This is ME with Paul Lynde!
I've been a Paul Lynde fan for over 35 years. (I'm not really 79 - I just used Paul's birthday!) His name was synonymous with "Hollywood Squares" and "Bewitched". (Uncle Arthur is one of the characters people remember most when you mention "Bewitched". Yet Uncle Arthur appeared in only TEN episodes out of 252!!!) His provided the voice for Templeton the rat in the beloved children's classic, "Charlotte's Web". He aspired to be an actor's actor, but was wildly famous for his spectacular sense of timing when delivering jokes, punch lines and his often politically incorrect and most certainly off color "Zingers" on "Hollywood Squares".Paul was born & reared in Mount Vernon, Ohio. His father, Hoy Lynde, was the town sheriff & and a butcher. Paul tried to glorify his father's occupation by calling him a "cattle surgeon". His mother, Sylvia, was a homemaker. Paul was the 5th of six children. His nickname was "chicken plucker" because he would help his father out at the butcher shop by plucking chickens. He barely graduated from Northwestern University, where he became friends with Cloris Leachman & Charlotte Rae. His style was unique and has been imitated countless times over the years, including "American Dad's" Roger, the sarcastic space alien. Paul is still remembered as the father from "Bye Bye Birdie" (both the Broadway hit & the movie) in which he introduced the song "Kids!" He won two Daytime Emmy awards for "Hollywood Squares". He died in January, 1982 due to a massive heart attack. (He was NOT found in his swimming pool as at least one website purports.) Although it was common knowledge among his friends & in Hollywood that Paul was gay, he never actually admitted it to the general public. (Although nearly everyone at the very least least SUSPECTED he was gay!) I'm not sure how 1960's & 1970's middle America would have handled knowing for certain that someone as wildly popular as Paul (who for several years, clocked a staggering annual average of 180-190 hours of tube time, not including re-runs!) and appeared in many family oriented shows such as "The Farmer's Daughter", "Bewitched", "The Flying Nun", "The Beverly Hillbillies", "That Girl", "The Munsters", "I Dream of Jeannie", "The Mothers In Law", "Gidget" (both the tv series with Sally Field and two made for tv movies - one with Karen Valentine), "Donny & Marie" and two Doris Day movies ("Send Me No Flowers" and "The Glass Bottom Boat") was openly gay. (Is that a record for the world's longest sentence?) But as someone once said, Paul was so gay, that had he been any more gay, he would have been straight. Paul provided the voices for several cartoon characters including Templeton the Rat ("Charlotte's Web"), The Hooded Claw ("Penelope Pitstop") and Mildew Wolf ("It's The Wolf!") Paul did not appear on the first or the last episode of "Hollywood Squares". Paul's initial appearances on "Hollywood Squares" were NOT in the center square! One more item of interest. Paul appeared in season one of "Bewitched" but NOT as Uncle Arthur! He played Harold Harold, Samantha's driving instructor. Elizabeth Montgomery liked him so well, they created Uncle Arthur, who was introduced in season 2.
If you enjoy the video clips of Paul that are on this page, there are about 170 more of him(yup, 170!) on my website at www.PaulLynde.info
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