Robert Q. Lewis

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Robert Q. Lewis
Robert Q. Lewis 1956
Lewis in 1956
Born
Robert Goldberg

(1921-04-25)April 25, 1921
New York City, U.S.
DiedDecember 11, 1991(1991-12-11) (aged 70)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
Occupations
  • Broadcaster
  • actor
  • television personality
Years active1947–1986

Robert Q. Lewis (born Robert Goldberg; April 25, 1921 – December 11, 1991)[1][2] was an American radio and television entertainer, comedian,[3] game show host and actor. Lewis added the middle initial "Q" to his name accidentally on the air in 1942. 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."[citation needed] He decided to retain the initial, telling interviewers it stood for "Quizzical."[2]

Lewis is perhaps best known for his game show participation, having been the first host of The Name's the Same,[4] 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.[2]

His most distinguishing feature was his horn-rimmed glasses,[2] to the point that the title card for his second Robert Q. Lewis Show[4][5] used a drawing of such glasses as a logo. They were also mentioned in the title of his lecture.[2] As a frequent guest panelist on What's My Line?, Lewis's blindfold featured a sketched pair of glasses.[6]

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

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.[7]

Radio[edit]

In 1931, a 10-year-old Lewis made his debut on the local radio show "Dr. Posner's Kiddie Hour."[2] He enrolled in the University of Michigan in 1938, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Delta (later merged into Zeta Beta Tau).[8] 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.

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.[9] 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?" [10] [9]

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."[11] Future talk-show host and producer Merv Griffin often sang on Lewis's network radio show.[4]

Besides his many guest appearances on variety programs and game shows in the early years of TV, Lewis's favorite medium as host continued with radio, first for CBS and later as a disc jockey in Los Angeles.[12] 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.[13]

Television[edit]

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.[14] 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]

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.[5] 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. 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. [15] 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]

Records[edit]

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.[citation needed]

Movies, TV, and theater[edit]

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.

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]

Personal life[edit]

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.[16]

Filmography[edit]

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1957 An Affair to Remember Himself - Announcer
1964 Good Neighbor Sam Earl
1965 Ski Party Mr. Pevney
1966 Ride Beyond Vengeance The Hotel Clerk
1967 How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Tackaberry
1972 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask Himself
1979 C.H.O.M.P.S. Merkle
1983 I'm Going to Be Famous Himself
1986 My Chauffeur Businessman (final film role)

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Robert Q.Lewis- Social Security Death Index". Family Search. 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Collins, Glenn (December 13, 1991). "Robert Q. Lewis, 71, Comedian And TV Host and Panelist, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
  3. ^ "Robert Q Lewis,71, Comedian and TV Host and panelist dies". New York Times. December 13, 1991. p. B15.
  4. ^ a b c Les Brown (1992). "The Robert Q Lewis Show". Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television. US: Gale Research. p. 422. ISBN 0-8103-8871-5.
  5. ^ a b Vincent Terrace (2004). "The Name's the Same". Encyclopedia of Television: Series, Pilots and Specials, the Index: Who's Who in Television 1937-1984. Germany: Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG. pp. 103, 121, 154, 227, 244, 271, 291, 489. ISBN 0-918432-71-5.
  6. ^ "What's My Line? - Dick Powell (Nov 7, 1954) - 17:14". YouTube. November 2, 2013. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  7. ^ "Up From Jabberjockey". Time. June 23, 1947. Archived from the original on February 3, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  8. ^ "University of Miami, Ibis Yearbook, Class of 1955". E-yearbook.com. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  9. ^ a b Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 580–581. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
  10. ^ "Aces Up". Time. September 8, 1947. Archived from the original on May 4, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  11. ^ "Robert Q. Lewis". Variety. January 12, 1949. p. 22. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
  12. ^ Rachel Shteir (2004). "The Stripper B-side". Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show. Oxford University Press. p. 311. ISBN 0-19-512750-1.
  13. ^ "The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California on July 2, 1972 · 347". Newspapers.com. July 2, 1972. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  14. ^ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (July 6, 2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-present. Ballantine Books. ISBN 9780345497734. Retrieved July 6, 2023 – via Google Books.
  15. ^ Merv Griffin (2003). "Always Bet on Yourself". Merv: Making the Good Life Last. David Bender, Contributor David Bender. Simon and Schuster. p. 44. ISBN 0-7432-3682-3.
  16. ^ "Robert Q. Lewis Collection | Thousand Oaks, CA". Tolibrary.org.

External links[edit]

Preceded by
First Host
 Host of The Name's the Same
1951–1954 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
First Host
 Host of Make Me Laugh
1958 		Succeeded by
Bobby Van
(1979-1980 version)
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