Happy Birthday, Robert Q

Yeah, I'm way behind. Twenty days to be exact. While being busy getting pounded like a nail at work, I forgot a birthday: Robert Q. Lewis. A tip of the martini glass for one of my favorite funnymen of the fifties.

Levitation powers?

The Business of Movies

When I'm not playing blogger, I have a full time job in an office. Sounds exciting, doesn't it. Participating in office politics, managing projects, and turning gray has given me a warped interest in "office" films. Some that come to mind:

Female (1933)
Aside from eating her mates alive, it's awesome to see a female CEO (Ruth Chatterton) in the early 30s. Love the assertiveness.

Mildred Pierce (1945)
Another strong-willed businesswoman, Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) builds up quite the restaurant business only to have murder get in the way. Ok, the murder & business part don't go together (well...), but she has strong management skills.

Executive Suite (1954)
The company president collapses dead and the fun begins. Just adding a dime a year to the dividend...

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)
Yes, someone who is no one can become someone in a big company. In this case it's WWW - World Wide Wickets. I just like saying that. In real life, people sing in the office just as often as in this film - but no dancing. Unlike WWW's office, my office is lacking the presence of Robert Q. Lewis.

Office Space (1999)
The king of office movies (where is your TPS report?) If you live your work day in cubicle-land, you can probably recite the lines to this movie. Do you have your red Swingline? Careful with the audio if you have young ears around (or a boss):



Holiday (1938)
Johnny (Cary Grant) wants to "retire" now rather than wait til he gets old. Amen.

The Great Replacement

I've given up on the Halloween theme this week: it's all been done before. But before it's completely out of my hands lying on the floor in a heap, here's a stretch of a theme post - a few different "costumes."

Guess the actor. If you read this blog with any regularity, you'll figure it out.

Update: A tip of the hat to the anonymous tipster who guessed the name: Robert Q. Lewis. These pics are from his CBS radio days, specifically February of 1948 . . . a few years before his television debut. Unfortunately, I don't know is whether these shots match any specific characters from his radio show or not. Finding copies of any of Robert Q's radio shows is harder to find than hen's teeth.

Photo Friday: RQL Radio

Props to funny radio people, one of which is a new favorite: Robert Q. Lewis. Before his television shows, radio shows, game shows, and movie appearances (shew), Robert Q. was a disc jockey. My favorite tidbit: he played David Rose's song The Stripper (you'd know if if you heard it) for 45 minutes nonstop on his music show. Want to request a song on the show? Not that day - you got The Stripper instead.

A larger, crazier Bob

This late thought just in: Now I know why this stunt resonates with me. A local morning radio show did the same with Roxanne (and Johnny Cash, but I enjoyed that) - over and over and over....

The Name's The Same - 1953

Thanks to the kindness of la peregrina, I was able to obtain a copy of the ever elusive episode of The Name's The Same with Robert Montgomery. If I knew what the heck I was doing with video, I'd post this on YouTube, but until then, it's screen caps.

Just to give you a 101 on The Name's The Same, it's similar to What's My Line, another famous TV game show of the 1950s. Name offers a contestant with the same name of a famous person, object, or action. A panel of three asks questions until they guess correctly or time out.

This episode, from February 10, 1953 offers two Bobs - the younger being a Boy Scout:

The panel has to guess the boy's name...

Bob with show host Robert Q. Lewis

Battle of the horn rimmed glasses

They just had to swap glasses. Of all things coming to mind, I'm wonder what color the glasses are. Yeah, probably black.

Name often included a segment with a celebrity - "I'd like to be." In this case, Bob wishes he could be...

Oliver J. Dragon of the kids show Kukla, Fran and Ollie

In the end, panelist Meredith Wilson guessed correctly. The other two panelists - well, they wrote out their checks for $25 to Bob, who donated the funds to young Bob's Boy Scout troop. In the meantime, I keep watching this darned addictive show and have found myself crying in laughter a few times as a result.

Hooked on Old Game Shows

What have I been doing these summer nights? Enjoying the warm weather and watching old TV game shows. Yep, picked up GSN about two weeks ago and have been watching too many of these. I'm also now hooked on Robert Q. Lewis.



And this episode of What's My Line is hilarious:


And...more to come regarding the episode of The Name's The Same with Robert Montgomery.