Robert Q. Lewis

Robert Q. Lewis (April 25, 1920 – December 11, 1991) was an American radio and television personality, game show host, and actor. Some sources have claimed that Lewis's actual surname was Goldberg;Fact|date=October 2008 however, his "New York Times" obituary cites his real name only as Lewis, with no implication of it being a stage name. Lewis added the middle initial "Q." to his name indidentally on the air in 1942, when he responded to a reference to radio comedian F. Chase Taylor's character, Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, by saying, "and this is Robert "Q." Lewis."Fact|date=October 2008 He subsequently decided to retain the initial, telling interviews 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", and regularly appearing on other Goodson-Todman 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,cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFD71E3CF930A25751C1A967958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink |title=Robert Q. Lewis, 71, Comedian And TV Host and Panelist, Dies |work=New York Times |date=1991-12-13 |accessdate=2008-10-04 |author=Collins, Glenn] 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?", Lewis's blindfold featured a sketched pair of glasses.

Biography

Robert Lewis was born in Manhattan on April 25, 1920.

Radio

Lewis made his radio debut in 1931, at the age of 11, on a local radio show, "Dr. Posner's Kiddie Hour", and quickly became a regular.

He enrolled in the University of Michigan in 1938, where he was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.Fact|date=October 2008 He left college for the U.S. Army in 1942 and became a radio operator in the Signal Corps.

After the war, Lewis returned to commercial radio as announcer and disc jockey.Fact|date=October 2008 Among those who served as writers on Lewis's radio programs were famed playwright Neil Simon, renowned author and dramatist Paddy Chayevsky, and radio comedy legend Goodman Ace.Fact} Future talk-show host and producer Merv Griffin often sang on Lewis's show.Fact|date=October 2008 Television would soon crowd Robert Q.'s calendar, but he continued his radio work, first for the CBS network and later as a disc jockey in Los Angeles.Fact|date=October 2008 One of his radio series, "Robert Q.'s Waxworks", was devoted to old records, setting the pattern that later radio personalities like Dr. Demento would follow.Fact|date=October 2008

Television

Lewis was an early arrival on network television, and often presided over more than one series at a time. "The Robert Q. Lewis Show" had a six-month run on CBS'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" from January 19, 1950 to February 16, 1952. He also had two daytime TV 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 "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, and often performed and recorded with Godfrey's regular company of entertainers. Jackie Gleason 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?"Fact|date=October 2008

Robert Q. became a fixture on TV game and quiz shows in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1952 he settled into his most enduring game show role as host of ABC's "The Name's the Same". 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. He also hosted the short-lived original version of "Make Me Laugh" in 1985. He substituted for, and ultimately replaced, Merv Griffin as host of "Play Your Hunch" in 1962. In 1964, he hosted the short-lived game show "Get the Message" on ABC.

Lewis was also a frequent participant on the panel show "What's My Line?", 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 following the departure of regular panelist Steve Allen, 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", "Hollywood Squares", and both the original version, and the 1970s version of "Match Game".

Records

Robert Q. Lewis was always an enthusiast of vintage music. He frequently revived old Tin Pan Alley tunes on his radio and TV shows, and in his very popular nightclub act. From the 1940s he sang for Columbia Records, MGM Records, and Coral Records. He scored his biggest hit in 1951 with the dialect novelty song, "Where's-a Your House?", an answer record to the Rosemary Clooney hit "Come On-a My House". In 1967, Lewis recorded "I'm Just Wild About Vaudeville" for Atco—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" documentary film "The Golden Twenties". Robert Q. was just too busy to pursue a movie career at the time; his hectic radio, TV, and nightclub schedule didn't permit it.

Later in his career, Lewis acted in a few movies, notably "An Affair to Remember" (1957), "Good Neighbor Sam" (1964), "Ski Party" (1965), "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)" (1972), "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" (1967) and the TV movie "The Law" (1974), in which he played a dinner speaker at a lawyers' convention. He also performed on a number of TV shows, appearing on "Branded" and "Bewitched".

During the 1960s, Lewis became a familiar face on the live-theater circuit, starring in road-company versions of Broadway hits, including "Bells Are Ringing" and "The Odd Couple". He continued to make sporadic acting appearances until a few years before his death from emphysema at the age of 71. He had no immediate survivors.

Personal life

In 1951 Lewis was briefly rumored to be romantically linked with Rosemary Clooney, and at the height of his TV and nightclub career, he was widely photographed in the company of vivacious young women. Arthur Godfrey once alluded to his supposed homosexual tendencies by commenting "I wonder what the Q stands for."Fact|date=October 2008

Lewis was a long-time smoker, and was frequently seen smoking cigarettes on the air in the early days of television, such as while hosting "The Name's the Same". In that era, smoking was not uncommon on panel shows. Lewis died December 11, 1991 of emphysema, leaving no immediate survivors.

A collection of Robert Q. Lewis's personal papers, notes, and scripts, covering roughly the years 1940 until 1960, now resides at Thousand Oaks Library in Thousand Oaks, California. He is interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507691/ Robert Q. Lewis at the IMDB]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6239149 Robert Q. Lewis' Gravesite]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/The_Robert_Q_Lewis_Show Kinescope of "The Robert Q. Lewis Show" at the Internet Archive]