Early Life
Foster Brooks was born in Louisville, Kentucky on May 11, 1912. He was one of eight sons. His career started in radio, most notably with station WHAS (AM) in Louisville. Brooks was a staff announcer, but his deep baritone voice was well-suited for singing as well. Brooks gained some measure of fame for his reporting of the Ohio River flood of 1937, where he was featured on emergency broadcasts by WHAS and also WSM (AM) out of Nashville, Tennessee. In 1952, Brooks appeared on local television in a short-lived spoof of Gene Autry and his "Singing Cowboys." He later worked in local broadcasting as a radio and TV personality in Buffalo and Rochester, New York before moving to the West Coast to launch a career as a standup comic and character actor.
On the syndicated Steve Allen Show of the 1960s, Allen introduced Brooks as an important movie producer. Brooks stumbled on stage doing his drunk act, fooling some of the other guests. Brooks claimed to be the executive in charge of editing movies for television. His biggest success, he said, was the famous movie The Three Commandments. His character also claimed to have invented the concept of removing clips from the movies and inserting commercials.
Singer Perry Como discovered Brooks at a golf tournament in North Carolina in 1969, giving the comedian his major break. Como chose Brooks to open for him, and when a manager balked at the newcomer, Como refused to perform. The manager acquiesced, and Brooks was an instant hit.
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