Eugene Twombly

Eugene Twombly
Publicity Photo of Eugene Twombly
Born
Eugene Tracy Twombly

(1914-04-27)April 27, 1914
California, United States
DiedOctober 17, 1968(1968-10-17) (aged 54)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Other namesGene Twombly
OccupationSound effects technician
Years active1950s–1968
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1957; died 1968)​

Eugene Tracy Twombly (April 27, 1914 – October 17, 1968) was a sound effects technician in radio and motion pictures.[1]

Early life

Eugene Twombly was born in California in 1914 to Ralph H. and Marie L. Twombly (née Tracy; 1892–1958).[2][3] He was the eldest of two children with a younger brother, Ralph Jr. (born 1922), and of partial Canadian ancestry from his paternal grandmother.[2]

Career

He is best known for his sound work on The Jack Benny Program,[4] where his wife, actress Bea Benaderet, played telephone operator Gertrude Gearshift. Other works included Arch Oboler's Lights Out,[5] The Stan Freberg Show,[6] The Gene Autry Show, The Whistler, and When the West Was Young,[7] and a collaboration with Bill Cosby and Frank Buxton on The Bill Cosby Radio Program, which aired 145 episodes from January to July 1968.[8][9]

The Jack Benny Program included occasional references to "Twombly, the sound-effects man," and Mel Blanc voiced a character called "George Twombly" who often interrupted Benny and his cast with impromptu sound effects.[10] In the 1962 first season of The Beverly Hillbillies (where Benaderet had a recurring role as Cousin Pearl Bodine), two consecutive episodes, "The Clampetts Get Psychoanalyzed" and "The Psychiatrist Gets Clampetted," featured a psychiatrist named "Dr. Eugene Twombly" who was played by Herbert Rudley.[11]

Personal life and death

Gene Twombly was Bea Benaderet's second husband and the stepfather of actor Jack Bannon, and they resided in Calabasas, California. He died of a heart attack at age 54 on October 17, 1968, four days after her death from pneumonia and lung cancer and one day after her funeral.[12] They are interred together at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood.

References

  1. ^ Mott, Robert L. Radio Sound Effects: Who Did It, and How, in the Era of Live Broadcasting. McFarland & Company (2005) p. 246. ISBN 0786422661
  2. ^ a b "1930 United States Census". FamilySearch.org. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  3. ^ "California Death Records". ancestry.com. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  4. ^ Nachman, Gerald. Raised on Radio. Random House (2012). ASIN B009FKTNS6
  5. ^ Robertson, Charles (February 1963). "Jazz and All That" (PDF). Audio. p. 58. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  6. ^ Bevilacqua, Joe. "The Stan Freberg Show: Episodes Eight Through Fifteen". dawsbutler.com. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  7. ^ Jack French and David S. Siegel. Radio Rides the Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929–1967. McFarland & Company (2013), p.198. ISBN 0786471468
  8. ^ "The Bill Cosby Radio Program Collection, 1968". UMass Amherst Special Collections and University Archives. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  9. ^ Lee Michael Withers (2002). "Coca-Cola presents The Bill Cosby Radio Program!". Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  10. ^ "The Jack Benny Program". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  11. ^ Feldman, Leslie Dale. Rustics and Politics: The Political Theory of The Beverly Hillbillies. Lexington Books (2015), p. 77-78. ISBN 1498525598
  12. ^ "E. Twombley, Widower of Actress, Dies". Los Angeles Times. October 18, 1968. Retrieved August 1, 2017.