Gildersleeve's character was in many other films before The Great Gildersleeve show and movies.

The Gildersleeve character was parodied in the 1945 Bugs Bunny cartoon Hare Conditioned, in which the rabbit distracts a menacing taxidermist by telling him that he sounds " just like that guy on the radio, the Great Gildersneeze!

Built around Throckmorton Philharmonic Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, first introduced on Oct. 3, 1939, ep.

Premiering on NBC on August 31, 1941, The Great Gildersleeve moved the title character from the McGees ' Wistful Vista to Summerfield, where Gildersleeve now oversaw his late brother-in-law's estate and took on the rearing of his orphaned niece and nephew, Marjorie ( originally played by Lurene Tuttle and followed by Louise Erickson and Mary Lee Robb ) and Leroy Forester ( Walter Tetley ).

Curiously, while Gildersleeve had occasionally spoken of his ( never-present ) wife in some Fibber episodes, in his own series the character was a confirmed bachelor.

Peary was so effective, and Gildersleeve became so familiar a character, that he was referenced and satirized periodically in other comedies and in a few cartoons.

To add adversity to Gildersleeve's world is the aforementioned surly neighbor from across the street: the retired millionaire Rumson Bullard, after initial portrayals by another actor, was portrayed definitively by Gale Gordon, who was more pompous than the earlier version of the Gildersleeve character.

Peary reportedly sued unsuccessfully to retain the right to both the Gildersleeve character and vocalisms, but Waterman agreed with Peary that only one man held the patent on the Gildersleeve laugh.

Waterman, who was a regular supporting character on radio's The Halls of Ivy while doing his version of Gildersleeve, died a decade later.

In full Gildersleeve character, at the height of the show's popularity, Harold Peary recorded three albums, reading popular children's stories for Capitol Records, in heavy-bookleted four-disc 78rpm record albums.

The Gildersleeve character was parodied in the 1945 Bugs Bunny cartoon Hare Conditioned, in which the rabbit distracts a menacing taxidermist by telling him that he sounds " just like that guy on the radio, the Great Gildersneeze!

Old time radio listeners might find the Inspector Blooper sounds a lot like the Willard Waterman / Harold Peary-voiced character " The Great Gildersleeve.

" They also sponsored the Jimmy Durante Show and there are references by the character Mr. Peavey in some of The Great Gildersleeve radio shows.

Harold ( Hal ) Peary ( July 25, 1908 – March 30, 1985 ) was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, film, television and animation remembered best as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, a supporting character on radio's Fibber McGee & Molly that moved to its own radio hit, The Great Gildersleeve, the first known spinoff hit in American broadcasting history.

In Chicago his radio work came to a peak when he became a regular on Fibber McGee and Molly, where he originated the Gildersleeve character as a McGee neighbor and nemesis in 1938.

) The character actually went through several first names and occupations before settling on Throckmorton Philaharmonic Gildersleeve and his stewardship of a lingerie factory.

Gildersleeve was transplanted from Wistful Vista to Summerfield with more than just a locale change --- now a bachelor ( his character had a never-heard wife on Fibber McGee & Molly ; and now the water commissioner instead of the owner of the Gildersleeve's Girlish Girdles company ), with much of his pomposity and cantankerousness toned down, he was also newly-domesticated and appointed guardian of his orphan niece Marjorie and nephew Leroy.

Peary's Gildersleeve proved popular enough that it was thought to try the character in his own show.

In the background is another Great Gildersleeve character, Leroy Forester ( Walter Tetley ).

* Ole Swenson ( Richard LeGrand, who also played Mr. Peavey on The Great Gildersleeve )-a Swedish-born janitor at the Elks Club, often complaining that he was " joost donatin ' my time !".

The Jordans were experts at transforming the ethnic humor of vaudeville into more rounded comic characters, no doubt due in part to the affection felt for the famous supporting cast members who voiced these roles, including Bill Thompson ( as the Old Timer and Wimple ), Harold Peary ( as Gildersleeve ), Gale Gordon ( as LaTrivia ), Arthur Q. Bryan ( as Dr. Gamble ; Bryan also voiced Elmer Fudd for the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoons, which also borrowed lines from Fibber McGee and Molly from time to time ), Isabel Randolph ( as Mrs. Uppington ), Marlin Hurt ( a white male who played in dialect the McGee's maid, Beulah ), and others.

The first film was called Comin ' Round the Mountain ( 1940 ) and featured the McGees ' neighbors The Old-Timer ( played by Bill Thompson ) and Gildersleeve, as the mayor of the town.

Abigale Uppington is in the film County Fair along with Harold Peary, and his future radio show co-star Shirley Mitchell ( who also played Leila Ransom in The Great Gildersleeve ).

With their own show revamped to a sitcom, bandleader-comedian Harris and singer-actress Faye played themselves, raising two precocious children in and out of slightly zany situations, mostly involving Harris's band guitarist Frank Remley ( Elliott Lewis ), obnoxious delivery boy Julius Abruzzio ( Walter Tetley, familiar as nephew Leroy on The Great Gildersleeve ), Robert North as Faye's fictitious deadbeat brother, Willie, and sponsor's representative Mr. Scott ( Gale Gordon ), and usually involving bumbling, malapropping Harris needing rescue from acidly-loving Faye.

The Gildersleeve voice in this cartoon was done by radio actor and voice artist Dick Nelson.

In these Van Beuren Studios shorts, Felix spoke and sang in a high pitched childlike voice provided by Walter Tetley, a popular radio actor in the 1930s and 1940s (" Julius " on the The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, and " Leroy " on The Great Gildersleeve, however best known later in the 1960s as the voice of Sherman on the Bullwinkle Shows Mister Peabody segments.

Although his first forays into that medium were inevitably accompanied by instructions that he use the Fudd voice, Bryan soon came to the attention of Don Quinn and Phil Leslie, the production and writing team responsible for Fibber McGee and Molly and their supporting characters, two of whom spun off into their own radio hits, The Great Gildersleeve and Beulah.

The Great Gildersleeve ( 1941 – 1957 ), initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs.

Stories for Children, Told in His Own Way by the Great Gildersleeve, was released in 1945 and was Capitol's first-ever such release for children.

" The second album, Children's Stories as Told by the Great Gildersleeve, in 1946, featured Hansel and Gretel and The Brave Little Tailor, again with orchestral accompaniment.

The Gildersleeve voice in this cartoon was done by radio actor and voice artist Dick Nelson.

* The Great Gildersleeve by Charles Stumpf and Ben Ohmart, 157 pp, illustrated, ISBN 0-9714570-0-X BearManor Media, PO Box 71426, Albany GA 31708 BearManor Media

The new clubhouse, designed by Raleigh C. Gildersleeve, who had previously designed McCosh Hall and completed alterations to Cap and Gown Club, was completed weeks prior to the 1910 commencement.

" Pyne's huge wealth allowed him to add two wings on each side of the house, in 1893 and 1900, both designed by Raleigh C. Gildersleeve ( who also designed many Princeton University buildings ) and including a paneled library.

Hosted since 1990 by Ed Walker, himself a storied Washington broadcaster, the program features rebroadcasts of drama, comedy, and variety programs from the " golden age of radio ", including The Jack Benny Show, Dragnet, Gunsmoke, The Great Gildersleeve, Lux Radio Theater, and Philco Radio Time with Bing Crosby.

Implicitly well-off though by no means wealthy, Gildersleeve was also depicted winding up his lingerie-making company and taking up a new life as Summerfield's water commissioner.

Without Peary, however, Gildersleeve struggled on a few more radio years ( by its final season, listeners heard only repeat broadcasts of earlier episodes ) and bombed on television.

Throughout her tenure as Dean of Barnard College, Gildersleeve worked to advance women ’ s rights by championing their access to Columbia ’ professional school and to the best professors.

* Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve ( Harold Peary )-the pompous next-door neighbor with whom Fibber enjoyed twitting and arguing.

By far the most successful and popular was Harold Peary's Gildersleeve, spun into The Great Gildersleeve in 1941.

Harold Peary also appears in both as Gildersleeve, with Arthur Q. Bryan, Bill Thompson, Harlow Wilcox, Gale Gordon, and Isabel Randolph appearing in both their show roles and as other characters.

The show also featured Harold Peary as Mayor LaTrivia, rather than as Gildersleeve.

Harold Peary was convinced to move The Great Gildersleeve to CBS, but sponsor Kraft refused to sanction the move.

") Tetley stayed with that role for just about the entire life of that show, voicing Leroy in and out of jams from making nitroglycerin with his home chemistry set to helping Uncle Gildersleeve ( Harold Peary ) break out of the public library into which they got locked accidentally, after hours.

His Gildersleeve co-star, Harold Peary, had made three albums for Capitol a decade earlier, telling children's stories Gildersleeve-style.

Many of the biggest names in theater, radio, and motion pictures were featured on these albums, such as: Bing Crosby, Harold Peary (" The Great Gildersleeve "), Orson Welles, Jeanette MacDonald, Roy Rogers, Fanny Brice, William Boyd (" Hopalong Cassidy "), Ingrid Bergman, Danny Kaye, and Fredric March.

Despite these efforts to recreate the power and ratings of " The Great Gildersleeve ", The Harold Peary Show lasted only one season of 38 episodes.