60 Facts About Hal Block

Harold Leonard Block was an American comedy writer, comedian, producer, songwriter and television personality.

Hal Block made major contributions to the USO during World War II.

Hal Block was born to a Jewish family on August 3,1913, in Chicago and raised in the Hyde Park area.

Hal Block attended the University of Chicago High School, graduating in 1930, and then the University of Chicago where he majored in law, graduating in 1935.

Hal Block had paid his way through college selling material to comedian and radio emcee Phil Baker at $20 a joke.

Hal Block originally met Baker when he and his then writing partner, Phil Cole, introduced themselves while Baker was performing in Chicago.

Hal Block was considered one of the best writers of comedic radio scripts of the 1940s.

Phil Baker, for whom Hal Block was the head writer, reportedly spent $1,500 per week on his three writers, equivalent to $24,000 in 2010 dollars.

Hal Block was able to achieve immediate success, being hired by the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.

Hal Block continued to write for Phil Baker, for whom he would write even into the 1940s, including Baker's hit game show, Take It or Leave It.

Hal Block was a columnist and wrote articles for various publications, including Variety, Collier's and the Chicago Daily News.

Late in 1942 and through most of 1943, Hal Block's career was interrupted by his participation with the USO.

In November 1942, Hal Block wrote an all-star revue for the USO to be performed for the growing American Expeditionary Forces in England.

Hal Block soon discovered that writing for soldiers, British and American, required a specialized technique and he studied British humor to understand how it differed from American humor both in language and taste.

Hal Block wrote some American-slanted material for British comedian Tommy Trinder.

Hal Block was then assigned to the staff at the BBC to add American comedic sensibility to the Anglo-American Hour and Yankee Doodle Doo radio programs.

Hal Block made use of his Broadway experience in musical comedy.

On one occasion, Hal Block sang the song over BBC radio and when trying to leave the building after the broadcast found himself in the middle of an actual air raid.

Hal Block wrote the humorous song Baby, That's a Wolf, sung by Rosalind Russell.

Russell wanted to do something beyond the ordinary to entertain the troops and Hal Block wrote the song especially for her.

Hal Block invited us to spend the night two weeks ago.

One of the highlights of the USO tour for Hal Block was meeting General Eisenhower in Algiers during the North African campaign.

However, Hal Block almost missed out on the meeting and required some assertive action on Hal Block's part.

Hal Block was working on the rehearsal of a USO show when at one point realized the rest of Hope's group had disappeared.

Hal Block was enraged when he discovered they had left him behind while they went to meet General Eisenhower.

Hal Block rushed over to the hotel serving as Eisenhower's headquarters, only to see Hope's entire group descending the stairs, each with an autographed picture of the General.

Hal Block was the producer, as well as writer, of Milton Berle's radio show, Let Yourself Go.

In September 1944, Hal Block was the writer for Ed Wynn's program Happy Island, which was Wynn's return to radio after a decade's absence.

Also in 1944, Hal Block wrote the song Buy a Bond Today.

Around 1948, Hal Block wrote the material for an album for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis which was to be used as their audition for entry into television.

Hal Block attained what columnist Hedda Hopper described as a "cushy deal" at a major film studio.

Hal Block was earning a four-figure weekly salary in a day when the average household income was just over $2,000 a year.

Hal Block resided at the posh Hampshire House in the Central Park South area of New York City, a hotel which was home to Hollywood notables such as Frank Sinatra, Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, and William Wyler.

Norman Barasch described Hal Block giving him his first writing job at $75 a week when he ghost-wrote jokes for him while Hal Block was head writer for Milton Berle and Ed Wynn.

Hal Block once quipped that if he tried to produce a radio version of It Happened One Night, a film famous for a scene of an unmarried couple sharing a bedroom, it would end up being called It Didn't Happen One Night.

Hal Block was to argue for a comedy writer's rights.

In 1951, Hal Block was disk jockey for his own twice-a-week radio program Around the Clock on WJZ in New York City, was moderator for the short-lived television game show, Tag the Gag, and hosted the show Four to Go on WGN in Chicago.

Actress Arlene Francis was first brought onto the panel, and then on March 16,1950, on the fourth show, Hal Block replaced former New Jersey governor Harold Hoffman.

Hal Block continued as a regular panelist for the next three years.

Hal Block created what became a tradition of the show's opening.

For example, with a guest who manufactured girdles, Hal Block was advised to ask questions about kitchen items.

Hal Block had made the difficult leap from the obscurity of working as writer to becoming a hugely popular television figure in a very short period of time.

Once, when the guest was a female disk jockey, Hal Block employed this line of questioning:.

Hal Block was in the habit of asking an attractive contestant for her phone number, or in one case, even chasing a female contestant around the desk a la Harpo Marx.

In January 1953, Hal Block was suspended for two weeks because the sponsor objected to one of his comments during the show.

Hal Block listened quietly for several minutes as Fates explained why his contract was not being renewed and was being let go after three more shows.

Fates did not relate in his book why Hal Block had been fired, but Bennett Cerf believed it was because he had chased a lady contestant around the desk while the camera was on the next contestant.

This, Heller added, was why Hal Block never appeared on a game show again.

Hal Block continued working in show business for a few more years.

Hal Block left the show after only two months due to an incident involving a group of paraplegics who had been invited to appear on the program.

In 1954, Hal Block wrote and performed the satirical song "Senator McCarthy Blues".

In 1955, Hal Block was working on Ted Mack's television show.

In 1956, Hal Block wrote the rock and roll song "Hot Rod Henry" for the B-side of Lola Dee's 45 rpm recording of "Born to Be with You".

In early 1957, a sneak preview in Florida of Second Honeymoon, a new television show Hal Block was producing, had to be cancelled because there were no prizes.

Hal Block explained to a local newspaper that he had bought prizes in a pawnshop across from the station, WTVJ, but the shop was closed before he could retrieve them for the show.

In February 1957, Hal Block was found guilty of drunk driving in Miami Beach, Florida, and for not having a valid driver's license.

Hal Block died in Edgewater Hospital, Chicago, on June 16,1981, as a result of his injuries.

Hal Block remains a controversial figure in television history, denounced by some, while praised by others.

Hal Block breezed into town from New York last Sunday for about three hours.

Hal Block, incidentally, left the party to catch a train for Hollywood where he is to spend the next few months writing Phil Baker's radio script.