What'll You Do, Robert Q.?

The world got way too much of Robert Q. Lewis.

At least, Lewis thought people thought so.

Lewis seemed to be everywhere in the 1950s. He had a couple of shows, he filled in for Arthur Godfrey, he made appearances on panels of game shows. Then it all dried up.

1960 saw Robert Q. touring the U.S. in “The Gazebo.” And complaining to J. Don Schlaerth of the Buffalo Evening News. This is part of a column published Aug. 24, 1960.

COMEDIAN Robert Q. Lewis admitted today that he is a victim of a television malady known as “overexposure.”
The star of the summer stock production, "The Gazebo,”' a comedy-mystery playing at the Garden Center Theater in Vineland, Ont., visited Bill and Mildred Miller on their WHEN-TV telecast this afternoon and stopped long enough to discuss his case.
"There are dozens of people in show business who are suffering from too much exposure," explained the candid entertainer, "and I'm one of those finding it tough going. Arthur Godfrey has suffered from it and so has Jack Paar. I think Steve Allen will have some difficulty this season."
Lewis stated that his TV outlook is "chilly" at the moment "because show producers and advertising agencies seem to feel that the public is tired of me."
• • •
LEWIS RECALLED that he was on both network radio and television steadily from 1946 to 1959. "At one time I had shows five days a week and once in the evening. It got to the point," he said, "where the average housewife saw more of me than she did of her husband."
Stating that he was far from starving, Lewis said the current period in his career gives him tme to concentrate on his art collection and enjoy summer stock.
"I plan to guest on a number or TV panel shows this season when the regular panel members vacation," he went on, "but I have to wait to be called."
• • •
IN THE MEANTIME, he said, there are plans for a TV series based on the Harold Lloyd movies. “We’re working on a shooting script and may be able to film the pilot in November. I’ll be working for a mythical Federal Bureau of Space."
The performer also said he would like to do a Broadway play soon. “It’s important when you're in the position that I'm in right now to watch your emotions. Some actors become very upset. You've got to plan and wait for your time to come around again. It usually does and then you’re better off than before."

Robert Q. was still complaining about “overexposure” more than 12 years later during a time he hadn’t been getting a lot of national exposure. He never seemed to accept the fact that everyone’s career goes up and down. Newcomers arrive and get attention. Old stars get shoved out along the way by the public. That’s how the entertainment business works.

In various interviews in 1960, he talked about buying a radio station on Long Island. Maybe he was going to move to Miami. The show about a Harold Lloyd-type character (with writer Howard Tichman) went nowhere. Instead, Lewis ended up on the West Coast at a radio station, starting Aug. 7, 1961. This wire service feature story was published on Aug. 19.

Robert Q. Moves West
By RICK DU BROW
HOLLYWOOD (UPI) — Robert Q. Lewis, accompanied by his white poodle and bolstered in morale by occasional glances at his Rolls-Royce, has come West to settle dawn as a Hollywood disc jockey.
"This is where the action is," said the bespectacled, nasal-voiced funnyman who once shared network radio and television eminence with Arthur Godfrey, Dave Garroway, Garry Moore and Jack Paar.
"This is Mr. Lewis' first Hollywood interview," said his press agent.
"And you couldn't have picked a bigger star," said Robert Q.
Looking "Hollywood" to the core—with a deep tan, sun-glasses and a wide-striped dark sports shirt open at the neck Lewis sat on the terrace of an outdoor cafe and explained why he left New York:
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"I NEEDED A job. Arthur Goldberg and I decided there was too much unemployment. No. Seriously, this station out here (KHJ) wanted to be No. 1—not that they aren't now. My gosh, how do you say this? Well, anyway, I'm here. It's a good deal. I wanted to be a disc jockey again. I like doing a job five days a week.
"I haven't had my own show for two years, and I don't have the actor's temperament of being able to relax. My kind of show—the informal, anything goes daytime thing—is in disrepute since filmed syndication took over, and it's affected all of us—Godfrey, Moore.
"All of us are radio babies. We gripe, but we're never happier than when we're on the air every day projecting our own self-idolized images. Paar says he's going to quit, and he may well do it—but be in pain missing the outlet every day.
“Moore got his night-time show but begged CBS to put him on radio 10 minutes a day. Godfrey went through cancer but kept his radio show.
"I was on the air since 1945, and my problem is overexposure. The average American housewife saw more of me than her husband."
• • •
ROBERT Q. confessed that some people considered his move from network to a local show something of a comedown.
"I suppose people along this Sunset Strip or on Madison Ave. might consider it so," he said, "but I don't. I'm looking forward to it. I think there'll be a rebirth of my kind of show. The TV set once was an altar in the living room. Now it's become a pennance box. Hmmm —that's not a bad line."
What has he done for the past two years?
"Primarily griped," he said. "I did summer stock, winter stock, spring stock. Believe me, I know now why they call it stock. I've been in just about every contemporary American comedy."
Lewis, whom bigwigs believe will wind up network from here, said,
“Sure, I’ll miss New York. I’m a native and lived within a radius of 20 blocks all my life. But I always wanted to live here. I'm a sun-worshipper. I bought a house within two days, got a housekeeper the third and wallpaper the fourth.
"Wait'll I give out freeway instructions on the air: ‘This is Robert Q. Lewis and as for you on the freeway—I don't know where the heck you are.’ Did you ever hear those cheerful disc jockeys in the morning? Not me. Who's cheerful in the morning?
• • •
"FRANKLY, I haven't the slightest idea what I'm going to do on the show. But you'll hear such names as Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Of course, Bette Davis may turn out to be a stenographer, and Stewart a worker from Lockheed. But some days, it might be the real thing.
“Awhile back, I had an idea for a wonderful show. It would be called ‘Breakfast with a Bachelor,’ and it would start out with me saying, ‘Today our special guest is—what's your name, honey?’ For heaven's sake, don't print that!" Lewis got up from the table and headed for the parking lot.
"I really wanted a compact limousine, but no American manufacturer was making one," he said. "By the way, do you know anybody who wants to buy a $65,000 duplex in New York?"
An elderly couple recognized him and said, "Hello, Mr. Lewis." He returned the greeting and said: "I hired them from Central Casting."

The love affair with morning radio and the West Coast didn’t last too long. On Nov. 19, 1962, he was back at NBC New York, with Johnny Olson introducing him as the host of Play Your Hunch. He replaced Merv Griffin, who had accepted an offer from the network to host an afternoon talk/variety show. When that didn’t pan out, Merv was back on a game show again on Sept. 30, 1963 hosting Word For Word, which replaced Robert Q.’s show.

The two men crossed paths a number of times, starting when Merv was hired to sing on Lewis’ daytime TV show in the mid-1950s. Griffin ended up marrying Q.’s secretary. Though Robert Q. came across to viewers as somewhat sophisticated and glib, Merv bluntly stated (after Lewis’ death) he was crazy. Behind the scenes, Lewis would throw furniture and fits.

Mark Goodson continued to put Lewis into a fill-in host or guest panellist slot until the host’s job at Get the Message came open on Sept. 28, 1964. There was no overexposure on that show. It was cancelled on Christmas Day.

There was more stage work, then another West Coast radio gig (at KFI) in the ‘70s. By the 1980s his name in print was associated with others who had worked with him in the Golden Age of Television. Robert Q. passed away December 11, 1991 at 71.