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{{short description|American actor and broadcaster (1921–1991)}}{{Use American English|date=May 2023}}{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}

factoids

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.1991114mf=y}}| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.| yearsactive = 1947–1986| alma_mater = University of Michigan

• Broadcaster
• actor
• television personality{edih}

}}Robert Q. Lewis (born Robert Goldberg; April 25, 1921 – December 11, 1991)WEB, 2020, Robert Q.Lewis- Social Security Death Index,www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JB5N-QP2, September 9, 2020, Family Search, was an American radio and television entertainer, comedian,NEWS, New York Times, December 13, 1991, B15, Robert Q Lewis,71, Comedian and TV Host and panelist dies, game show host and actor. Lewis added the middle initial “Q” to his name accidentally on the air in 1942. He was thinking of radio comedian F. Chase Taylor’s character Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, and “when I signed off, I declared ‘This is Robert Q. Lewis.’ I don’t know why but that got lots of good reaction.“Robert Q. Lewis in TV Guide, Jan. 22, 1954, p. 19. He decided to retain the initial, telling interviewers 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,BOOK, Les Brown’s Encyclopedia of Television, Les Brown, Gale Research, US, 1992, The Robert Q Lewis Show, 0-8103-8871-5, 422,archive.org/details/lesbrownsencyclo00brow/page/422, and regularly appearing on other Goodson-Todman panel shows. He also hosted and appeared on a multitude of TV shows from the ‘40s through the ‘70s.His most distinguishing feature was his horn-rimmed glasses,NEWS,query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFD71E3CF930A25751C1A967958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink, Robert Q. Lewis, 71, Comedian And TV Host and Panelist, Dies, The New York Times, December 13, 1991, October 4, 2008, Collins, Glenn, to the point that the title card for his second Robert Q. Lewis ShowBOOK, Encyclopedia of Television: Series, Pilots and Specials, the Index: Who’s Who in Television 1937-1984, Vincent Terrace, Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG, Germany, 0-918432-71-5, 103, 121, 154, 227, 244, 271, 291, 489, The Name’s the Same, 2004, used a drawing of such glasses as a logo. They were also 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.WEB, November 2, 2013, What’s My Line? - Dick Powell (Nov 7, 1954) - 17:14,www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmXPGtot3qU,ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/mmXPGtot3qU, December 12, 2021, live, July 3, 2020, YouTube, {{cbignore}}

Biography

Early life

Lewis was born Robert Goldberg in Manhattan to Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russia. At age 10, he set up a microphone and record player at home and became the family’s disc jockey.WEB,www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798027,00.html,www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798027,00.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20110203083336www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798027,00.html,">web.archive.org/web/20110203083336www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798027,00.html, dead, February 3, 2011, Up From Jabberjockey, June 23, 1947, Time, January 14, 2011,

Radio

In 1931, a 10-year-old Lewis made his debut on the local radio show “Dr. Posner’s Kiddie Hour.” He enrolled in the University of Michigan in 1938, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Delta (later merged into Zeta Beta Tau).WEB, University of Miami, Ibis Yearbook, Class of 1955,www.e-yearbook.com/yearbooks/University_Miami_Ibis_Yearbook/1955/Page_194.html, E-yearbook.com, November 17, 2014, In 1942, he left to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War II and became a radio operator in the Signal Corps. After the war, he became an announcer and disc jockey.(File:Robert Q Lewis 1949.JPG|thumb|Publicity photo from Lewis’s 1949 radio show.)Among those who served as writers on Lewis’s radio programs were playwright Neil Simon, author and dramatist Paddy Chayefsky, and radio comedy writer Goodman Ace.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=EwtRbXNca0oC&dq=%22The+Robert+Q+Lewis+Show,+comedy%22+%22Goodman+Ace%22+%22I+give+them+a+good+tight+15+minute+comedy+show+and+what+do+they+do%22&pg=PA580, Dunning, John, John Dunning (detective fiction author), On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1998, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 978-0-19-507678-3, 580–581, Revised, 2019-11-07, Simon, Chayefsky, and Ace headed a CBS team of comedy writers that acted largely as “script doctors” for existing shows in need of fixing. Ace was frustrated over a CBS revamp of the show he assembled for Lewis, The Little Show: “I give them a good, tight, 15-minute comedy show,” Ace told Time, “and what do they do? Expand it to half an hour and throw in an orchestra and an audience. Who the hell said a comedy show had to be half an hour, Marconi? Ida Cantor?“WEB,www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804192,00.html,www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804192,00.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20080504171700www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804192,00.html,">web.archive.org/web/20080504171700www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804192,00.html, dead, May 4, 2008, Aces Up, September 8, 1947, Time, January 14, 2011, In 1949, Lewis had a 30-minute sustaining program broadcast on CBS Monday - Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET featuring the Howard Smith Orchestra. The Ames Brothers and Eugenie Baird were regular performers. In addition to Lewis’s comedy, the show included audience participation, as several people in the studio answered a question posed by Lewis. A review in the trade publication Variety called Lewis “a bright spot on the afternoon spectrum.“MAGAZINE, January 12, 1949, 22, Robert Q. Lewis, Variety,archive.org/details/variety173-1949-01/page/n299/mode/1up?view=theater, January 1, 2023, Future talk-show host and producer Merv Griffin often sang on Lewis’s network radio show; Griffin later married Lewis’s secretary, Julann Wright.TV-Radio Mirror, May 1956, p. 93.Besides Robert Q.’s many guest appearances on variety programs and game shows in the early years of TV, his favorite medium as host continued with radio, first for CBS and later as a disc jockey in Los Angeles.BOOK, Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show, Rachel Shteir, Oxford University Press, 0-19-512750-1, The Stripper B-side, 311, 2004, One of his radio series, Robert Q.’s Waxworks, was devoted to playing old records, setting a pattern that later radio personalities such as Dr. Demento would follow. Lewis’s interview-based program was heard locally on KFI, Los Angeles, in 1972.WEB, The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California on July 2, 1972 · 347,www.newspapers.com/newspage/386214087/, May 6, 2021, Newspapers.com, July 2, 1972, en,

Television

Lewis was an early arrival on network TV, presiding over more than one series at a time. The Robert Q. Lewis Show had a six-month run on CBS’s Sunday night lineup from July 16, 1950 to January 7, 1951. He hosted CBS’s talent-search variety show, The Show Goes On from January 19, 1950, to February 16, 1952.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=BbOsChMSlpoC&pg=PA1232, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-present, Tim, Brooks, Earle, Marsh, July 6, 2007, Ballantine Books, 9780345497734, July 6, 2023, Google Books, He also had two CBS daytime variety shows. The first, Robert Q’s Matinee, was a 45-minute daily show which ran from October 16, 1950 to January 19, 1951. The second, more successful The Robert Q. Lewis Show ran on CBS 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, who was considered his tutor. Lewis often credited Godfrey with giving him his first big breaks in show business. 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 how he called his mother asking her to watch him on CBS, only to hear her say, “Oh? Who’s sick?“{{Citation needed|date=October 2008}}Robert Q. became a fixture on TV quiz shows in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In 1952, he settled into his most enduring game show role as host of ABC’s The Name’s the Same. The show featured a celebrity panel trying to guess the identities of contestants who had famous names: Napoleon Bonaparte, Marilyn Monroe, Virginia Beach, etc. On a few occasions, contestants appeared on the show bearing the name Robert Q. Lewis. In 1954, Lewis gave up the show to devote more time to his variety program; In 1958, he hosted the short-lived original version of Make Me Laugh. In 1962, he substituted for and ultimately replaced Merv Griffin as host of Play Your Hunch. BOOK, Merv: Making the Good Life Last, Merv Griffin, David Bender, Contributor David Bender, Simon and Schuster, 2003, 0-7432-3682-3, Always Bet on Yourself, 44,archive.org/details/mervmakinggoodli00grif/page/44, In 1964, he hosted the short-lived game show Get the Message on ABC.He was a frequent participant on What’s My Line?, making 40 appearances in all. He first appeared as a panelist in 1951, about a year into the show’s run. His most regular run 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 a regular basis for approximately a year until his death. Lewis made regular guest appearances up to the show’s final year in 1967. He also made one appearance as the show’s “Mystery Guest” in 1955. He was a guest panelist/player on a number of Goodson-Todman shows, including To Tell The Truth, Get The Message and both the original and 1970s versions of Match Game.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Records

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, he 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.Billboard, May 6, 1967, p. 38.

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. He was too busy to pursue a movie career at the time because of his hectic radio, television, and nightclub schedule. He did confess to one screen ambition -- starring in remakes of old Harold Lloyd comedies like The Milky Way and The Freshman -- but he was unable to obtain remake rights, which were still controlled by Lloyd.TV Guide, Jan. 22, 1954, p. 19.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 Always 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 appeared on a number of television series, including Room for One More; The Hathaways; Branded; The Patty Duke Show; Ichabod and Me; Bewitched; Love, American Style; and Emergency!, among others.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, Cabaret, and The Odd Couple. He continued to make sporadic acting appearances until a few years before his death.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Personal life

A collection of Robert Q. Lewis’s personal papers, notes, and scripts, covering roughly the years 1940 - 1960, is located at Thousand Oaks Library in Thousand Oaks, California.WEB,www.tolibrary.org/research/special-collections-home/american-radio-archives/list-of-collections/robert-q-lewis, Robert Q. Lewis Collection {{!, Thousand Oaks, CA|website=Tolibrary.org}}

Filmography{| class“wikitable” style@font-size: 90%;”

! colspan=“4” style="background: LightSteelBlue;” | Film! Year! Title! Role! NotesAn Affair to Remember >|Good Neighbor Sam >|Ski Party >|Ride Beyond Vengeance >|How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (film)>How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Tackaberry Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask >|C.H.O.M.P.S. >|I’m Going to Be Famous >|My Chauffeur >| (final film role)

References

External links

• {{IMDb name|0507691}}
• Robert Q. Lewis papers at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library
• {{find a Grave|6239149}}
• Kinescope of “The Robert Q. Lewis Show” at the Internet Archive

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