Hy Averback
Encyclopedia
Hyman J. Averback, known as Hy Averback (October 21, 1920,, Minneapolis, Minnesota
– October 14, 1997, Los Angeles, California
), was a radio, television, and film actor who eventually became a producer and director.
, he entertained troops in the Pacific with his program of comedy and music, where he created the character of Tokyo Mose, a lampoon of Japan's Tokyo Rose
. In the post-War years, he became the announcer for Bob Hope
and Jack Paar
on NBC and also announced for other NBC radio shows, The Sealtest Village Store and Let's Talk Hollywood.
sitcom
Our Miss Brooks
and also appeared in CBS
's I Love Lucy
and other 1950s comedies, having moving into directing at the end of that decade. He directed The Real McCoys
, the Walter Brennan
sitcom which was created and produced by Irving Pincus
and aired on ABC
and CBS
from 1957 to 1963. Later, Averback shared directing duties with Richard Crenna
on The Real McCoys. Crenna had also been a cast member with Averback on Our Miss Brooks.
Averback also directed for The Dick Powell Show
(1961–63), The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
(1964–68), The Flying Nun
(1967–70), Columbo
(1971), McCloud
(1971), M*A*S*H (1972), Quark (1978), Matt Houston
(1982–83), The Four Seasons (1984) and the miniseries Pearl (1978). For CBS, he produced Mrs. G. Goes to College
(aka The Gertrude Berg Show) in the 1961-1962 season.
He co-produced the popular 1960s sitcom F Troop
and supplied the voice over the loudspeaker heard on the television series M*A*S*H.
An often quoted live radio blooper in the early days was that a tongue-tied announcer tried to introduce him on a show sponsored by Eversharp razor blades. What came out was, "And here's Hy Aversharp for Everback! -- er, I mean, here's Hy Averback for Eversharp!" [Possibly urban legend, but often taken as a true event.]
(1968), I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
(1968), The Great Bank Robbery
(1969), and Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came
(1969) as well as the reunion TV-movie The New Maverick
(1978) with James Garner
and Jack Kelly
.
Averback died on October 14, 1997 in Los Angeles after cardiac surgery
.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
– October 14, 1997, Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
), was a radio, television, and film actor who eventually became a producer and director.
Radio
Averback was an announcer in Hollywood before World War II. During the War, as part of the Armed Forces Radio ServiceAmerican Forces Network
The American Forces Network is the brand name used by the United States Armed Forces American Forces Radio and Television Service for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide...
, he entertained troops in the Pacific with his program of comedy and music, where he created the character of Tokyo Mose, a lampoon of Japan's Tokyo Rose
Tokyo Rose
Tokyo Rose was a generic name given by Allied forces in the South Pacific during World War II to any of approximately a dozen English-speaking female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The intent of these broadcasts was to disrupt the morale of Allied forces listening to the broadcast...
. In the post-War years, he became the announcer for Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
and Jack Paar
Jack Paar
Jack Harold Paar was an author, American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962...
on NBC and also announced for other NBC radio shows, The Sealtest Village Store and Let's Talk Hollywood.
Television
Doing comedy on early television, he appeared on The Saturday Night Revue (1953–54), Tonight (1955) and NBC Comedy Hour (1956). He was a series regular as Mr. Romero on the Eve ArdenEve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...
sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Our Miss Brooks
Our Miss Brooks
Our Miss Brooks is an American situation comedy starring Eve Arden as a sardonic high school English teacher. It began as a radio show broadcast on CBS from 1948 to 1957. When the show was adapted to television , it became one of the medium's earliest hits...
and also appeared in CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
and other 1950s comedies, having moving into directing at the end of that decade. He directed The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys is an American situation comedy co-produced by Danny Thomas' "Marterto Productions", in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's "Westgate" company...
, the Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on three separate occasions, which is currently the record for most wins.-Early life:...
sitcom which was created and produced by Irving Pincus
Irving Pincus
Irving Pincus was a film and television writer and producer who created the ABC and CBS situation comedy, The Real McCoys, which aired in prime time from 1957 to 1963 and subsequently in rebroadcasts over many years....
and aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from 1957 to 1963. Later, Averback shared directing duties with Richard Crenna
Richard Crenna
Richard Donald Crenna was an American motion picture, television, and radio actor and occasional television director. He starred in such motion pictures as The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark, Body Heat, the first three Rambo movies, Hot Shots! Part Deux, and The Flamingo Kid...
on The Real McCoys. Crenna had also been a cast member with Averback on Our Miss Brooks.
Averback also directed for The Dick Powell Show
The Dick Powell Show
The Dick Powell Show is an American anthology series that ran on NBC from 1961- 1963, primarily sponsored by the Reynolds Metals Company. It was hosted by longtime film star Dick Powell until his death from lymphatic cancer on January 2, 1963, then by a series of guest hosts until the series ended...
(1961–63), The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...
(1964–68), The Flying Nun
The Flying Nun
The Flying Nun is an American sitcom produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book The Fifteenth Pelican, by Tere Rios, which starred Sally Field as Sister Bertrille...
(1967–70), Columbo
Columbo
Columbo is an American crime fiction television film series, which starred Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. It was created by William Link and Richard Levinson. The show popularized the inverted detective story format...
(1971), McCloud
McCloud
McCloud is an American television police drama that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1977. The title role was played by Dennis Weaver as Marshal Sam McCloud, a law officer from Taos, New Mexico on semi-permanent "special assignment" with the New York City Police Department.-History:The first choice for...
(1971), M*A*S*H (1972), Quark (1978), Matt Houston
Matt Houston
Matt Houston is an American crime drama series that aired on ABC from 1982 to 1985. Created by Lawrence Gordon, the series was produced by Aaron Spelling.-Synopsis:...
(1982–83), The Four Seasons (1984) and the miniseries Pearl (1978). For CBS, he produced Mrs. G. Goes to College
Mrs. G. Goes to College
Mrs. G. Goes To College is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from October 4, 1961 to April 5, 1962...
(aka The Gertrude Berg Show) in the 1961-1962 season.
He co-produced the popular 1960s sitcom F Troop
F Troop
F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom that originally aired for two seasons on ABC-TV. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was filmed in black-and-white, but the show...
and supplied the voice over the loudspeaker heard on the television series M*A*S*H.
An often quoted live radio blooper in the early days was that a tongue-tied announcer tried to introduce him on a show sponsored by Eversharp razor blades. What came out was, "And here's Hy Aversharp for Everback! -- er, I mean, here's Hy Averback for Eversharp!" [Possibly urban legend, but often taken as a true event.]
Films
Film credits include directing Chamber of Horrors (1966), Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?
Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? is a 1968 American comedy film with Doris Day, directed by Hy Averback. Although it is set in New York City during the major blackout of November 9, 1965, in which 25 million people scattered throughout seven northeastern states and Ontario, Canada lost...
(1968), I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas is a 1968 comedy film starring Peter Sellers, directed by Hy Averback and featuring music by Harpers Bizarre. The film is set in the counterculture of the 1960s. The addition cast includes David Arkin, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young, in her film debut, and a cameo by...
(1968), The Great Bank Robbery
The Great Bank Robbery
The Great Bank Robbery is a 1969 Western comedy film from Warner Brothers directed by Hy Averback and written by William Peter Blatty, based on the novel by Frank O'Rourke...
(1969), and Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came
Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came was a 1970 feature film.The plot is a mixture of comic and dramatic elements and concerns the reactions of a number of World War II veterans to the then contemporary US army.Directed by Hy Averback and produced by Fred Engles, the film includes Brian Keith,...
(1969) as well as the reunion TV-movie The New Maverick
The New Maverick
The New Maverick is a 1978 made-for-TV movie based on the 1957 television series Maverick, with James Garner as Bret Maverick, Charles Frank as newcomer cousin Ben Maverick , Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, and Susan Sullivan as "Poker Alice" Ivers. The TV-movie was a pilot for the series Young...
(1978) with James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
and Jack Kelly
Jack Kelly (actor)
Jack Kelly was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of "Bart Maverick" in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962...
.
Averback died on October 14, 1997 in Los Angeles after cardiac surgery
Cardiac surgery
Cardiovascular surgery is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. Frequently, it is done to treat complications of ischemic heart disease , correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease from various causes including endocarditis, rheumatic heart...
.