George Gobel

Squat, easygoing, crew-cut blond George Gobel was born George Leslie Goebel in Chicago, on May 20, 1919. Of Austrian/Scottish descent, his immigrant father, Hermann Goebel, was a butcher and grocer. Following graduating from Chicago's Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1937, the young man won initial Midwest attention singing (billed as "Little Georgie Gobel") on radio. He also toured with country music bands while billed as "The Littlest Cowboy." George's career was interrupted by WWII, in which he served with the Army Air Force as a pilot instructor. While serving, he began doing stand-up for his fellow servicemen and later took to the nightclub, hotel and county fair circuit. His mild-mannered comic delivery, coupled with a cracker-barrel warmness, finally caught fire when the 33-year-old humorist hit the TV waves in 1952. From then on, he focused on comedy rather than singing. George moved into the new TV medium in 1950 as a guest on "The Bill Slater Show," and continued on the ta