On June 25, 2003, comedian Bob Newhart pretended to speak on an antique telephone at his home in the Bel Air Estates neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Jerome T. Nakagawa/Associated Press
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Jerome T. Nakagawa/Associated Press
The life of Bob Newhart, who died this week at age 94, may remind us of some glimmers of light hidden in the seemingly background.
In the mid-1950s, he was working as an accountant in Chicago, where he often insisted that his motto was “Close enough!” To ease the monotony of cubicles and calculators, he and a friend began making up Telephone conventions between historical figures.
While his friend went to New York to look for work, Newhart continued working on the telephone, covering just one side of the line.
As Abraham Lincoln’s publicist said to the president, “Next time they bug you about Grant drinking, tell them you’re going to find out what brand he drank and give you a case of all the others. General…trust me, Abe,” the publicist assured a skeptical Lincoln. “This is fun. Do it!
Or the head of a 16th-century British shipping company receiving a call from Sir Walter Raleigh in the New World.
“Toe bacchus?” he asked, “…let me get this straight, now, Walt, you bought 80 tons of leaves? …can you chew it? Or put it in a pipe? Or…put it on a sheet On paper, then roll it up…”
The shipping director had to hold back his laughter. Of course, we may regret now that the 16th century was not as skeptical about rolling up tobacco leaves and smoking more.
Tapes of Newhart’s daily activities eventually found their way to a record label. The result was the 1960 comedy album, The cool head of Bob Newhart. The former accountant beat fellow nominees Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte and Frank Sinatra to win the 1961 Grammy Album of the Year Award.
Newhart went on to create two hit sitcoms, in which he played seemingly mild-mannered men, the first a Chicago psychologist and the second a Vermont hotel owner, trying to make it in a world filled with colorful characters. With ease. Of course, there was one character who introduced him to a new generation: “Elf Papa” Elf.
In 2002, Newhart won the Mark Twain Award for American Humor. That night, on the Kennedy Center stage, he told a crowd dressed in silks and sequins: “Standing here is a long way from Glidden’s accounting department.”
