Jim Jordan, ‘Fibber McGee’
Regarding your story on the passing of Jordan, let me add to the history of the “dad-burned closet.” The writer that came up with the famous closet routine was my brother, the late Leonard L. Levinson, who borrowed it from his home on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
His wife, Ruth Keller Levinson, was a fastidious housekeeper with one idiosyncrasy--she couldn’t part with gift boxes. She stored an assortment of boxes on the top shelf of the hall closet, and as the volume grew, a trip to the closet became an adventure of dodging falling boxes.
Leonard incorporated the infamous closet into one of the programs, and I, as the 18-year-old assistant-assistant writer, typed the script.
Later, in what was to become one of the first “spin-offs,” Leonard created the “Great Gildersleeve” program and wrote it for the first season. World War II came along, and as he was beyond military age, he volunteered to fight with words as a member of the Office of War Information in Washington.
BOB LEVINSON
Woodland Hills
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