George Gobel was best known as the star of his own weekly comedy variety television series, The George Gobel Show, on NBC from 1954 to 1959 and on CBS from 1959 to 1960.
28 Facts About George Gobel
2.
George Gobel was a familiar panelist on the NBC game show Hollywood Squares.
3.
George Gobel was born George Leslie Goebel in Chicago on May 20,1919.
4.
George Gobel's mother, Lillian Goebel, was a native of Illinois, as was her mother, while Lillian's father, a tugboat captain, had immigrated from Scotland.
5.
In 1942, George Gobel married his high-school sweetheart, Alice Rose Humecki.
6.
George Gobel debuted his comedy series on NBC on October 2,1954.
7.
The centerpiece of George Gobel's comedy show was his monologue about his supposed past situations and experiences, with stories and sketches allegedly about his real-life wife, Alice, played by actress Jeff Donnell.
8.
George Gobel's show used some of television's top writers of the era: Hal Kanter, Jack Brooks, and Norman Lear.
9.
The TV show sometimes included a segment in which George Gobel appeared with a guitar, started to sing, then got sidetracked into a story, with the song always left unfinished after fitful starts and stops, a comedy approach that prefigured the Smothers Brothers.
10.
George Gobel had a special version of the Gibson L-5 archtop guitar constructed featuring diminished dimensions of neck scale and body depth, befitting his own smaller stature.
11.
Several dozen of this "L-5CT" or "George Gobel" model were produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
12.
From 1958 to 1961, George Gobel appeared in Las Vegas at the El Rancho Vegas and in Reno at the Mapes Hotel.
13.
George Gobel continued to work club dates and performed in many of the Playboy Club properties.
14.
George Gobel was a skilled guitar player, and as such was issued a specially designed electric guitar in his name commissioned by the Gibson Guitar Company in 1959 - the George Gobel Model.
15.
George Gobel accompanied himself with this guitar on a number of his comedy routines.
16.
An episode of My Three Sons starring Fred MacMurray in December, 1960, was titled "Lonesome George", in which Gobel played himself on the episode.
17.
George Gobel appeared on F Troop as amateur inventor Henry Terkel in the 1966 episode "Go for Broke".
18.
George Gobel ribbed Carson about coming on last and having to follow major stars Hope and Martin.
19.
George Gobel had employed the tuxedo joke at least once before, on the June 22,1957, episode of his show.
20.
George Gobel was recruited, and he sat in Arquette's chair during Arquette's convalescence.
21.
George Gobel was the voice of Father Mouse in the 1974 Christmas special 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and sang the song "Give Your Heart a Try" in that production.
22.
George Gobel made a guest appearance on Hee Haw in 1976.
23.
When ratings soared on The George Gobel Show, Paramount Pictures promoted Gobel as its new comedy star, casting him as the lead in The Birds and the Bees, a remake of The Lady Eve featuring David Niven playing a third-billed supporting role under Gobel and leading lady Mitzi Gaynor.
24.
In 1956, Paramount was preparing a biography of veteran comedian Buster Keaton, and Keaton wanted George Gobel to portray him.
25.
George Gobel settled into a succession of TV guest-star appearances and did not return to movie screens until two decades later, as a character actor in Joan Rivers' Rabbit Test, followed by The Day It Came to Earth and Ellie.
26.
George Gobel appeared in nine TV movies during the 1970s and 1980s.
27.
George Gobel died on February 24,1991, about a month after surgery that was intended to improve his mobility after a series of strokes left him unable to walk.
28.
George Gobel's remains are in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California.