The Hal March Centennial

Born 100 years ago today, Hal March (Harold Mendelson, 1920-1970), whose footprint was felt in radio, television, movies, and live performance, but whose fame has fallen by the wayside. His biggest claims to fame included playing Harry Morton on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (one of four to play that role), hosting The $64,000 Question (1955-58), and playing the lead in Neil Simon’s first Broadway hit Come Blow Your Horn (1961).

A San Francisco native, March got his start as the straight man in a late vaudeville act called the Hollywood Rioteers and with an announcing job on KYA radio. There, he met and teamed up with Bob Sweeney, previously the comedy partner of George Fenneman. The Bob Sweeney-Hal March Show was broadcast on CBS radio from 1944 through 1948. He began playing Harry on the Burns and Allen show when it was still on radio in the late ’40s and came over with the show when it moved to television for part of the first season (Fred Clark replaced him). He also co-starred on the radio sit-com Too Many Cooks with Mary Jane Croft in 1950.

March took so many kinds of screen work (game shows, variety shows, acting gigs for the big and small screen), it’s hard to lay out as a chronology, so I’ll break them into categories:

He had supporting roles in the movies Champion (1949), The Story of Molly X (1949), Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950), Ida Lupino’sOutrage (1950), Combat Squad (1953), The Eddie Cantor Story (1953, as Gus Edwards), Yankee Pasha (1954), The Atomic Kid (1954), It’s Always Fair Weather (1954), My Sister Eileen (1954), Hear Me Good (1957, which he starred in), Send Me No Flowers (1964), and A Guide to the Married Man (1967).

In TV, in addition to played Harry on Burns and Allen, he was a regular on the sit-com The Soldiers (1955) with John Dehner and Tom D’Andrea (with whom he formed a comedy team for a time), and starred in a pilot called I Married a Dog (1961). He also guest starred on Life with Luigi, I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show, My Friend Irma, The Dennis Day Show, I Married Joan, The Jack Benny Program,Gidget,The Monkees, and others, including several live TV dramas.

Variety shows he appeared on included the All Star Revue, The Colgate Comedy Hour,Kraft Music Hall, the shows of Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Arthur Murray,Kate Smith, Ezio Pinza, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson,Regis Philbin, and many others. He was one of the many guest hosts of The Tonight Show between Paar and Carson.

In addition to hosting The $64,000 Question, he was a mystery guest on What’s My Line?, a panelist on I’ve Got a Secret and You Don’t Say, and the host of It’s Your Bet.

The quiz show scandal in 1958 interrupted his career briefly. It was at that stage that he debuted on Broadway, replacing Henry Fonda in Two for the Seesaw (1959), and starring in Come Blow Your Horn.

Lung cancer took Hal March at the age of 49.

In 1956, he married Candy Toxton, ex-wife of Mel Torme. Their grandson Hunter March (b. 1991) has done his grandfather’s memory proud as the host of the shows Emogenius (Game Show Network), Nightly Pop (E!), Sugar Rush, and Blown Away (both Netflix).

For more about show business historyconsult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.