Although I love old time radio, I’m not really in the “OTR Club” and I don’t know some of the other folks who have emailed you. My interest in Walter Tetley began like yours– when I was a kid I watched Rocky & Bullwinkle, and then the Bullwinkle Show. I was born in 1955, so my older sisters and I never missed these shows and then the reruns of them as I grew older.
One time my mother was in the room when Sherman was speaking, and she remarked that she recognized Sherman’s voice as being from radio. That’s when I started getting curious about connecting the voice with a name and a face, but I wasn’t able to do this until a few years ago.
Speaking of movies that Walter has appeared in, I would recommend “It’s in the Bag” in which Walter does a great scene with Fred Allen. “They Shall Have Music” features quite a few scenes with Walter, and also “Who Done It” with Abbott and Costello. I’m mailing the copies today, of the obituary and death certificate for Walter, for your observation. If they help lead you to uncover more information about Walter’s life, please let me know.
Don H
Thanks! I tried to rent that Abbott and Costello movie, “Who Done it“, last night; someone else had told me about it. Wouldn’t you know it was checked out. I will try to rent some of those others. I am also looking for a W.C. Field’s movie, that Walter was in, called “YOU CAN’T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN“, but I have not been able to find a store that carries it as of yet.
Note: Don told me, in a subsequent email, that Walter does not even have a speaking part in that movie; he’s just seen eating candy (which is a shame because W.C. Fields always touted himself as a man who “hated kids and dogs”………As Don pointed out, there could have been some great dialogue, with kid-hating W.C. and Walter).
I have so much to do now, not that I’m not looking forward to it, but, there are so many radio spots, that I need to listen to now……….so many of Tetley’s films, that I should view. Since I am doing this web page, I kind of feel that I do have an obligation to inform myself as much as possible about Walter and his career.
Though listening to, and seeing, these things, will be fun for me, enough of them are piling up, that I just realize, all too well, that I have my work cut out for me. Fortunately this is not quite as stressful, or overwhelming for me, as graduate school was!!
Cheers!
Brian
Note: In a subsequent email, Don told me that it was actor, Fred Allen, who brought Walter Tetley out to Hollywood, from New York, around 1936 or 1937, and he used Walter in his own radio show, before he went on The Great Gildersleeve.