Radio-TV mirror (July-Dec 1952)

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Make \ this the happiest Christmas ' of your life with money earned this easy, dignified way. Mail coupon for samples TODAY! FRIENDSHIP STUDIOS, INC. 153 Adams St.,Elmiro,N.Y. Coupon Brings You Samples— MAIL NOW! FRIENDSHIP STUDIOS, INC. 153 Adams Street, Elmira, New York Please send the Friendship Earning Plan. FREE Samples of Imprinted Christmas Cards and Assortments on APPROVAL. Name 74 Address _ City_ Zone_ D Check box if for an organization. Robert Q. Lewis — Eligible Bachelor (Continued from page 31) in college theatricals . himself and I don't think he ever did get the theatre out of his blood or ever will. As a little boy, Bob and his father used to go to a neighborhood vaudeville house almost every Saturday afternoon, where they sat right smack in the front row and Bob could watch the drummer and drink in the beautiful beat of the old-time vaudeville music. Bob got to know the whole roster of big-time and small-time acts — the comics, the blues singers, the tap dancers, the dog acts, the class dance teams, the jugglers, acrobats, aerialists, strong men and magicians— and the rhythm of the music sang in his ears and beat in his blood during all the years of growing up. No wonder that show business is a part of him now and that his knowledge of it is so complete. It's his boast that he was one of the first — if not the very first — disc jockeys. At seven, his father brought him a little microphone device that could be hooked up to the loudspeaker of the family radio. Bob would play his favorite records and give each one an appropriate announcement from his post in the hallway. It was strictly a sustaining program in the interests of family fun. But he was probably a perfectionist even then, as he is now, always trying to better his last performance. r art of his dissatisfaction with things as they are stems from the fact that he has uncannily good judgment of what people will like, and he therefore has no patience with himself when he thinks he has fallen short of that. His ability to judge a new song is uncanny, too. He can tell almost at once if it will be a commercial success. Since I have known Bob, whenever he has said a song is good, but not commercially good, time has proved him right. Life in the Lewis office is never dull and hasn't been during my five years there. My boss is a man of many moods, and I can usually tell which one will prevail through the day when I hear his voice over the telephone in the morning. If he sounds a little tired and impatient, I try to postpone some of his minor appointments. His schedule is always crowded to the minute and I know he will need a breathing space somewhere during that particular day. But he will never let me cancel any appointment that involves a promise to help someone, especially any young performer he is trying to boost. Bob even gave me a break on TV — the most frightening experience of my life, I can tell you. The script on one of his Sunday evening shows called for a skit burlesquing an average day in the life of Robert Q. Lewis. "Who, better than Gloria, could play my secretary?" Bob demanded, during a casting conference. Unwillingly, I was given the role. All I can remember about it very clearly was that the whole cast was fitted with horn-rimmed glasses just like Bob's. To this day, he has never commented on my performance, but I think the fact that I am still his secretary and not his leading lady speaks for itself. As Bob's office secretary I keep strictly out of his private life, but naturally it's no secret to me that he dates some of the loveliest and most glamorous girls in show business, being an eminently eligible bachelor who is a wonderful host and a gay companion. He likes theatre and night-club openings, and he loves parties at his terrace apartment high up in a midtown New York hotel. Parties for Bob mean getting together the people he really likes, not just big-name stars or important people for the sake of publicity. They, too, are among his guests if they happen to be his friends, but so are the many others — the people he works with on his programs, the old friends he knew on his way up, the youngsters trying to get established. Bob participates in a party, besides hosting it. He loves to play some of his wonderful collection of old records and he joins in the singing without being coaxed. Besides a record collection, he has old postcards from all over the world, totem poles, yellowing playbills, shaving mugs, and cuff links. These latter are one of his extravagances and he usually comes back from a trip with at least one new pair. I never have known anyone more devoted to his family. Working with him so closely, I have seen how considerate he is of his parents, and nothing interferes with any date he makes with them. I have heard him turn down the most marvelous invitations because he would not ask his parents to change their plans to have him at the family dinner table — for the roast beef that his mother knows is his favorite dish. Bob has one brother who lives with his parents and is an executive of a clothing store chain. I've learned to say "Yes, Bob," when he comes into the office complaining that his dog, a mischievous mutt he named Matinee, just has to go because he has been misbehaving again. I know very well this is all bluster and that Bob is as softhearted towards his dog as he is towards 'most everyone else. Actually, I have quit my job about five times in five years, but each time Bob has given me a chance to cool off and retract my resignation. The last time, about a year ago, I was quite definite, or so I thought. Bob said to me, "Gloria, the next time you get angry and feel like quitting, you'd better just get up and go home for the day, until you feel better about things. Otherwise, I might just have to take you up on this some time, if only to preserve my own dignity." I haven't quit since! Last year, when a friend asked me to write a little handbook called The Secretary's Job, Bob was as pleased as I was at the request, and even contributed a humorous foreword, which reads like this (the book is now out of print because the company did not stay in business, so please don't send for your copy!): "The writer of this book, Miss Gloria Dulchin, is well known to me. She is of sound mind, completely honest, and devoted to her work. Unfortunately her work is not of much importance to me. It is my work in which I am interested. Writing this book has taken her mind off my work. I, therefore, should like to suggest that anyone who reads this book, follows all the instructions therein, and assimilates all the material, can have a job as my secretary starting practically immediately. Miss Dulchin will be available to any publisher as a writer of cook books. She makes one heck of a chicken pot pie. Robert Q. Lewis." As it happens, the job as Bob's secretary will be open soon and I will be making chicken pot pies instead of stenographic pothooks. I already have my engagement ring and will be breaking in my successor in the office late this fall. (Don't get your hopes up — the job is already filled — though, as you probably noticed on page 31, you can have a chance to see what it's like to be Bob's secretary for a day!) I'm sure that even now my successor is wishing me an early and happy marriage, so she can get started being Robert Q. Lewis' secretary, one of the most fascinating jobs in a completely fascinating business— show business!