Waa-Mu Anniversary

The 75th anniversary of the famous Waa-Mu shows is coming up. Playbill discusses it here.

While a student at Northwestern in the mid-40's, Paul Lynde was featured in three of the shows. He was frequently paired up with Charlotte Rae--then known as Charlotte Lubotsky--but he also shared the stage with Joe Bova, a fellow Ohioan who recently passed away.

Some of the sketches that Paul wrote for the shows were used years later on his comedy album, Paul Lynde, Recently Released. I still hold out hope that the record will someday appear on CD.

Maureen Stapleton

Maureen Stapleton, another one of Paul Lynde's co-stars, has passed away. The two of them first worked together on a 1961 CBS special called A Question of Chairs: The Challenge of American Education. (According to the New York Times, the show dramatized "the evolution of the American educational philosophy and development of the public school system." Exciting, no?)

In one of my favorite gossip items about Paul, we learn via the Hollywood Reporter that "Pat Neal and Paul Lynde threw a loud party for Maureen Stapleton, who’s testing for the loud mouth mother in "Birdie.'" Of course, she got the part.

I will always remember her for the TV movie The Electric Grandmother and for being partly responsible for pushing Wally Cox into a career as a nightclub performer.

Surley Squares

I came across an interesting article today at the library. This is not exactly "news" since it happened during the first year of the Kennedy administration, but it turns out that Paul Lynde wasn't the only regular on Hollywood Squares who could be difficult. In 1961, Cliff Arquette appeared as Charlie Weaver at the Ohio State Fair. According to the Columbus Citizen-Journal, someone at the fair "saw a little crippled child approach Charlie for an autograph but, instead of getting it, he got a sharp 'go away' from Charlie." Say what you will about Paul Lynde; I don't think he could have ever been THAT mean!