Perhaps one of the funniest men of this past century has been the Buttoned Down Mind of Bob Newhart, Recently I found a book at one of our local thrift stores here in Colorado that was titled simply BOB NEWHART.
The book is a quick read from the Stars of Stage and Screen series and was published in 1977, at the height of Newharts popularity, this was just at the beginning of his successful Bob Newhart series on CBS and he was being discovered by a new generation.
The book is only 31 pages and features many photos of Bob from his career including cast photos from THE BOB NEWHART SHOW.
One of the things I found out was that Newhart was a native born Chicagoan who went to Loyola University to get a degree in Business Admin and he started out doing some odd jobs, including being an accountant.
He knew accounting wasn't his calling and began making tapes of some monologues he did, and sent these out out different radio stations.
It was while he did this that one of the D.J.'s thought Newharts monologues were totally gut busters, he forwarded the tapes to an executive he knew at Warner Brothers Records and that was the beginning of new life for Bob Newhart.
He made three Records based on his monologues which were The Buttoned Down Mind of Bob Newhart, The Buttoned Down Mind Strikes Back and The Return of the Buttoned Down Mind.
I have the first album and it is truly funny, Newhart does monologues that covered Abe Lincoln, a Driving instructor with the worst student ever and a promoter trying to get the Wright Brothers to develop their planes into passenger carriers.
The humor still holds up and shows why Bob Newhart still can make people laugh.
The book also talks about Newharts career as an actor in both film and television.
Although this is a small book and ends in 1977, it is still a delightful book about one of the funniest men in the industry. Definitely *****.
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