Robert Earle (January 5, 1926 – June 5, 2019) was a host of '' G.E. College Bowl,'' an American

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...

that was broadcast first by

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 Entertainm ...

, later by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. Earle was the second host of the show, succeeding

Allen Ludden Allen Ellsworth Ludden (born Allen Packard Ellsworth; October 5, 1917 – June 9, 1981) was an American television personality, actor, singer, emcee, and game show host. He hosted various incarnations of the game show ''Password'' between 1 ...

, who left the show in 1962 to host ''

Password A password, sometimes called a passcode (for example in Apple devices), is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of ...

.'' Earle hosted ''College Bowl'' during the first NBC run, from 1962 to 1970.

Biography

Earle married his wife, Marion Hanna Earle, in 1948 and remained married up until his death in 2019. Marion died one year later of congestive

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

in 2020, at age 96. Veteran broadcaster (and

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and go ...

media professor) Robert Earle had the same coloring and well-spoken manner as Allen Ludden. Columnist Bob Stahl wrote in ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' (Jan. 25, 1964), "When Earle first took over the show... a number of viewers noted his physical resemblance to Ludden. Both are fairly short, have sandy hair, wear horn-rimmed glasses, and sound almost alike." According to Ludden's wife

Betty White Betty Marion White (January 17, 1922December 31, 2021) was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television, with a television career spanning almost seven decades, White was noted for her vast work in the entertainment indust ...

(from her memoir ''Here We Go Again''), the ''College Bowl'' producers deliberately emphasized the resemblance: "They took obertto Allen's optometrist and ordered the same tortoiseshell frames that Allen wore at the time." The pleasant, unflappable Earle projected a calmer, more academic demeanor than Ludden had, which served the tone of the series well until 1970, when the series lapsed. (The sponsor thought it unwise to continue the series while student unrest was in the news.) After ''College Bowl'', Robert Earle became a familiar face and voice in television commercials. On the weekly

Gadabout Gaddis __NOTOC__ Roscoe Vernon Gaddis (January 28, 1896 – October 21, 1986), known professionally as Gadabout Gaddis, was a 20th-century American fisherman and television pioneer. Gaddis was born in Mattoon, Illinois and was nicknamed Gadabout by a ...

program ''The Flying Fisherman,'' Earle represented the sponsor,

Liberty Mutual Liberty Mutual Group is an American diversified global insurer and the sixth-largest property and casualty insurer in the United States. It ranks 71st on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the United States based on 2020 revenue. B ...

Insurance. Earle hosted a game show pilot for ABC in 1975 called ''King of the Hill''. The pilot did not sell, but the premise of its endgame was adopted in 1978 as ''

Card Sharks ''Card Sharks'' is an American television game show. It was created by Chester Feldman for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. The game features two contestants who attempt to predict the outcome of survey questions to gain control of a row o ...

''. In the early 1950s, Earle was also an announcer and news anchor for

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

television station

WKTV WKTV (channel 2) is a television station in Utica, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC, CBS, and The CW Plus. Owned by Heartland Media, the station has studios on Smith Hill Road in Deerfield (with a Utica postal address), and its ...

. After he left the station, he was replaced at the anchor desk by

Dick Clark Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 198 ...

, another up-and-coming television personality.''Rock, Roll and Remember'', by Dick Clark and Richard Robinson (New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1976) Earle lived in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

where he was a media lecturer at

. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. He died on June 5, 2019, at age 93. Earle was later

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

References

1926 births 2019 deaths American game show hosts United States Navy personnel of World War II Ithaca College faculty Military personnel from New York (state) People from Baldwin, Nassau County, New York People from Ithaca, New York Utica University alumni {{US-tv-bio-stub