Newhart had trouble with petty cash

Press, 9 April 1977, Page 13

Newhart had trouble with petty cash

Bob Newhart, (Dr Robert Hartley in “The Bob Newhart Show" was born George Robert Newhart in Chicago, Illinois, the second of four children. He was educated at St Ingnatius High School in Chicago and then attended Loyola University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in commerce. After college, he served in- the Army for two years, then entered and dropped out of lav? school, and followed that with a series of jobs as a copywriter, a clerk and, finally, an accountant who used to make the petty cash accounts come out even by digging into his own pocket.

At the same time, he acted with a theatrical stock company in Oak Park. For laughs, he and a friend would amuse themselves by making long and antic telephone calls. They eventually taped

the calls and began using them to try and land jobs as entertainers. The tapes led Newhart to a job on a Chicago morning television man-in-the-street show. The job iasted five weeks, but it led Newhart to Warner Bros. Records, which heard three of his taped monologues and decided to put out a comedy album of Newhart material. The first album, “The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” was an immediate hit, and was followed by two other albums. Newhart’s success led to a series of nightclub engagements, and then to, his own television variety series, in 1961, that won Emmy and Peabody Awards. Since that time, he has become a major Las Vegas attraction, has headlined concerts at colleges across the country, and has been on various television var-

iety and comedy series. In motion pictures, he starred in “Cool Millions” with Peter Ustinov, “Catch-22,” “Cold Turkey,” and “Thursday’s Game.” Newhart, who is an avid golfer, is sft sin tall, ■weighs 148 lb, and has sandy hair and blue eyes. He and his wife, Ginny, and their children, Robert (14), Timothy (9) and Jennifer (5) live in Beverly Hills.