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Conklin's Voice Was His Fortune resemblance to Eve Arden’s nemesis. An actor for 30 years, he is the most solid of solid citizens. Gordon, whose deep, cultured tones are the envy of his profession, was at one time the highest paid radio actor in Hollywood. That was in 1933 when he was demanding—and getting —$15 a week for playing in “Eng¬ lish Coronets.” Two years later every radio actor in town was auditioned for the lead opposite Mary Pickford in her own show. One of the finalists, Hanley Stafford, went on to become the most hapless father in radio his¬ tory, opposite (if that’s the word) Baby Snooks. The other, who won the role, was Gordon. It paid him $100 a week and made him prac¬ tically royalty. Thereafter, he hit just about every big-time show on radio. He was Barbara Whiting’s father on “Junior Miss,” Lucille Ball’s boss on “My Favorite Husband,” the mayor for 12 years on “Fibber McGee and Molly” and, for seven years, Irene Rich’s leading man on “Dear John.” Gordon was bom 50 years ago in New York City but spent virtually all of his first eight years in England. The following nine years he spent in New York City schools, hating every minute of it because it apparently took him that long to get over the fact that in New York one did not wear short trousers in grade school. The little New Yorkers threw stones at him when he first appeared in his correct English garb, and the impres¬ sion lasted a good deal longer than the black and blue marks. “The character of Osgood Conklin,” he says darkly, “was not only born but pickled in vinegar during those nine years. I hated school, from the principal on down.” Not until he returned to England at 18 did Gor¬ don begin to like school. It was there, too, that he picked up his flawless dic¬ tion, which John Barry¬ more once said was the best of anyone on the stage, radio or screen. Like most accomplished if unsung radio actors, Gordon is an expert dia¬ lectician. It may come as a shock to the younger fans of Our Miss Brooks to learn that Mr. Conklin once played the fabulous Texas millionaire, drawl and all, on the Burns and Allen radio show, and Inspector Lestrade, com¬ plete with Cockney overtones, on “Sherlock Holmes” with Basil Rath- bone. On one particularly low-budg¬ eted “Gangbusters” episode in the old radio days, he played the weak-kneed killer, the cop who arrested him and “the siren that presaged the advent of the cop.” A man like that just has to be a success. Radio stars: Dick Crenna, Eve Arden and Gale Gordon when Miss Brooks was only a radio show. 6