockton, Massachusetts. During World War II, Cottle was a

B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

flight instructor for the USAF at Lackland AFB.

Television career

In the 1950s, Cottle began a career in television as a host for children's TV shows, often appearing as "Captain Bob." One of his first shows, ''The Nature World of Captain Bob'' began in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, it was a thirty-minute Saturday morning art instruction program offering sketching techniques for wildlife subjects and set in a sea shanty. Later, in 1953, the show moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where it ran for another 14 years. In addition to hosting his own TV shows in the Boston area, Cottle took over as host for the NBC TV show '' The Ruff & Reddy Show'' in September 1962. The show ran for two more years, at times beating CBS-TV's '' Captain Kangaroo'' in the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

. Cottle appeared for the last time on national TV in the 1963 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which aired on NBC and CBS.
From 1976 to 1982, The Nature World of Captain Bob aired Saturday mornings on WCVB (Channel 5) and was re-run for several years afterward well into the early 1990s.

Later life

In the late 1960s, Cottle and a friend, Robert Bourque, created the Prophetron Zoltan Fortune Teller machine, to which Cottle lent his voice. He continued to host local TV shows in Boston and in

, including the show ''The Magic Window'', on WBZ-TV.

Personal life

Cottle had a son, Robert S. Cottle, Jr. with his first wife, the former Bette Volpe, a native of

Medford, Massachusetts Medford is a city northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus alo ...

. In 1987, Bette Cottle died, and Cottle remarried to his high school sweetheart, Beth Willis Johnson. They moved to Block Island, Rhode Island, and, in 1997, to

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...

, where Cottle died in 1999 from a stroke, aged 78. Robert and his wife Bette lived in Norwell for many years in the 1960s to 1980s. He also had a pet crow.

References

External links

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Captain Bob Cottle
TVParty.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Cottle, Robert 1920 births 1999 deaths United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II American television personalities Male television personalities People from Brockton, Massachusetts Military personnel from Massachusetts