Wally Cox and Live Comedy

Wallace Maynard "Wally" Cox (December 6, 1924 – February 15, 1973) was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. television series Mr. Peepers from 1952 to 1955, plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films.  Cox was the voice of the popular animated canine superhero Underdog. Although often cast as a meek milquetoast, he was actually quite athletic as well as a military veteran. He married three times.

                                                             Wally Cox, 1962

Early Life and Education

Cox was born on December 6, 1924 in Detroit, Michigan. When he was 10, he moved with his divorced mother, mystery author Eleanor Blake, and a younger sister to Evanston, Illinois, where he became close friends with a neighborhood child, Marlon Brando.  His family moved frequently, eventually to Chicago, Illinois, then New York City, then back to Detroit, where he graduated from Denby High School.

During World War II Cox and his family returned to New York City, where he attended City College of New York.  He next spent four months in the Army, and on his discharge attended New York University. He supported his invalid mother and sister by making and selling jewelry in a small shop and at parties, where he started doing comedy monologues. These would lead to regular performances at nightclubs, such as the Village Vanguard, beginning in December 1948. He became the roommate of Marlon Brando, who encouraged him to study acting with Stella Adler. Cox and Brando remained close friends for the rest of Cox's life, and Brando appeared unannounced at Cox's wake. Brando is also reported to have kept Cox's ashes in his bedroom and conversed with them nightly.

Career

In 1949, Cox appeared on the CBS network-radio show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, to the great amusement of host Godfrey. The first half of his act was a monologue in a slangy, almost-mumbled punk-kid characterization, telling listeners about his friend Dufo: "What a crazy guy." The gullible oaf Dufo would take any dares and fall for his gang's pranks time after time, and Cox would recount the awful consequences: "Sixteen stitches. What a crazy guy." Cox's decidedly different standup routine was infectious in its ridiculousness, and just as the studio audience had reached a peak of laughter, Cox suddenly switched gears, changed characters, and sang a high-pitched version of "The Drunkard Song" ("There Is a Tavern in the Town") punctuated by eccentric yodels. "Wallace Cox" earned a big hand that night, but lost by a narrow margin to The Chordettes. But he made enough of a hit to record his radio routine for an RCA Victor single. The "Dufo" routine ("What a Crazy Guy") was paired with "Tavern in the Town."  He appeared in Broadway musical reviews, night clubs, and early television comedy-variety programs between 1949 and 1951, including the short-lived (January–April 1949) DuMont series The School House and CBS Television's Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town starring Faye Emerson. Cox had a huge impact in 1951 with a starring role as a well-meaning but ineffective policeman on Philco Television Playhouse.  Producer Fred Coe approached Cox about a starring role in a proposed live television sitcom, Mister Peepers, which he accepted. The show ran on NBC Television for three years. During this time, he guest starred on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. In 1959, Cox was featured in the guest-starring title role in "The Vincent Eaglewood Story" on NBC's Western series, Wagon Train, with Read Morgan. In 1963 Cox played a prominent supporting role as Preacher Goodman in the Earl Hamner novel brought to the screen, Spencer's Mountain. Cox played the role of a Navy sonar-man in the The Bedford Incident in 1964. In 1965, he played the role of a drug addicted doctor opposite Brando in the World War II suspense film, Morituri.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Cox

Mr. Peepers [television program]

Wally Cox starred as Robinson J. Peepers, Jefferson City's junior high school science teacher. Others in the cast included Tony Randall as history teacher Harvey Weskit; Georgann Johnson as Harvey's wife, Marge; Patricia Benoit as county nurse Nancy Remington, later married to Peepers; Marion Lorne as often confused English teacher Mrs. Gurney; Jack Warden as athletic coach Frank Whip and Ernest Truex and Sylvia Field as Nancy's parents.

The series was an early situation comedy that featured some physical humor as well as humorous situations. In one show, Peepers is playing basketball by himself and somehow gets stuck in the basket. There is no one available to help him out of the basket. This dilemma means that he is unable to serve as speaker at Mrs. Gurney's flower club that evening as promised, nor at a chess match that Mr. Gurney wants him to participate in. Peepers's solution is to have both the chess match and the flower club meeting take place in the gymnasium, where he talks about potting soil to the ladies and wins the chess game against another high school's champion from his perch in the basket.

Running jokes tended to involve Peepers coping with misbehaving inanimate objects and with acutely embarrassing moments. In a typical moment, Peepers sees a hopscotch grid chalked on a sidewalk and, thinking himself alone, plays the game with abandon, only to discover that his girlfriend Nancy has been silently watching the entire time.

The actors in the series lent appeal to the show. The principal's dithering wife, Mrs. Gurney, played by the incomparable Marion Lorne, is kind and gracious but absentminded. In one episode, Peepers injures his finger with a hammer, and Mrs. Gurney solicitously bandages up his finger to at least five times its actual size. When she leaves the room, he points out to Nancy that she has actually bandaged the wrong finger. Tony Randall's role as Harvey Weskit is that of the handsome ladies' man who befriends Peepers. The confident and popular Weskit is a foil to the timid, bespectacled Peepers, and their friendship is incongruous. In one episode, Weskit points out a packet of unopened love letters that women have sent him, complaining that he is always getting them. He begins to look inside Peepers' locker to see the stack of similar letters he expects to find there, and Peepers quickly closes the locker door, commenting that he has to keep the door closed so that they won't all fall out. Patricia Benoit as Nancy Remington is Peepers' "love at first sight," although she seems unaware of his attraction to her at first. Peepers' bumbling attempts to approach her add charm and humor to the plot and leave the viewer waiting for their next encounter to see whether any progress will occur with their relationship. The episode in which Peepers married Nancy was, for 1954, a blockbuster ratings event, but it also marked the beginning of the series' slide in popularity.

Mister Peepers was aired live, on stage before an audience at the New Century Theatre, 932 7th Avenue, New York City—preserved in the form of 16 mm kinescopes.

Wally Cox was somewhat typecast by the role of the mild-mannered Peepers, but continued on to a long career in movies and television. He later starred in a comedy/adventure series, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday, and is remembered as the voice of the cartoon superhero Underdog. He is best remembered by game show fans as a regular panelist on The Hollywood Squares from 1966 until his death in 1973. He also wrote and published a novel, Mr. Peepers (1955), based on scripts from the televised adventures of the character.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Peepers