Eugene Twombly

Eugene Tracy Twombly (April 27, 1914 – October 17, 1968) was a sound effects technician in radio and motion pictures.[1]

Eugene Twombly
Born
Eugene Tracy Twombly

(1914-04-27)April 27, 1914
California, United States
DiedOctober 17, 1968(1968-10-17) (aged 54)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Other namesGene Twombly
OccupationSound effects technician
Years active1950s–1968
Spouse(s)
Bea Benaderet
(m. 1957; died 1968)

Early life

Eugene Twombly was born in California in 1914 to Ralph H. and Marie L. Twombly (née Tracy; 1892–1958).[2][3] He was the eldest of two children with a younger brother, Ralph Jr. (born 1922), and of partial Canadian ancestry from his paternal grandmother.[2]

Career

He is best known for his sound work on The Jack Benny Program,[4] where his wife, actress Bea Benaderet, played telephone operator Gertrude Gearshift. Other works included Arch Oboler's Lights Out,[5] The Stan Freberg Show,[6] The Gene Autry Show, The Whistler, and When the West Was Young,[7] and a collaboration with Bill Cosby and Frank Buxton on The Bill Cosby Radio Program, which aired 145 episodes from January to July 1968.[8][9]

The Jack Benny Program included occasional references to "Twombly, the sound-effects man," and Mel Blanc voiced a character called "George Twombly" who often interrupted Benny and his cast with impromptu sound effects.[10] In the 1962 first season of The Beverly Hillbillies (where Benaderet had a recurring role as Cousin Pearl Bodine), two consecutive episodes, "The Clampetts Get Psychoanalyzed" and "The Psychiatrist Gets Clampetted," featured a psychiatrist named "Dr. Eugene Twombly" who was played by Herbert Rudley.[11]

Personal life and death

Gene Twombly was Bea Benaderet's second husband and the stepfather of actor Jack Bannon, and they resided in Calabasas, California. He died of a heart attack at age 54 on October 17, 1968, four days after her death from lung cancer and one day after her funeral.[12] They are interred together at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood.

References
  1. Mott, Robert L. Radio Sound Effects: Who Did It, and How, in the Era of Live Broadcasting. McFarland & Company (2005) p. 246. ISBN 0786422661
  2. "1930 United States Census". FamilySearch.org. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  3. "California Death Records". ancestry.com. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  4. Nachman, Gerald. Raised on Radio. Random House (2012). ASIN B009FKTNS6
  5. Robertson, Charles (February 1963). "Jazz and All That" (PDF). Audio. p. 58. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  6. Bevilacqua, Joe. "The Stan Freberg Show: Episodes Eight Through Fifteen". dawsbutler.com. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  7. Jack French and David S. Siegel. Radio Rides the Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929–1967. McFarland & Company (2013), p.198. ISBN 0786471468
  8. "The Bill Cosby Radio Program Collection, 1968". UMass Amherst Special Collections and University Archives. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  9. Lee Michael Withers (2002). "Coca-Cola presents The Bill Cosby Radio Program!". Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  10. "The Jack Benny Program". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  11. Feldman, Leslie Dale. Rustics and Politics: The Political Theory of The Beverly Hillbillies. Lexington Books (2015), p. 77-78. ISBN 1498525598
  12. "E. Twombley, Widower of Actress, Dies". Los Angeles Times. October 18, 1968. Retrieved August 1, 2017.


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