Joe Bova, 81, Tony-nominated actor, Uncle Joe' for kids on Cleveland TV
deb...@comcast.net
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Alana Baranick
Plain Dealer Reporter
Joe Bova, a Tony Award-nominated actor who once was host of a
children's television show in his native Cleveland, died Sunday at the
Actors' Fund Retirement Home in Englewood, N.J.
The 81-year-old New York City resident got his start on the Broadway
stage in 1959 as the Prince to Carol Burnett's Princess in the original
cast of "Once Upon a Mattress." He reprised the role in the 1964
television production of the comedy.
Bova spent most of the 1980s playing Bert Berry in Gower Champion's
revival of "42nd Street" starring Jerry Orbach and Tammy Grimes. He was
nominated in 1970 for a Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Play for
his performance in "The Chinese and Dr. Fish."
"He would probably say his most significant work was with Shakespeare
in the Park in Manhattan," said his wife, Lee Lawson. He took on such
roles as Richard III and played Mercurio in a production of "Romeo and
Juliet" starring Martin Sheen.
"People in Cleveland knew him as Uncle Joe," his wife said.
The eldest son of a grocer who sold produce at the West Side Market and
owned Bova's Food Fair at Fairmount Circle in University Heights, he
showed promise as a performer at an early age. He performed with the
Curtain Pullers, the youth acting troupe at the Cleveland Play House.
He also appeared in shows at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights and handled
acting chores on WTAM and WGAR radio shows in the 1930s. At age 14, he
had a tryout with RKO motion pictures.
Bova, a Glenville High School graduate, studied acting at Northwestern
University before and after his service in the Army during World War
II.
In the late 1940s, he became program director at WNBK, Cleveland's new
NBC television station. When the station manager decided that a
children's show was needed, Bova was drafted for the job. For six
years, he entertained local kids as "Uncle Joe," their TV buddy with a
banjo and a trick hat. NBC brass, aware of Uncle Joe's popularity,
summoned the actor to New York City in the 1950s.
Bova performed at the Play House with such actors as William Powell and
Dom DeLuise in the mid-1950s in such plays as "Stalag 17" and "Best
Foot Forward."
After getting established in the New York theater, he returned to
Cleveland periodically for acting gigs and visits with his family. His
parents and three younger siblings -- Phil, who lives in Lyndhurst,
Barbara Losik of South Russell and the late Margie McGarrell -- sat in
the audience at the Hanna Theatre when Bova appeared in "Irma La Douce"
in 1962.
Brad Ferguson
<deb...@comcast.net> wrote:
> In the late 1940s, he became program director at WNBK, Cleveland's new
> NBC television station. When the station manager decided that a
> children's show was needed, Bova was drafted for the job. For six
> years, he entertained local kids as "Uncle Joe," their TV buddy with a
> banjo and a trick hat. NBC brass, aware of Uncle Joe's popularity,
> summoned the actor to New York City in the 1950s.
The obit, written as it was for Cleveland, doesn't mention that Joe
Bova had a kid show in NYC as well, although it wasn't on WNBC. It was
on WABC and followed Tommy Seven's show on the schedule -- 5:30 p.m., I
think. This would have been in 1960. I don't think Joe's NYC show
lasted very long.
I think Joe showed Little Rascals shorts, which would make sense as
WABC also showed them, unhosted, in the mornings. The only other thing
I remember about Joe's show was that he once hatched a chicken egg,
live, after a several-days-long run-up where we'd watch the egg in the
incubator, not doing much of anything. The perfect timing couldn't
have been anything other than dumb luck.
Godspeed, Joe.
Hyfler/Rosner
"Brad Ferguson" remembered:
The only other thing
> I remember about Joe's show was that he once hatched a
> chicken egg,
> live, after a several-days-long run-up where we'd watch
> the egg in the
> incubator, not doing much of anything. The perfect timing
> couldn't
> have been anything other than dumb luck.
You have the most amazing memory for stuff like this.
Mind-boggling.
Photo here:
http://www.tvparty.com/lostny2felix.html
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
Thanks for the pointer. Great page.
illdrive...@gmail.com
Sarah Ehrett's Lesbian Love Interest
> I think I remember him singing a song with the words "up in the hayloft we will go, we will go, we will go..up on the hayloft we will go, to tell a story." I was probably 6 or 7 when I watched Uncle Joe on tv and no one is still alive in my family for me to ask.
marcus
> I think I remember him singing a song with the words "up in the hayloft we will go, we will go, we will go..up on the hayloft we will go, to tell a story." I was probably 6 or 7 when I watched Uncle Joe on tv and no one is still alive in my family for me to ask.
I think he showed old cartoons or Little Rascals.
What I remember his commercials he did for Bosco (a chocolate flavored syrup)
A Friend
Actors' Fund retirement home in Englewood, NJ.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/theater/21bova.html?_r=0