History and Memories of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio Television and Radio from the 1940's-1980's..Dedicated to preserving the Broadcast Heritage of Northeast Ohio..
Friday, December 19, 2008
Bill Gordon .."Stay Smoochie You!" passes away..
Bill Gordon in 1955..Courtesy Cleveland Press Collection
Bill Gordon on the set of "The One O Clock Club" with Dorothy Fuldheim in 1959..
Veteran Radio and Television performer Bill "Smoochie" Gordon passed away from natural causes today at the age of 83..He worked for Various Cleveland radio stations from 1950-Into the 1990's, including WERE, WHK, and WBBG-1260. He also hosted "The One O Clock Club" with Dorothy Fuldheim on WEWS-TV 5 from the late 1950's till 1964 ..He also worked at WKBF-61 for awhile. He was very outgoing and was a pioneer of the freewheeling style of Radio..Prayers to his family at this time..
Cleveland Plain Dealer Obituary:
http://www.cleveland.com/tv/index.ssf/2008/12/bill_smoochie_gordon_cleveland.html
Bill Gordon on WEWS' Morning Exchange December 17, 1997..He discusses His history at WEWS, but mostly Dorothy Fuldheim..
Bill Gordon was a friend of mine and I was shocked and saddened to learn of his passing. I worked on the crew of one of his tv shows and that's where we became friends.
ReplyDeleteDid you know he was a member of Mensa? He didn't like to brag about it - he didn't brag about anything, now that I think about it. But he was a sharp fellow and always loved a good pun. He and I regularly traded groaners via email until just recently.
He told me that one day in Memphis, he'd gotten all dressed up in a white Tuxedo and got on the bus to get to his event. A lady sitting next to him said that he looked like Mister Peanut.
On his humility -
I was sitting in the audience at his old talk show at WKBF-61 many years ago. While waiting for the show to start, and just moments before air, a voice came over the sound system from somewhere backstage -
"Wouldn't it be funny if someone watched us?" Classic, self-deprecating Bill.
Long story short, he was a good guy and I'm sad to see him go. So long Smoochie, and thank you for all the smiles.
-jb
Bill Gordon,San Diego's first talk show host,
ReplyDeleteThe Bill Gordon show was live from the skyroom at
the El Cortez hotel in downtown San Diego on KSDO
AM 1130 back in 1972 through 1974 every night at
7:00PM and saturday afternoon.