rickylu Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I just read that Joseph Ruskin, who appeared in several classic tv shows including The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, died on December 28 at the age of 89. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/actor-joseph-ruskin-dies-at-668025 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Aww, that's too bad. He was so much fun when he appeared in Jamestown and very friendly. One more last-minute change to our annual memorial banner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 (this is as good as any place to post this) For some reason, I just happened to catch "The Joey Bishop Show", the late night ABC talk show opposite Carson, the night Joey walked off the show after his monologue and it was finished by sidekick Regis Philbin. Bishop rambled at the beginning about the lack of ABC affiliates who carried his show and then it was up to a shocked Regis to carry on with the show. One of the guests was a middle-aged character actor who "had recently finished 2 'Lucille Ball Show's". Nobody I recognized and certainly not a name. I have no memory of what this actor looked like and didn't recognize him from any HL. The fact that he had done Lucy's show was not a focus of the interview--just mentioned. This was December 26, 1969 and he talked as if he had done the shows but they hadn't aired. WHO do you think this was? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjw Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Jees, Neil -- you really know how to challenge a guy... You don't give us much to go on, but my first guess would be a character actor named Harvey Stone. He worked with Bishop, and he appeared in two episodes of HERE'S LUCY's second season: "Lucy and Wally Cox" and "Lucy and Carol Burnett." Wish I had a pic, but I don't... tjw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Jees, Neil -- you really know how to challenge a guy... You don't give us much to go on, but my first guess would be a character actor named Harvey Stone. He worked with Bishop, and he appeared in two episodes of HERE'S LUCY's second season: "Lucy and Wally Cox" and "Lucy and Carol Burnett." Wish I had a pic, but I don't... tjw Looked up Joey Bishop for this date and the guest list included Leonard Barr, Joe Lewis and Sidney Omarr. With an A-list draw like these people, how COULD he have been bested by Carson in the ratings?? Speaking of looking this up (and yes I know I always veer off thread), Tom, Claude, Joey and I know this but you young w-s's* don't. To find something like this out in "the old days" took a lot of work and usually a visit to the library. While it's great to have this information at our fingertips, the fact that it takes so little, makes it a little less special. Skills I had (or honed) as a young person that have been rendered useless by new technology: --Tape-to-tape video editing (professionally) --Keeping score in bowling (after 2 frames of strikes, 20 plus the number of pins in the first ball of the next frame to into the first frame's score) --Being able to read roman numerals at a glance (to figure out what year something was produced) --Celebrities ages. The latter used to freak people out. I have had clients over the years who call just to ask: "How old's Gregory Peck "(1916)? "Humphrey Bogart?" (1899). ( Note: I'm not kidding. These were actual phone calls.) Once at a party (one of those swingin' parties I used to go to) someone got out an almanac and tested me, because some nay-sayer was opining that I could just be making it up. When they said Kathryn Grayson and I said 1922, they all bowed and proclaimed me the master (yet I still went home alone). Years-of-birth source many times disagreed by even one year or two. There were NUMEROUS source books in the 70s when I had access to this stuff that listed Lucy's as 1910. Truth be told, the reason I know these because of suffering the SHOCK of finding out how old Lucy was in the 1960s--I had assumed she was 10 to 20 years younger-- and wanting to know how old people were in relation to Lucy. And shock #2: they were practically all younger! Eve Arden, Ethel Merman and VIVIAN VANCE were all listed as 1912. Turns out they were a trio of LIARS because their actual YOBs were 1908, 1908 and 1909. Merman's varied from 1906 to 1912; Viv's obit listed her YOB as 1913. When I found out that Reta Shaw and Barbara Pepper were both younger than Lucy, I think I got the vapors. To illustrate what a DIE-HARD fan and Lucy-supporter I was, I used to lie about HER age!! Top THAT, Tom Watson! In your HAT, Michael Stern! *w-s: "whipper-snapper" whatever that is, but you KNOW who you are! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjw Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I don't think Leonard Barr, Joe Lewis or Sidney Omarr were ever on with Lucy, were they? I'm guessing that Harvey Stone was a pal and always available, and not necessarily listed in the TV listings... Quite honestly, I wouldn't know ANY of them if they rang my doorbell! You are right... with a guest list like this, who would want to see Carson? Duh... Tjw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickylu Posted December 31, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Wait a minute...Reta Shaw was younger than Lucy!?! I'm in shock and denial over this. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 Via Google, presumably it's the same Harvey Stone (not sure as I don't recognize him at all): Excerpted from IMDB.com: Mini Bio Harvey Stone was born in 1912. He was an actor, known for The Ed Sullivan Show(1948), The Joey Bishop Show (1967) and This Is Show Business (1949). He was married to Lois Lee (stage actress). He died on March 4, 1974 in Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies. Date of Birth 1912 Date of Death 4 March 1974 , Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies (heart attack) An interview excerpt with comedian/actor Jack Carter (asshole, BTW) from website called Classic Television Showbiz: Jack Carter: Harvey Stone? No. He came later. He got out of the army and did an army act. Funny story about Harvey Stone. Harvey Stone fixed his nose and it destroyed his career. He had a big hook nose and it was funny and he was cute. He fixed the nose and never worked again. That also happened to a performer named Gil Lamb who was a like a poor man's Ray Bolger. Harvey died at sea on a cruise ship. At the time he and his wife were estranged. The cruise ship called his wife and said, "Your husband Harvey has died. We don't know what to do with the body. We have it on ice. Should we hold it for you until we get ashore or should we fly it back to New York?" Harvey's wife wasn't too thrilled with him and said, "Oh, well, few people knew this, but Harvey always said that he wanted to be buried at sea." She got rid of him that way (laughs)! They dumped him in the ocean. And that was the end of Harvey Stone. http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2011/04/interview-with-jack-carter-part-one.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 Wait a minute...Reta Shaw was younger than Lucy!?! I'm in shock and denial over this. lol Well if you're shocked by that, how about Lucille Benson,THREE years younger than her short-term daughter in law in "Mame"!! I suppose when Benson and Ball hung out, Benson would have to be referred to as "Little Lucy"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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