Frank Fontaine (April 19, 1920 – August 4, 1978) was an American stage, radio, film and television comedian, singer, and actor.
Early years and personal life
Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fontaine came from a family of entertainers. His father, Ray Fontaine, of French-Canadian descent, was a popular vocalist whose career in Canada resulted in his being compared to Bing Crosby.[3] His mother, Anna McCarthy, of Irish and Scottish descent, performed as a dancer, and he had a brother who also became a singer. Fontaine left school and married Alma Clair Wakeham, his high school sweetheart, on April 17, 1937, at age sixteen, two days before his 17th birthday. Later, they moved to Medford.[citation needed]
Fontaine went right to work as an all‐purpose singer‐dancer‐comedian in Boston-area supper clubs. After Pearl Harbor, he spent three years in the Army.[4][5]
Known as a family man, Fontaine was devoted to his wife and children. He would rearrange his schedule so that he was never away from them for too long.[6] In addition, he was well known for the size of his family, as Alma and he had two daughters and nine sons.[7]
Career
Fontaine is best known for his appearances on television shows of the 1950s and 1960s, including The Jack Benny Program, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Tonight Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. One of his earliest appearances was on the radio version of The Jack Benny Program. During an episode which aired on April 9, 1950, Fontaine played a bum named "John L.C. Sivoney" who asked Benny for a dime for a cup of coffee. The smallest coin Benny had to offer was a fifty-cent piece, so he gave it to him. The story Benny told about this event became a running gag during later shows. Fontaine's goofball laugh and other vocal mannerisms made a hit with the audience, and Benny brought him back for several more radio shows between 1950 and 1952. He also later appeared on four of Jack Benny's television shows between 1951 and 1961.[citation needed] In 1952, Fontaine starred in The Frank Fontaine Show, a weekly variety program on CBS radio.[8] The program featured four other members of Fontaine's family in addition to singer Helen O'Connell and announcer Harry von Zell.[9] He also was heard regularly on The Bob Hope Show on radio.[8]: 47-48
Fontaine was hired by TV producer Ben Frye to be the master of ceremonies of his new series Showtime (1955). Frye owned the Snader Telescriptions library of three-minute musicals filmed for television, and wanted to edit them into half-hour programs. Unlike Fontaine's usual comic characterization with floppy hat, baggy suit, and goofy voice, Fontaine appeared on Showtime in a standard business suit with no comic accessories or makeup. Fontaine's role was to stand in front of a theater curtain, offer a comic monologue, and then introduce each filmed performance as though the artists were taking the stage in person.[10] The show went into first-run syndication in mid-1955; it made its debut on KTTV in Los Angeles on June 3, 1955.[11]
Fame with Jackie Gleason
Comedian Jackie Gleason invited Fontaine to appear on Gleason's weekly American Scene Magazine series on CBS-TV. Fontaine used the same comic character familiar from the Jack Benny radio show, complete with bug-eyed grin, goofy voice, and silly laugh. The character was now named "Crazy Guggenham" and appeared during Gleason's "Joe the Bartender" sketches. At the end of each conversation between Fontaine and Gleason, "Craze" would usually sing a sentimental song in Fontaine's natural voice, demonstrating a surprisingly strong baritone.[12] Frank Fontaine became a fixture on the Gleason hour, and when Gleason moved the production from New York to Florida in 1964, Fontaine followed him. Fontaine made 88 American Scene Magazine appearances between 1962 and when the series ended in 1966.[citation needed]
Legacy
Frank Fontaine's character voice was easily recognizable and inspired a host of imitations. Stan Freberg's voice characterization for Pete Puma, a would-be nemesis for Bugs Bunny in the 1952 cartoon short Rabbit's Kin, was based on Fontaine's character voice, along with Daws Butler's voice for Sam the Cat in the Sylvester cartoons Trick or Tweet in 1958 and Mouse and Garden in 1960.[13] Actor Lennie Weinrib imitated the "Crazy Guggenheim" character on The Dick Van Dyke Show episode "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" (1963). Muppet performer Jerry Nelson based the voice of one of his characters, Lew Zealand, off of Fontaine's "Crazy Guggenheim" voice.
Fontaine continued to reside in his home state of Massachusetts, and appeared in nightclubs and on television. During the late 1960s and into the '70s, he toured children's hospitals to spread cheer among juvenile patients. Children had always enjoyed seeing Crazy on television, so Fontaine visited the bedridden children in full costume as Crazy. He found, to his dismay, that it was much more difficult to entertain youngsters in person. When he asked young patients to call him Crazy, the patients took him literally and were afraid to insult him. Their frightened reactions troubled Fontaine, who stopped using the "Crazy" name and now called himself "Happy Guggenheim".[14]
Death
In early August 1978, Fontaine was in Spokane, Washington, to perform at the Eagles International convention,[15] headlining its Vaudeville Night with Arthur Godfrey and Corbett Monica at the Opera House on Friday, August 4, and was scheduled to lead the parade through the city the following afternoon as grand marshal.[16] He had just completed a live stage benefit show, having accepted a check for $25,000 which he planned to donate for heart research, when he collapsed and died of a heart attack at age 58.[17][18]
Fontaine's former residence in Winchester, a substantial house on Highland Avenue, is now the home of Winchester Community Music School.[19]
