Back in the 50's & 60's,many TV shows were done live & that could not be more apparent here.One regular skit on the 'Jackie Gleason Show..American Scene' was the bartender set with Gleason as Joe the bartender & singer Frank Fontaine as 'Crazy'...when 'Joe' calls 'Crazy',Joe..all heck & laughter breaks loose.'I'm not Joe,I'm Crazy....
In 1962, Gleason returned to the tried-and-true variety format with his American Scene Magazine. The official title of the show was, again, The Jackie Gleason Show. American Scene was initially taped in New York City; after two seasons, production moved to Miami Beach (1964), on Jackie's insistence. (This caused difficulties for announcer Johnny Olson, who had several other announcing jobs; Olson commuted frequently between New York City and Miami to accommodate Gleason.)
Gleason would begin his monologue each week and be surprised by the flamboyant jackets worn by bandleader Sammy Spear. (Beholding Spear's animal-print blazer, Gleason quipped, "I've heard of Tiger Rag, but this is ridiculous!") Ralph Kramden, Reggie Van Gleason, the Poor Soul, and the rest of Gleason's comic characters were regular attractions. Frank Fontaine, as bug-eyed, grinning "Crazy" Guggenheim (evolved from his John character from The Jack Benny Program), starred in the Joe the Bartender skits, delighting fans with his nutty speaking voice and goofy laugh, and charmed by his surprisingly mellow singing voice. June Taylor's chorus girl routines revived for the television generation the aerial pattern kaleidoscope formations made famous on film by Busby Berkeley.
Frank Fontaine (April 19, 1920 – August 4, 1978) was an American stage, radio, film and television comedian, singer and actor.
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. Cervone") 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 voice mannerisms made a hit with the audience, and Benny brought him back for several more radio shows between 1950-52. 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.The program featured four other members of Fontaine's family in addition to singer Helen O'Connell and announcer Harry von Zell.He also was heard regularly on The Bob Hope Show on radio.: 47-48 On June 3, 1955, his comedy-variety television program, Frank Fontaine's Showtime, debuted on KTTV in Los Angeles.
On The Jackie Gleason Show, he played the always-inebriated character "Crazy Guggenheim" during Gleason's "Joe the Bartender" skits. His trademark was a bug-eyed grin and the same silly laugh he had done on Jack Benny's radio show. At the end of his Guggenheim sketch, he would usually sing a song, demonstrating a surprisingly strong baritone voice.
In 1963, he released an album Songs I Sing on The Jackie Gleason Show, with a collection of some of those songs, which reached number one on Billboard magazine's Top LP's chart in 1963. He also was the voice of Rocky the Rhino in Walt Disney's The Jungle Book until Disney cut the creature from the picture. Fontaine was a lifelong non-drinker in his private life.
Actor Lennie Weinrib imitated the "Crazy Guggenheim" character on The Dick Van Dyke Show episode "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals".
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