Bob Newhart, who has died at 94, was a Chicago original
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Bob Newhart, who has died at the age of 94, was an Oak Park native and an alumnus of Saint Ignatius College Prep and Loyola University in Chicago.
He also worked as an accountant in the city before striking it big in the world of comedy, and his immensely popular first sitcom in the 1970s was set in Chicago.
In a 2017 interview, CBS News Chicago's Vince Gerasole asked Newhart how Chicago shaped him and his humor.
"There's something about the Midwest," Newhart said at the time. "There's something about values."
George Robert Newhart was one of four children of George David Newhart and Pauline Burns. The Oak Park Tourist website noted that Newhart's family moved to the Austin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side nearby when he was young, and he attended St. Catherine of Siena Grade School on the Oak Park side of Austin Boulevard.
Newhart graduated from Saint Ignatius, at 1076 W. Roosevelt Rd. on the Near West Side, in 1947. Newhart performed with the Harlequins theatre group at Saint Ignatius, and the 380-seat McLaughlin Theatre at the venerable Jesuit high school has long honored him with the Bob Newhart Stage.
He went on to receive his bachelor's degree from Loyola University Chicago in 1952. A theater at the Mundelein Center at the Loyola Lake Shore Campus in Rogers Park also bears Newhart's name.
Newhart gave credit to the Jesuits for more than just his education.
"I think it gave me the somewhat twisted way I have of looking at life," Newhart told Gerasole in 2017. "I think I'm indebted to the Jesuits for that."
After a stint in the U.S. Army, Newhart attended Loyola University Law School, but flunked out after 18 months, according to archive news reports. He then began working as an accountant with U.S. Gypsum in Chicago.
Newhart's official website notes that he found accounting boring, and would call up a friend, Ed Gallagher, to improvise comedy routines.
They were advised to record and syndicate their routines, which was a success. But Gallagher, an advertising executive, got a job in New York and moved there in 1959—while Newhart stayed in Chicago and had to go it alone, his website noted.
Newhart got the attention of Chicago disc jockey Dan Sorkin, who in turn got him a meeting with the head of Warner Brothers Records, his website noted. Warner Brothers offered him a contract, and his record, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart" was the first comedy album to top the Billboard charts.
Newhart moved to Los Angeles in 1961, but his first CBS sitcom, "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-1978), was set back in his hometown Chicago. Newhart's character, Bob Hartley, was a Chicago psychologist—and the show open depicted him leaving an office in from the Magnificent Mile near the Wrigley Building, getting on a Chicago Transit Authority 'L' train, and arriving at the Thorndale Beach Condominium building at 5901 N. Sheridan Rd.
A recent Chicago Magazine article noted that the building is still known around the neighborhood—and to many residents—as the Bob Newhart Building.
A sign acknowledging the building's connection to the Bob Newhart Show was installed in 2022. A statue of Newhart sitting in an armchair can be also found at Navy Pier.
Newhart also returned to Chicago for numerous special events. One such event preserved on archive video was the 1978 Chicago Emmy Awards ceremony—which Newhart hosted at the Drury Lane Theatre at Water Tower Place. The awards ceremony aired on CBS Chicago, and Newhart also introduced such Channel 2 News icons as Bill Kurtis, Johnny Morris, and Walter Jacobson as celebrity presenters with jokes referencing each of their backgrounds.
"Chicago will always be home. It's a great city to grow up in—especially if you're Catholic, because you assume everybody else is Catholic," Newhart quipped at the 1978 show. "I thought the entire world was Catholic when I grew up. Everybody I knew was Catholic. I assumed everybody on Saturday just automatically went to confession."
Saint Ignatius College Prep President John Chandler knew Newhart well. Outside of his dry humor and quick wit, Chandler said Newhart was earnest, quiet, welcoming, and a man of deep faith and conviction—who never lost his ties with Chicago.
"I think part of his wit, his humor, his sensibility reflect his Midwestern experience and that of Chicago," Chandler said. "He was a proud West Sider where he grew up, and he never forgot that—and certainly incorporated, I think, many of those traits and characteristics in his own humor and his own performance."
Newhart has been revered as a Saint Ignatius alum by generations of students. Many younger folks know Newhart for his performance in "Elf" back in 2003, and Saint Ignatius students recreated part of the movie for Newhart's last visit there several years ago.
Another well-known comedian, Tom Dreesen, noted that Newhart was among the many who got his start at a certain legendary Chicago club. CBS Chicago caught up with Dreesen at Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse on Rush Street.
"This is Gibsons Steakhouse, but it used to be Mister Kelly's. And when you made it at Mister Kelly's in Chicago, you made the big time. This was it. This was the place everybody aspired to be if you were in showbusiness—and Bob Newhart was the example of that," Dreesen said. "Bob Newhart became a major star and a major comedian, and he never once used a foul word, not one—and he was loved by all."
Reflecting on how Newhart inspired him, Dreesen said since Newhart was a Chicago boy, he himself felt like maybe another local boy could make it big as well.
"He will always be that bright light when someone needs a smile," Chandler said, "and I really hope that future generations will pull out the vinyl, pull out the YouTube, pull out some reruns of some of his shows, and see how humor can be clean, how humor can be entertaining, and how humor can be respectful."
Gerasole noted in his 2017 report that Newhart always visited Chicago whenever he could—with two sisters living in the area.
He was also a diehard Cubs fan. On X, then Twitter, Newhart was thrilled to fly a "W" flag for the Cubs as they won the World Series in 2016.