Robert Q. Lewis
| Robert Q. Lewis | |
|---|---|
Lewis in 1956.
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| Born |
Robert Goldberg April 25, 1920 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 11, 1991 (aged 71) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Broadcaster, actor |
| Years active | 1950-1986 |
Robert Q. Lewis (April 25, 1920 – December 11, 1991) was an American radio and television personality, game show host, and actor. Lewis added the middle initial "Q" to his name accidentally 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." He subsequently decided to retain the initial, telling interviewers 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, 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.
Lewis was born Robert Goldberg in Manhattan to Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russia. At age ten he set up a microphone and record player at home and became the family's disc jockey.
Lewis made his radio debut in 1931, at age 11, on a local radio show, "Dr. Posner's Kiddie Hour". He enrolled in the University of Michigan in 1938, where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Delta fraternity (later merged into Zeta Beta Tau). He left to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1942 and became a radio operator in the Signal Corps.
After the war, he became an announcer and disc jockey. Among those who served as writers on Lewis's radio programs were playwright Neil Simon, author and dramatist Paddy Chayevsky, and radio comedy writer Goodman Ace, who headed a CBS team of comedy writers, including Simon, that acted largely as "script doctors" for existing shows in need of fixing. Ace was frustrated over CBS's revamp of the show he assembled for Lewis, The Little Show: "I give them a good, tight, fifteen-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?"
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