BOB CUMMINGS

June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990

Robert “Bob” Cummings was born in Joplin, Missouri. His godfather was the aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright, so naturally he got his pilot’s license and studied aeronautical engineering. After the stock market crash of 1929, he gave up flying to study drama in New York City, making his Broadway debut in 1931. In 1934 he moved to Hollywood and started making films. During World War II he was a captain in the Air Force Reserves. His television career kicked off in 1952, winning an Emmy for

for a TV production of “12 Angry Men.” Starting in 1955, Cummings starred on a successful NBC sitcom, “The Bob Cummings Show” (aka “Love That Bob”), in which he played Bob Collins, an ex–World War II pilot who became a successful photographer. The show ended in July 1959. It was then that he first teamed with Lucille Ball on an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” CBS revived “The Bob Cummings Show” in 1961, but it lasted just one season. He reprised the character of Bob Collins on a 1972 episode of "Here’s Lucy” and returned the following season for another episode. Cummings was married five times and fathered seven children. He died in 1990 at the age of 80. 

Lucille Ball and Bob Cummings first worked together in the penultimate episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” “The Ricardos Go To Japan” (November 1959). 

Cummings played himself in Japan to make a film. In reality, his next film, My Geisha (1962) starring Shirley MacLaine and Yves Montand, actually was filmed in Japan, although “The Ricardos Go To Japan” was filmed entirely in Hollywood.  

Lucy and Cummings were just two of the many stars participating in “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood” (January 10, 1960). Cummings, alone on a soundstage, tells the story of how he was discouraged from pursuing an acting career. Despite this he got an opportunity that turned into the film Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939). While filming this segment for Hopper, his second TV series “The Bob Cummings Show” had just finished its five season run on CBS.

In a 1972 episode of “Here’s Lucy,” Cummings played Bob Collins, the character he played on his own show “Love That Bob”!  

In the episode, Lucy takes a liking to Bob, although her daughter Kim thinks he is an alcoholic womanizer and goes to great lengths to scare him off. 

In 1973, Cummings returned to "Here’s Lucy” to play Bob Henning, a deceitful antiques dealer who is after a priceless chair Lucy Carter unknowingly bought. To get it back, he pretends to have a romantic interest in Lucy. 

Cummings was in attendance at the “The 38th Primetime Emmy Awards” on September 21, 1986, when Lucille Ball presented the Governor’s Award to Red Skelton. 

THE CUMMINGS CONNECTION

While both “I Love Lucy” and “The Bob Cummings Show” were on the air simultaneously, “Bob” was on Sundays on NBC while “Lucy” held down Mondays on CBS. The first “Bob Cummings Show” (later re-titled “Love That Bob” for syndication, lest it be confused by the same-titled second iteration) was a mid-season replacement that featured many of the same performers as “Lucy”:

• Joi Lansing (Shirley Swanson, 24 episodes)
• Nancy Kulp (Pamela Livingstone, 16 episodes)
• Eliva Allman (Mrs. Montague, 7 episodes)
• Marjorie Bennett (Mrs. Neimeyer, 6 episodes)
• with Doris Singleton, Benny Rubin, Robert Carson, Lurene Tuttle, Bea Benadaret, Dick Elliott, Doris Packer, Charles Lane, Ruth Brady, Madge Blake, Parley Baer, Hy Averback, Tyler McVey, Hans Conried, Ellen Corby, Jay Novello, Margie Liszt, and Will Wright. 
• In 1955, a year after leaving his role as Jerry the Agent on “I Love Lucy”, Jerry Hausner played a show business agent on the series. 
• In 1957, “The Bob Cummings Show” did a crossover episode with “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” that featured Bea Benadaret as Blanche Morton. 

The second iteration, sometimes referred to as “The New Bob Cummings Show”, ran on CBS for just one season just prior to Lucille Ball launching “The Lucy Show.”  Like Ball’s transformation of “The Lucy Show” into “Here’s Lucy,” Cummings played a different character in a new scenario, but it was basically the same show. Some of the “Lucy” character actors crossed over to the new series, including Paul Debov, Dick Elliott, Charles Lane, Norman Leavitt, and Jay Novello.

Cummings’ first time as a regular on a TV series was on the NBC series “My Hero” which only ran one season on NBC (1952-53), concurrently with season two of “I Love Lucy.” The Los Angeles Times thought the show would "rival ‘I Love Lucy’ in popularity.”  The New York Times accused it of being a copy of ‘I Love Lucy’ and said "Cummings brought a magnificent terribleness to his part." The show was executive produced and part owned by Don Sharpe, who was also connected with ‘I Love Lucy.’  A few “Lucy” players were seen on the show: Arthur Q. Bryan, Hal March, Will Wright, James Burke, Fritz Feld, Eve Whitney, Nestor Paiva, Richard Reeves, Mario Siletti, Florence Bates, Lawrence Dobkin, and Ellen Corby. 

Another one-season series for Robert Cummings was filmed at Desilu, aired on CBS, and ran concurrently with season three of “The Lucy Show”. In “My Living Doll” Cummings played an Air Force psychiatrist in charge of a sexy, naive android (Julie Newmar). “Lucy” actors who were also on “My Living Doll” included Ellen Corby, Joe Mell, Jonathan Hole, Jackie Joseph, Parley Baer, Nestor Paiva, Maurice Marsac, Olan Soule, Tyler McVey, Lurene Tuttle, and Leon Alton. 

Just before leaving “My Three Sons” for health reasons in 1965, William Frawley did one episode of “My Living Doll.”  A few months later a cameo on “The Lucy Show” would be Frawley’s final TV performance. 

Bob Cummings had done three films with William Frawley from 1936 to 1940: 

1. In 3 Cheers for Love (1936) Cummings and Frawley co-starred with Elizabeth Patterson (Mrs. Trumbull) and Irving Bacon (Will Potter). Patterson and Bacon also played the Willoughbys in “The Marriage License” (ILL S1;E26) in 1952. 
2. One Night in the Tropics (1940) was the first film appearance of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. Five years later, Lucille Ball played herself in Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. 
3. Touchdown, Army (1938) featured an uncredited appearance by Richard Denning, who, ten years later, would play George Cooper, Lucille Ball’s husband on her hit radio series “My Favorite Husband.” 

TV People, February 1956. Interestingly, Hal March (host of “The $64,000 Question”) was also a character actor on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.”  Liberace would guest star as himself on “Here’s Lucy” in 1970.  The top of the magazine promises an article about Arthur Godfrey and his singer Janette Davis. Godfrey guest starred as himself on 

“The Lucy Show” in 1965. Jack Webb’s series “Dragnet” was second only to “I Love Lucy” in popularity during the 1950s. It served as the model for all other police dramas on television. 

“The Lucy Show” and “Love That Bob” can both be found on discount DVD.  Many episodes of these series’ are no longer covered by copyright and are in the public domain.