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Gale Gordon | |
|---|---|
 Gordon in 1958 | |
| Born | Charles T. Aldrich Jr. (1906-02-20)February 20, 1906 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | June 30, 1995(1995-06-30) (aged 89) Escondido, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1923–1991 |
| Spouse | |
Gale Gordon (bornCharles Thomas Aldrich Jr.; February 20, 1906 – June 30, 1995) was an Americancharacter actor who wasLucille Ball's longtime television foil, particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executiveTheodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television sitcomThe Lucy Show. Gordon also appeared inI Love Lucy and had starring roles in Ball's successful third seriesHere's Lucy and her short-lived fourth and final seriesLife with Lucy.
Gordon was also a radio actor who played school principal Osgood Conklin inOur Miss Brooks, starringEve Arden, in both the 1948–1957 radio series and the 1952–1956 television series.[1] He also co-starred as the second Mr. Wilson inDennis the Menace, replacingJoseph Kearns after he died.
Charles Thomas Aldrich, Jr. was born on February 20, 1906, in New York City, the first child and only son of Americanquick change artist[2][3] Charles Thomas Aldrich and English actress Bertha Wilson[4], who adopted the stage names Jewel St. Ledger, and later, Gloria Gordon.[2][3] The couple had met while performing in separate shows inLondon, and married the prior year in Detroit.[5] The elder Aldrich was on tour at the time of his birth, introducing his son to the audience at eight days old.[6]
When her son was fifteen months old, Gordon discovered he had been born with acleft palate and arranged for surgery in London to correct it. Aldrich and Gordon both pushed their son into the acting/vaudeville profession to combatvelopharyngeal insufficiency. This speech therapy developed the distinct diction that he later became known for.[2] The Aldriches, which included daughter Jewel (1908-1998), constantly rotated between London, New York, and Charles Sr.'s hometown ofCleveland, Ohio.[2][4][7] The family permanently settled in New York in 1915.
Charles Aldrich and Gloria Gordon divorced in 1919, after which Aldrich bought a farm in ruralNew Jersey and retained custody of their children.[2][8] He remarried Elizabeth Smalley in 1921, with whom he had another son Atwood Aldrich. By 1923, Charles Jr. had joined his mother in New York and adopted the stage name Gale Gordon to match hers.[2]
He was the first actor to play the role ofFlash Gordon, in the 1935 radio serialThe Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon.[9] He also played Dr. Stevens inGlorious One.[10]
From 1937 to 1939, he starred as "The Octopus" in theSpeed Gibson adventure series.
Gale Gordon's first big radio break came via the recurring roles of "Mayor La Trivia" and "Foggy Williams" onFibber McGee and Molly, before playing Rumson Bullard on the show's successful spinoff,The Great Gildersleeve. Gordon and his character of Mayor La Trivia left the show duringWorld War II when Gordon enlisted in the US Coast Guard from 1942 to 1945[11] rising to Gunner's Mate 1st Class.
In 1949, Gordon recorded the pilot forThe Halls of Ivy, starring in the program's title role of Dr. Todhunter Hall, the president of Ivy College. The pilot led to a radio series that aired from 1950 to 1952, butRonald Colman replaced Gordon in the title role; Gordon later joined the cast as a replacement forWillard Waterman in the popular role of John Merriweather.
Gordon, in one of his few dramatic roles on radio, starred as erudite art importer, suave bachelor, and amateur sleuth Gregory Hood onThe Casebook of Gregory Hood in 1946–47 on theMutual Broadcasting Network. The show followed the same format—same sponsor, same writers, same storytelling formula—as the program it was originally a summer replacement for,The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The Gregory Hood program was continued on the fall schedule for the subsequent season after the network failed to reach a contractual agreement with the estate ofSir Arthur Conan Doyle for the Sherlock Holmes franchise. It was cancelled by Mutual after one full season, but returned periodically on ABC in 1948 and following years, with other actors playing the title role.
In 1950, Gordon played John Granby, a former city dweller ineptly pursuing his dream of life on a farm, in the radio seriesGranby's Green Acres, which became the basis for the 1960s television seriesGreen Acres. Gordon went on to create the role of pompous principal Osgood Conklin onOur Miss Brooks, carrying the role totelevision when the show moved there in 1952. In the interim, Gordon turned up as Rudolph Atterbury onMy Favorite Husband, which starred Lucille Ball in a precursor toI Love Lucy.[12]
Gordon and Ball had previously worked together onThe Wonder Show, starringJack Haley, from 1938 to 1939. The two had a long friendship as well as recurring professional partnership. Gordon also had a recurring role as fictitiousRexall Drugs sponsor representative Mr. Scott on yet another radio hit,The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, staying with the role as long as Rexall sponsored the show. When the sponsor changed to RCA, the character simply switched employers.[13]
The widely acknowledged master of the"slow-burn" temper explosion in character,[citation needed] Gordon was the first pick to play Fred Mertz onI Love Lucy, but he was committed toOur Miss Brooks as well as being a regular on several other radio shows, and had to decline the offer[14] (the role went toWilliam Frawley). He appeared in two guest shots on the show: twice as Ricky Ricardo's boss, Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana Club where Ricky's band played, and later appeared as a judge on an episode ofLucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
In 1958, Gordon appeared as a regular in the role ofdepartment store co-owner Bascomb Bleacher Sr., on theNBC sitcomSally, starringJoan Caulfield andMarion Lorne.[15] He also appeared on theWalter BrennanABC sitcom,The Real McCoys. Gordon had a co-starring role in the CBS television comedyPete and Gladys.[16] At this time, he guest starred withPat O'Brien in the ABC sitcom,Harrigan and Son, the story of a father-and-son lawyer team. He also appeared on the CBS/Desilu sitcom,Angel, withAnnie Fargé. OnThe Danny Thomas Show, he guest starred in seven episodes. In five, he played the landlord of the building where the Williams family lived. In 1962, Gordon appeared as different characters on two episodes of another ABC sitcom,The Donna Reed Show.
In 1962, Ball createdThe Lucy Show and planned to hire Gordon to play Theodore J. Mooney, the banker who was first Lucy Carmichael's executor and subsequently her employer, when she went to work in his bank. Gordon was under contract to play John Wilson (after the death ofJoseph Kearns, who played George Wilson) onDennis the Menace. Prior to Gordon's replacing Kearns onDennis the Menace, the two had worked together on an old radio show,The Cinnamon Bear and also appeared with Eve Arden and Richard Crenna inOur Miss Brooks (1953–55), where Kearns first played Assistant Superintendent Michaels and later (in eight episodes) as Superintendent Stone, a role that he had played on radio.
WhenDennis the Menace ended in spring 1963, Gordon joinedThe Lucy Show as Mr. Mooney for the 1963–64 season. (In the interim,Charles Lane had played the similar Mr. Barnsdahl character for the 1962–1963 season.) The somewhat portly Gordon was surprisingly adept at physical comedy and could do a perfect cartwheel; he did this onThe Lucy Show andHere's Lucy, and again as a guest onThe Dean Martin Show.
After the sale ofDesilu Studios in 1968, Ball shut downThe Lucy Show and retooled it intoHere's Lucy and became her own producer and distributor. Gordon returned, this time as her blustery boss (and brother-in-law) Harrison Otis 'Uncle Harry' Carter at an employment agency that specialized in unusual jobs for unusual people. Essentially, it was just a continuation of the Lucy Carmichael/Mr. Mooney relationship, but with new names and a new setting.[12]
Gordon had all but retired from acting whenHere's Lucy ended in 1974, but Ball coaxed him out of retirement in 1986 to join her for the short-lived seriesLife with Lucy. Gordon was the only actor to have co-starred or guest-starred in every weekly series, radio or television, Ball had done since the 1940s. His final acting appearance would be a reprise of Mr. Mooney in the first episode ofHi Honey, I'm Home! in 1991.
Beginning in 1949, Gordon and his wife lived in the tiny community ofBorrego Springs,California (pop. 1,500) where he owned a ranch and several dogs. He was also honorary mayor of the town and commuted approximately 160 mi (260 km) to and from Los Angeles every day when working for Ball.
In addition to acting, Gordon was an accomplished author, penning two books in the 1940s titledNursery Rhymes for Hollywood Babies andLeaves from the Story Trees, and two one-act plays.[12] After he and his wife purchased 150 acres (61 ha) in Borrego Springs, Gordon did much of the construction of the house and his art studio himself. He also built and restored his own furniture on the property and used the land to become one of the few commercialcarob growers in the United States.[citation needed]
Gale Gordon: From Mayor of Wistful Vista to Borrego Springs, by Jim Manago, published by BearManor Media in 2016, is the first biography of Gordon.
Gordon died oflung cancer on June 30, 1995, at the Redwood Terrace Health Center inEscondido, California, aged 89. Virginia Curley, his wife of nearly 60 years, had died in the same facility one month earlier. The couple had no children.[13]
In 1999, Gordon was inducted posthumously into theRadio Hall of Fame,[17] was nominated for fourPrimetime Emmy Awards, and for his contributions to radio he was the recipient of a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 6340Hollywood Boulevard.
