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George Fenneman

Name:George Witt Fenneman
Born:November 10, 1919
Died:May 29, 1997
Place of death:Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation:game show host, announcer
Years active:1942-1993
Known for:announcing You Bet Your Life

George Watt Fenneman (b. November 10, 1919 – d. May 29, 1997) was an American radio and television announcer.

Biography[]

Fenneman was born in Peking (now Beijing), China, the only child of American parents in the import-export business. He was nine months old when his parents moved to San Francisco, California, where he grew up. In 1942 he graduated from San Francisco State College with a degree in speech and drama and took a job as an announcer with a local radio station. During the Second World War, he worked as a broadcast correspondent for the U.S. Office of War Information. In 1946 he moved to Los Angeles and resumed his radio career.

He is most remembered as the announcer and good-natured sidekick for Groucho Marx’s comedy/quiz show vehicle You Bet Your Life, which began in 1

The Marx Brothers
George Fenneman 1919-1997

The Marx Brothers - Los Hermanos Marx - האחים מרקס - マルクス兄弟 - Les Freres Marx - 마르크스형제 - Братья Маркс - Bröderna Marx - برادران مارکس - I Fratelli Marx - Братята Маркс - Bracia Marx - Germans Marx - الأخوة ماركس - 馬克思兄弟 - Αδελφοί Μαρξ - Irmãos Marx    

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Obituary: George Fenneman

"There never was a comedian who was any good unless he had a good straight man," wrote Groucho Marx in 1976. "And George was straight on all four sides."

A square was just one of the many things Groucho called his straight man during their long association; tall, handsome and elegant, George Fenneman bore the Marxian wisecracks with gentlemanly dignity for 14 years on the high-rated comedy quiz You Bet Your Life. Starting on radio in 1947 and transferring to television in 1950, the show was less a quiz than a vehicle for Groucho's wit, with Fenneman reading the commercials, introducing the contestants and working out the scores.

Until the series ended in 1961, Marx subjected his foil to a relentless stream of politically incorrect Chinese laundry jokes, all because he happened to have been born in Peking. "My father was in Import-Export," Fenneman told the biographer Hector Arce. "He and my mother'd been married for 10 years. I guess they didn't expect any children, and I'm an only child."

He was nine months old when his parents moved to San Francisco

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