Radio: The Perfect Schnook

Alan Young decided when he was 14 that he would be an actor and that his specialty would be the role of the likable dolt—a type that show business calls a "schnook" (rhymes with took). Competing with such notable professional chumps as Dennis Day, Ozzie Nelson and Dagwood (Arthur Lake), Young was only a passable schnook in his 1944-47 radio show, a fair-to-medium specimen in his movie roles (Margie, Chicken Every Sunday, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College). But in his carefully planned opening TV show for Esso Standard Oil Co., aired in the East...

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