Bill Frawley's Just Desserts

The word “irascible” must come up in every newspaper story about Bill Frawley.

It describes the characters he played on TV and, from what I gather, pretty much describes him.

If you really want to feel old, consider that Frawley would have turned 132 today if he were alive. And he’d be complaining about something, I’ll bet.

Here are a couple of stories after he joined the cast of My Three Sons in 1960, a show that did nothing for me. In the first, from October 3, 1960, Frawley tells United Press International he’s not going to learn how to cook. In the second, from May 28, 1961, it appears he did.

MAN'S MAN WEARS APRON
Don't Call Him ‘Sissy’
By VERNON SCOTT
HOLLYWOOD (UPI)—It takes a man’s man to wear an apron and play housekeeper in a television series, and the sissy who's doing it is William Frawley.
Frawley, you will recall, played the irascible Fred Mertz in “I Love Lucy.”
And he'd better not hear me or anyone else calling him a sissy.
Bill does wear an apron and does play “house mother” in the new Fred MacMurray show “My Three Sons.” The comedy role calls for him to shepherd three rambunctious kids around, too.
But don't think old Fred Mertz, er . . . Bill Frawley . . . has gone soft. He's still the same cantankerous, crusty codger he always was.
“I'M BOSSY AND MEAN as ever,” he grinned over a martini on the rocks, “but I'm loved, too. Those three boys—Tim Considine, Don Grady and Stanley Livingston—are my buddies. We got along just fine.”
Does Bill miss Vivian Vance, who played his wife, Ethel, on the “Lucy” series?
“Only because I don't have a nagging wife to bounce the comedy off of,” he growled. “There's nothing better than a battle-ax as a foil for laughs.
“As it is, I berate the kids and a dog named ‘Tramp’ in the new show. That dog is really funny; a big sloppy, good-natured slob who takes two or three steps and lies down right in front of me.
“I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and cleaning up the house.
“I can't fry an egg in real life. But on the show I turn out layer cakes and prune whip. I also sweep the dust under the rugs.”
FRAWLEY'S ONLY COMPLAINT about the ABC-TV program is the lack of females in the format. “So far the only girls who have shown up are romantic interest for MacMurray,” he explained. “There aren't any girl friends written into the script for me, though.
“Maybe it's just as well. I might wind up with another old crow-type. On the other hand, it wouldn't be bad if they brought in some young chick for me to chase around the set,” said the 67-year-old campaigner.
Frawley admits his role of ‘Bub,’ father-in-law to widower MacMurray and grandfather to the three boys, is similar to the Mertz part.
“So far it's been a lot of fun?” he concluded. “But I'll tell you one thing, I'm not learning to cook.”

CAN'T COOK A PRUNE!
Frawley's Recipes
By CYNTHIA LOWRY
Associated Press TV-Radio Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — William Frawley, once of "I Love Lucy" and currently of "My Three Sons" (Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.), has been a railroad hand, chorus singer, vaudeville song-and-dance man, dramatic actor and comedian. But now, in some quarters, he is considered an authority on cooking and other aspects of domestic science.
"It's pretty funny," confessed the stocky actor with the prize-fighter's nose and the buzz-saw voice. "I don't even know how to cook a prune. But all these letters come in asking me for my recipes."
Frawley's emergence as a pseudo home economist is the result of his part as "Bub." housekeeper, cook and dishwasher-in-chief of the Douglas household. Fred MacMurray plays a widowed father with three boys, and "Bub" is his father-in-law.
Frawley, in New York for a brief vacation before going back to start on next season's quota of "My Three Sons" episodes this week, was at first confounded when feminine viewers started asking him to share his cooking secrets.

"It started, I think, in an early episode when I yelled to the kids to come and get their mulligan stew," he said. "There's about a million things in a stew and I didn't know one of them. But I got hold of a recipe from a restaurant and sent it along."
Since then, Frawley—who keeps an eye on his waistline—has been forced to do some research on such unlikely subjects as pecan pie and caramal whip. Recently, the ladias have been sending recipes to him.
"One was pretty good," he said. "It was a dessert—they always are sending in dessert recipes—made of custard with cocoanut and stuff like that." Frawley, determinedly undomesticated and grass widower for many years, admits he's been having a perfectly horrible time trying to simulate convincingly the fine art of housewifery.
"I always eat in restaurants," he growled over a breakfast consisting of a whisky sour made healthful by extra orange juice, a cranshaw melon and black coffee. "I've lived in the El Royale Apartments for years, and there is maid service. One of the things that I have the worst time with is a vacuum cleaner. Every time I have to use one of the con founded things, my respect for women already high goes way up."
Pressed, non-cooking Bill Frawley admits he does rustle up his own breakfast. "I'm crazy about prunes," he said, "so I get three or four jars of them at a time and put them in the refrigerator. For breakfast, I have a few prunes, instant coffee and a few of those little wheat crackers that are shaped like triangles.” Frawley says it seems to him that he always has to be ironing something in the show.
"And I'm always doing it wrong," he said. "I just can't get the hang of it. Except for that I how to iron a shirt—I learned that from my mother a hundred years ago.”
* * *
THE 68-YEAR-OLD performer is one of the very few who have moved from one successful TV series to another. For years, Frawley played irascible Fred Mertz. who with Vivian Vance as Ethel, his wife, were the neighbors and pals of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in "I Love Lucy."
When Bill was in New York, he went to see Lucy Ball, whom he loves dearly, in "Wildcat." Lucy, at the end of the show, introduced him from the audience, and the reception was so warm Bill's gravelly, gruff voice actually became soft and sentimental just recalling it.
"My Three Sons" turned out to be one of the past season's hit shows. Frawley had little time for his favorite pastimes—baseball-watching and golf-playing. At one time Frawley was one of the owners of the minor league Los Angeles baseball club and he has won cups for his golf.
Although he has been in the theater almost 50 years, Frawley comes from Iowa parents so far removed from show business that his interest in the entertainment world puzzled and worried them.
He started work at 19. as a clerk in an Omaha railroad office, but quit after two years and went to Chicago to try his luck in the theater. But his two brothers hauled him back to Iowa.
Eventually he talked his younger brother into joining him in a vaudeville comedy and song act. Bill later played vaudeville houses up and down the Pacific Coast for several years, went into motion pictures, returned to vaudeville and ultimately — in 1927 — hit Broadway in musical shows. Hollywood called in 1939, and he built a reputation as a crusty character actor. With "I Love Lucy" he became nationally known.
"It has been interesting," Frawley said. "And I've enjoyed life. I still do. I don't know what you think success is, but I think it's working steady and making money. I'm doing both those things, and I like it fine."