Talk:Orson Bean

Stage Career

I took out from Bean's accomplishments the statement that he was a succesful director. I see no evidence for this at either IMDB or Broadway Data Base.

I think it is worth including a section on his stage career, in which (as an actor) he had greater success--or larger roles--than he ever acheived in films. I intend to do this shortly.

I'm placing the plays here for storage and later use.

Illya Darling [Original, Musical] Also Starring: Orson Bean [Homer Thrace] I Was Dancing [Original, Play] Performer: Orson Bean Never Too Late [Original, Play, Comedy] Starring: Orson Bean [Charlie] Subways Are for Sleeping [Original, Musical, Comedy] Also Starring: Orson Bean [Charlie Smith] Nature's Way [Original, Play, Comedy] Performer: Orson Bean [Billy Turk] Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter [Original, Play, Comedy] Starring: Orson Bean [George MacCauley] John Murray Anderson's Almanac (The Merry Minuet)

Perhaps also a little discussion of his books and his involvment with Orgonomy.Meb53 22:58, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

He does theatre work with the Pacific Resident Theatre [1]. MisfitToys 23:41, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Personal Memory

I have a personal story on how I was first introduced to Orson Bean. I was in pre-school and one of my favorite TV Shows was "To Tell The Truth". The reason was Orson Bean. Having no clue what the show was about, I looked forward to seeing Orson put a characture on his numbered votes. I would write numbers 1, 2, 3 with charactures like Orson.

Amazing, I can still vividly remember the renaissance panel of the show; Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, Kitty Carlisle and host Bud Collyer. I could easily identify them and would talk about them to my older brothers and siters as though I knew them. My siblings could identify with Bean because of the precocious 5-year-old.

The imagiary mahem of a child would temporarily cease at 3:00 Eastern Time to watch an adult game show. On rare occasions, I was able to convice my mother, on the days she was not working, to forgo one of her Daytime Soap Operas so I can watch the exploits of Orson Bean.

The makings of this writer's creativity started in front of a small, black-and-televsion sitting high on the shelf as a colorful helium ballon flying away absorbing Orson's artistry.

By the early 1970's, "To Tell The Truth" would continue its run in syndication. After school, I would rush home to watch Orson and his cohorts (Bill Cullen sits in Tom Poston's spot and Garry Moore is host) match wits with a team of challengers. Better understading the format of the show, I still looked forward to Bean's unique scribes on the retangler voting card. Orson's run with the "Truth" ended shortly afterwards and so did my interest in the show.

Looking back some 30-plus years later, corny it may sound, Orson Bean has indirectly influenced my less than normal childhood and adult life.

A couple of years back, the Game Show Network network used to show classic clips of "To Tell The Truth" with that wonderful cast from the mid-1960's. Sadly, like seemingly everything else in society, the network decided to go to a youth movement peppering its line up with those interminable reality shows.

Here hoping this article will educate the our Website-crazed culture of an underrated TV icon who not only entertained, but educated as well. Here's keeping Orson Bean in our memory!

                                                                         - Tim Kornegay

Cousin of Coolidge?

The article claims that "Bean is a second cousin to former President of the United States Calvin Coolidge." Do we have a source for this claim, which on the surface seems incomplete or spurious? Second cousins are of the same generation from a common ancestor. Check the cousin article. If we start getting into "second cousin three times removed", perhaps we will be onto something, but surely Bean and Coolidge are from different generations; they were born over 50 years apart. -Phoenixrod 18:13, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

On the Dennis Miller Radio Show, Sep 08, 2009, Bean explained that his grandmother and Coolidge's mother were sisters. At one point, Bean's grandfather and Coolidge shared a bedroom. According to Bean, his grandfather never liked Coolidge. As Bean's grandfather and Coolidge were first cousins, that makes Bean Coolidge's first cousin twice removed (not his second cousin). Milkchaser (talk) 19:00, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Fifteenth Street School

George Burr Leonard's book Education and Ecstasy mentioned Bean founded The Fifteenth Street School in New York, along the lines of the Summerhill School.

Orson Bean pre-Blacklist and today

I seem to remember Bean making a paper eucalypsis tree while doing his monologue before his blacklisting and move to Australia after which I totally lost track of him until just today in reading a Slate article [2] where he is connected with Ann Coulter and other right wing elements. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Windem (talk • contribs) 23:35, 24 April 2007 (UTC).

he is in a category about orgone energy

Why? The article doesn't mention it. Sticky Parkin 18:49, 6 November 2008 (UTC) aaah I see it's because he wrote a book Me and the Orgone. Some info could be added about it here. Sticky Parkin 18:56, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Classic routine deserves mention?

Though it is dated and perhaps offensive to some, mention might be made of Bean's classic "Two Chinese guys who go to an American resturant" routine, in which he does all of the usual cliches in reverse. 76.195.221.83 (talk) 02:06, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

King Bilbo Baggins?

I am puzzled that he played the voice of "King Bilbo Baggins". I read the books quite thoroughly. I don't recall Bilbo ever having been kinged. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.96.134.66 (talk) 01:43, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

On To Tell the Truth

Although the article calls him a "longtime panelist" on TTTT, I believe he was a rotating member of the panel, on for a week at a time (along with the likes of Soupy Sales, Joe Garagiola and Nipsy Russell, as opposed to Bill Cullen, Kitty Carlisle, and Peggy Cass, who were there week-in and week-out).

I also remember that Bean, when writing down on the card the number of the person he thought was the "real [Joe Doaks, or whoever]," would incorporate it into a picture relevant to whatever the segment was about (e.g., if it was about snakes, he might draw the number as a snake). (See also the "Personal Memory" above.) 66.234.204.13 (talk) 18:27, 28 December 2011 (UTC)