The Great Nerd Showdown

Who's the hottest 1950's nerd-slash-hunk: ventriloquist Paul Winchell; television personality Robert Q. Lewis; or announcer George Fenneman? Donna Lethal will no doubt join us in tallying the votes and test-driving the contestants. May the best bow tied, Brylcreemed, bespectacled stud win!

Strange Crush #54

The ventriloquist, Paul Winchell, not the dummy.

Winchell was a cutie-patootie in his 1950's heyday, a square-jawed, broad-shouldered alternative to the cuddly, grandfatherly Edgar Bergen.


PAUL WINCHELL & ROCKY GRAZIANO FUELING ALL SORTS OF NAUGHTY THOUGHTS

Winchell didn't age particularly well, perhaps, in part, because of his deeply troubled personal life: abused as a child, he was estranged from all three of his own children at the time of his death in 2005. Despite this, Winchell should be remembered for his remarkably successful career in television and film. More impressively, he was also an activist for ending famine in Africa; and held more than 30 patents on inventions ranging from the first flameless cigarette lighter, to the first artificial heart!

Here is a funny clip from our very favorite television program, What's My Line?, wherein panelist Winchell doesn't realize that the guest is his dummy, Jerry Mahoney's, "maker"!