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Streaming Stars, Then and Now

Bob Crane was born in Waterbury, CT, the youngest of two sons. In school he was known for being a class clown and an intense music lover. His favorites were jazz and big band. Bob's specialty was the drums. After graduating from Stamford High School in 1946, he turned his attention to his love for music. He became a drummer with the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra for about a year. He was later dismissed for not being "serious enough". In 1949 Bob married Ann Terzian, his high school sweetheart. They had three children - Robert David Crane, Debbie, and Karen. In 1956 Bob and his family left the east and moved out west to California. There he began a lengthy, successful career in radio. He worked at KNX radio and became "King of the Airwaves" in Los Angeles. His radio program became a huge success, the most listened to on the air. This was due to Crane's personality and humor. He had charm and an undeniable quick wit. Hollywood's biggest and brightest were frequently interviewed by Bob on his show, including Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Marvin Gaye, Mary Tyler Moore, and Bob Hope. In the midst of his success, Bob's true goal was to make it big as an actor. He began to make guest appearances on such shows as The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He also appeared in the 1961 films, Return to Peyton Place (1961) and Man-Trap (1961). In 1963 Bob got a role on the popular The Donna Reed Show (1958), as "Dr. Dave Kelsey". After two years the producers let him go, saying his character was "too suggestive". This was no problem for Crane. In 1965 he received the starring role in a new sitcom for CBS called Hogan's Heroes (1965). It was a comedy about a group of POWs in a Nazi prison camp. He played the smooth-talking, crafty "Colonel Robert Hogan". Hogan's Heroes became a hit show, finishing in the top 10 at the end of the 1965-66 season. Crane was nominated for an Emmy twice, in 1966 and 1967. He had reached the peak of his success. It was during this time that Crane met Patti Olson, known as Sigrid Valdis. She played "Hilda" on Hogan's Heroes. Bob divorced his wife, Ann, after 20 years of marriage, and married Patti in 1970. They married on the set of "Hogan's Heroes". They had a son, Scott Crane, in 1971. Also in 1971, the new president of CBS abruptly canceled Hogan's Heroes after a 6-year run. Following the end of Hogan's Heroes Bob continued to act. However the roles were few and not very fulfilling. He starred in Superdad (1973) and Gus (1976), two Disney films, and had guest spots on shows, including Police Woman (1974), Ellery Queen (1975), and The Love Boat (1977). Bob briefly had his own show, The Bob Crane Show (1975), in 1975. Unfortunately, NBC canceled the show after 3 months. In 1973 Bob bought the rights to the play "Beginner's Luck". He both directed the play and starred in it. The play went around the country, including California, Texas, Hawaii, and Arizona. In June, 1978 Bob took "Beginner's Luck" to Scottsdale, Arizona. It was in Scottsdale that the unthinkable happened. In the early morning hours of June 29, 1978, Bob Crane was brutally murdered in his rented apartment room. He was beaten to death while he slept, and strangled with an electrical cord. He was 49 years old. His murder remains unsolved.

I don&#39;t smoke, I don&#39;t drink. Two out of three ain&#39;t bad.

The first station I started out with was a 250-watt station. I went to a 1,000-watt station, which was the Bridgeport station... And from the 1,000-watt, I went to the 50,000-watt, which is quite a jump, and it has happened to a lot of people. It&#39;s a fortunate thing to be in the right place at the right time.

It&#39;s not a concentration camp. It&#39;s a POW camp. We&#39;re not making light of atrocities. We&#39;re just trying to show how darn clever the Americans were. It was easy to see which letter writers hadn&#39;t watched the program. No one could see &quot;Hogan&#39;s Heroes&quot; and think we were making fun of war. Our comedy is done with characterization. It&#39;s outsmarting the boss; it&#39;s the kid with a snowball when the top hat goes by; it&#39;s getting the best of authority.

When I was a kid, I fell in love with Spencer Tracy in &quot;Captains Courageous.&quot; That, to me, was the ideal. A good man, a brave man. What I would want to be. I&#39;m still in love with that.

Eventually, what you&#39;re looking for is gonna happen, and by the time it does happen, you&#39;ll be that much better along the way to what you should be. Don&#39;t get discouraged, and just keep on plugging along, and what you want will eventually be yours. You know, there&#39;s nothing to stop it if you just keep on working hard. And by working hard, I mean doing the best job you possibly can. Everything happens for the best, and I believe it completely.

If I tell a joke that&#39;s not so funny, I have a faster-than-sound plane which shoots it down before it reaches San Francisco.

Quotes

Bob Crane

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