Harold Peary, a talented singer as a child, later went into radio in 1925. He had his own radio show by 1929 and got his big break in 1935 when he was cast as Throckmorton Gildersleeve in the Fibber McGee and Molly show. In 1939 Peary was making a personal appearance in a theater promoting the Fibber McGee and Molly show and casually did what would be his trademark giggle. It caught on with the audience, and Peary made it part of the Gildersleeve character. Peary eventually got his own radio show, The Great Gildersleeve, which debuted in 1941 and ran for seventeen years, one of the longest-running comedies in radio history. He went on to make numerous feature films, four of them based on The Great Gildersleeve radio show. His career in films tapered off by the fifties, but he became busy in television and records in that decade. His last film appearance was in 1964, and his television appearances continued into the early seventies. |
