Frank Fontaine

Frank Fontaine (1920-1978), also billed as Frankie Fontaine, was a comedian and singer, who began in clubs and radio before achieving his greatest fame on TV with Jackie Gleason, as Crazy Guggenheim beginning in September, 1962, and lasting through 1966 and occasional specials later on. A few months before, however, Fontaine had been part of the ensemble cast playing international correspondents in the comedy/variety show pilot Mad Mad World, shot in April 1962 and co-starring the Muppets.

Fontaine spent his early showbiz career on the club circuit, as an emcee as well as a comic, and toured for a time with Vaughn Monroe. His act combined impressions (including Ed Sullivan) with routines using character voices, most notably one as a nervous nitwit with a goony voice who won a sweepstakes. This character would become known as John L. C. Sivoney (although speling varied). Although he had early opportunities on TV (including a 1948 Ed Sullivan spot, hosting the premiere broadcast of Front Row Center in 1949, and a regular stint on The Swift Show that same year), Fontaine didn't gain true national prominence until he appeared on radio's The Jack Benny Program on April 9, 1950, playing the Sivoney character. This led to several repeat visits with Benny, and a contract with CBS that November, appearing on other CBS radio and TV series. A short-lived radio series The Frank Fontaine Show came in 1952, and a regular stint on Patti Page's Scott Music Hall (1952-1953), and this his own syndicated TV show.

Although Fontaine enjoyed some notable film cameos in this period (including his Sivoney character as an airplane passenger in Bing Crosby's Here Comes the Groom and a drunk in the Jerry Lewis film Scared Stiff), his prominence began to wane, although he continued with club, fair, and other appearances and some TV spots. Then in 1962 (after an earlier guest spot with Jackie Gleason), Fontaine was signed for Gleason's new variety series The Jackie Gleason Show: The American Scene Magazine. Here, Fontaine essentially reprised the John L. C. Sivoney character as a bar drunk, now renamed Crazy Guggenheim, in regular routines with Gleason as Joe the Bartender. The skits ended with Fontaine showing off his excellent singing voice and led to a second regular career as a recording artist, with straight singing. This boost kept Fontaine fairly active on the TV guest circuit for the rest of his career and life.