Gangsters to Quiz Shows
Quick link to iTunes Episode #1
Bob’s bio-dad…a real “G-man”
Listen right now!
This debut episode starts with Bob’s FBI-agent birthright and takes us through a childhood spent in Sunset Strip nightclubs… where he hung out with Nat “King” Cole and sang duets with Sophie Tucker and Johnny Ray.
Step-dad & Mom: Mobster with his “moll”
Raised with gun-toting West Coast Jewish mobsters as family role models, Bob reveals the details of youthful encounters with naked movie stars like Carol Baker and Rock Hudson…
Rock Hudson…as witnessed by Bob!
…and then describes his celebrity-filled school years living in a one-bedroom apartment on “the wrong side of the tracks” just down the street from the movie-star mansions of Beverly Hills.
Bob’s hometown…
Life at Beverly Hills High–where Bob was presumed to be Jewish but wasn’t–led to undergrad years at USC and an eye-opening experience with anti-semitism which colors his attitudes even to this day.
Bob’s favorite “quiz show”
Suzanne makes Bob reveal how Vietnam-era draft evasion forced him to change his name, and how his repeated appearances on a handful of quiz shows propelled him toward an unusual career choice that took him from the world of gangsters to quiz shows.
