Hi Brian,
I want to thank you for your wonderful Walter Tetley page. You’ve helped clear up a lot of questions I’ve had about Mr. Tetley. I am very familiar with his voice, not so much as Sherman but as Leroy on The Great Gildersleeve radio program.
Walter’s contribution to The Great Gildersleeve is a big factor in it’s entertainment value. His character is somewhat of an enigma to the program as well. He plays a ten-year old boy, and the fact that Walter’s voice couldn’t age caused the writers to have his sister age backwards as the program endured in popularity. Finally, the sister married and had children, and by the end of the show’s run (13 years), Leroy’s nieces and nephews were catching up in age to him (still 10-years old).
Walter also was a major character in the Phil Harris Alice Faye show (as an obnoxious juvenile neighbor).
Also, Walter makes a good foil for Lou Costello in “Who Done It?” if you can catch that movie on AMC.
If you’re interested, I have some CD-Rs of The Great Gildersleeve program recorded in the mp3 sound format I could give you. I just installed my new CD burner, so I happen to have some extras I just made (had to play with it). Just give me a mailing address and I will ship them right out to you.
Anyway, thanks again for the web site. I have a Gildersleeve web site you might like: (bad link)
Sincerely,
Richard G
I did mention to Richard that, when I clicked on his website, it mentioned that the Gildersleeve series ran 1941-1954 on radio. I added that I had seen varying lengths of longevity, for that series, including as long as 17 years (1941-1958).
I also told him that it was a shame that the TV version of Gildersleeve only lasted one year (his website claimed that there was a TV version in 1950 and it was over by the next season).