The sub-headline in the
Hackensack Record of October 13, 1923 read “Walter Tetley, Seven, of Ridgefield Park, Can Imitate Famous Scotchman to Perfection.” The same newspaper of May 11, 1926 gave his age as nine. Five years later in 1931, a wire service story proclaimed he was 10. Four years later, several newspaper articles stated he was 15.
Which was correct? None of them.
Tetley was born June 2, 1915. He was eight when it was claimed he was seven and 20 when it was said he was 15.
In case you don’t know who we’re talking about, Tetley was the voice of Sherman in the Mr. Peabody cartoons on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. He played Andy Panda in the later 1940s for Walter Lantz, who also employed him as the voice of Reddy Kilowatt in commercial cartoons. But his main fame came from when he scored hits as a child voice on
The Great Gildersleeve and
The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. He was in his 40s when Gildersleeve finally went off the air, but he was still playing a pre-teen on the air.
Lying about his age gave him a crack a while longer at juvenile roles. And that’s all Tetley could play. He had some kind of condition where his voice never changed. But he aged; pictures make it look like he had the face of the man but the body of a child.
None of this was ever referred to, of course, during Tetley’s career. He seems to have been reticent to do interviews.
Here’s a feature story on him in
Radio Life, that fine Los Angeles-based magazine, from October 8, 1944. The murky scans below are the best we can do to provide the photos that accompanied the article.
"HO-HO! What a Character!"
By Malcolm Boyd
In Which We Introduce Walter Tetley—Alias Nephew Leroy
Sunday, 8:00 p.m.
NBC-KFI
HO-HO! WHAT a character!"
To millions of radio listeners this is the special trademark of "Leroy" who is helping his ether uncle, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, rake in the nation's top ratings on listener popularity. But success is anything but new to "Leroy," alias Walter Tetley who, at the tender age of ten, was salting away more than $100 a day as a radio actor.
Now further along in years, Walter has dwarfed his ten-year-old salary by playing movie parts, freelancing in many radio shows and becoming a permanent fixture on the top-notch NBC comedy show, "The Great Gildersleeve." Walter can point to the future and say, "Life Begins at Twenty." His star shows no signs of waning.
"I started in show business when I was five years old doing a single act in vaudeville," Walter says. "I was seven when my mother was working on a case as a registered nurse and the mother of the little girl she was taking care of knew that I was working. She suggested that I do some radio work and got me an audition with NBC. The next thing I knew I was singing Scotch songs on the Children's Hour over WJZ, New York, every Sunday morning."
Walter's next radio job, also on NBC in New York, was a part in a kid's strip show called "The Lady Next Door." It was Walter's first script reading experience. "Everything on the green earth happened," he says.
Accidental Casting
When Walter landed a part in NBC's children's serial, "Raising Junior," it was quite by accident. When tryouts were held for a part in the show, Walter dropped around with a friend. His friend got the part and Walter didn't even try out. Then on the day of the program, Walter was in the studios doing his part in "The Lady Next Door."
When he had finished he calmly walked into an elevator going down. But, at that moment, a hand grabbed him by the collar through the elevator door. He was whisked into a studio and told that he would have to read his friend's part in "Raising Junior." His little chum hadn't shown up and time-to-go before the show would hit the air was approximately four minutes. With nary a look at the script, Walter found himself doing the part into a live mike. He repeated this process weekly for the next four years by landing the part permanently then and there.
With Fred Allen
Fame and fortune really arrived when Fred Allen gave Walter a call to be on his weekly show. For Walter it was invaluable experience. He had to play all kinds of characters and master such dialects as English, Irish, Scotch, hillbilly and tough brat. When Allen came to Hollywood he brought Walter with him. But when Allen returned to New York, Walter stayed right here.
It was a wise choice, because before he could turn around the movies called him. And Walter found himself in "Lord Jeff" with Mickey Rooney and Freddie Bartholomew and in "The Spirit of Culver" with Jackie Cooper.
In the Abbott and Costello film, "Who Done It?" Walter was assigned to a small part in one scene. The next thing he knew Costello requested added scenes for him. Walter ended up in ten good scenes which ran through the entire picture!
In one sequence of the movie, Walter is seen walking into a drugstore. Costello is seen standing behind the counter.
"How much is your orange juice?" asks Walter.
"Fifteen cents a glass," answers Costello.
"That's too much money."
"Not the way I make 'em."
"I betcha a dime I can drink the orange juice faster than you can make it."
"That's a bet."
Costello proceeds to make the orange juice and Walter proceeds to drink it faster. After ten glasses, Costello gives up.
"You win. Here's your dime," he says.
After ten takes of the scene, Walter had drunk one hundred glasses of orange juice in one day alone. Everything would have been all sight—only Walter is allergic to citrus juices.
Peary Sends For Him
Whenever Fibber McGee and Molly had a boy's part on their show, they called Walter. Hal Peary was also on the program, playing a part he had created and named Gildersleeve. Three years ago when Peary went his own way and a sponsor became interested in the prospect of a new comedy, Walter had returned to New York with his family. A wire from Hal Peary brought him out to Hollywood where he has remained ever since.
Walter's characterization of "Leroy" has become so famous that many listeners react as though he were one of the family. "Uncle Mort" had to give "Leroy" a spanking over the radio recently. Along in the mail the following week came a package addressed to Walter. It was for "Leroy" to use in protecting himself from "Uncle Mort." It's name? "The Van Court Scientific Course in Boxing!" Typical scene from the script:
GILDERSLEEVE: Who hit you, Leroy?
LEROY: Eugene Clanahan. The big cheater.
GILDY: Clanahan! Here, wipe your nose.
LEROY: Okay.
GILDY: Not on your shirt! I'm giving you a handkerchief!
LEROY: Thanks.
GILDY: What do you mean when you say Eugene cheated, Leroy?
LEROY: He started throwing rocks.
GILDY: Just like his father, by George. I'll go and see that Clanahan! I'll knock his block off!
LEROY: (cheering a little) Attaboy, Unk! Can I watch?
GILDY: Well—maybe I'll just speak to Eugene.
LEROY: He's the toughest kid in the school.
GILDY: He is? Confound it. Leroy, why can't you plug peaceably with your friends?
LEROY: How can we play peaceably? Eugene's gang won't leave us alone.
GILDY: Wait a minute. What is this gang of yours?
LEROY: Just a gang. that's all. Only our gang fights fair, and Eugene's gang cheats, throwing rocks all the tine.
MARJORIE: Didn't I see you throwing rocks yesterday?
LEROY: (Indignantly) We never throw anything but dirt clods!
MARJORIE: Well, yesterday you threw a—
LEROY : If there's a rock inside of it, that's an accident!
With his family, Walter lives fifteen miles outside of Hollywood in the San Fernando valley. They have an attractive white stucco Spanish-style house, a swimming pool and, believe it or not, a farm, where Walter's dad spends all his time. They call the place the "Big Oak Ranch" because the house is built around a big oak tree whose branches afford a natural cooling system. Walter's mother is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Women's Emergency corps and is in charge of a free canteen for servicemen in Beverly Hills.
Mr. Tetley was in the New York post office for thirty-five years until he retired on a government pension around a year ago. Walter's brother is a precision parts inspector in a nearby defense plant.
The Tetleys also have a stable with two horses. One of them pulls an old-fashioned "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" which stands on the farm and has been used in many old-time movies. The Tetleys have four dogs, five cats, two hundred chickens and two ducks—which Walter named Hedy and Lana.
After a busy day in downtown Hollywood this famous young radio actor can retire to the peace and quiet of the San Fernando valley and make plans for his future career.
He'll stick to radio, but don't be surprised if he ends up by being a writer or producer.
"Why, Walter, you'll probably be producing the biggest shows on the air," says a friend.
"Are you kiddin'?" says "Leroy."
Tetley started out as a Harry Lauder imitator, but he was Scottish on his mother’s side only. His last name was Tetzlaff; his father Fred was of German descent (though born in New York) and worked in the Ridgefield Park post office. His mother’s last name was Campbell and born in Scotland.
An affinity for Scotland, Tetley had, beyond being a Harry Lauder impersonator. Witness this story from the
Province of June 17, 1950, of a trip to Vancouver.
Only a guy with a name like 'Walter Campbell Tetley' would travel a thousand miles just to blow into a bag-pipe.
Obviously an embittered soul driven to the 'instrument of hell' by the vicious pace of life along Sunset Boulevard, Walter will hie himself all the way from Hollywood to Brockton Point July 1 to add a dash of levity to the Police Sports show and become an honorary member of the Police Pipe band.
Mr. Tetley masquerades professionally under a couple of well-known aliases. He is "Leroy" on the Gildersleeve radio show and "Julius" on the Phil Harris show. He loves his sponsors, picks up his cheques with either hand and is figured a whiz at adding a bright touch to sombre track and field productions.
Det.-Sgt. John Gillies, drum-beater for the PMBA-sponsored meet, informs us that W.C. comes at his own expense at the urging of another honorary Police Piper and veteran of the '48 Caledonian Games—Bill Thompson, also of Hollywood.
Thompson, another sucker for the old Aberdeen squeeze-play, is the Wallace Wimple of the Fibber McGee and Molly show. As you see, our police deal only with characters.
Tetley was very community minded. He was a member of the Kiwanis club, he became a Mason and later joined the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, better known as the Grotto, an organisation of Masons that helps children with cerebral palsy. He got up to Master of Ceremonies (akin to second vice-president) of Cinema Grotto and was Tyler of his Masonic Lodge in 1974 but his cancer was slowly spreading. He died September 6, 1975 at age 60, with a memorial service conducted by his brother Masons.
Both men who played Gildersleeve, Hal Peary and Willard Waterman, and Elliott Lewis, who worked with him on the Harris-Faye show, praised his acting abilities. Tetley’s Julius on the Harris show was so ridiculously over-the-top, he was very funny but still believable. He seems to have been a nice man, too. Considering that, he can be forgiven for fudging about his age all those years.
