Lucy's Favorite Boss, Gale Gordon

Gale Gordon, whose real name is Charles Aldrich, was born in 1906 and was one of Lucy's favorite actors (and friends) to work with for over forty years.

Gale and Lucy began working together on Lucy's radio show "My Favorite Husband" in 1948 and continued all the way through to her final television show "Life With Lucy" in 1986.

By 1933 Gale was the highest paid radio actor in Hollywood. Among his most famous roles were Flash Gordon and Inspector Lestrade along with Basil Rathbone in Sherlock Holmes. Gale also joined the cast of the "Fibber McGee and Molly" show in 1941 and remained for 12 seasons. His television career began with Eve Arden's show "Our Miss Brooks" (fun fact, my dad was a frequent extra on that show), which led to "Dennis the Menace".

Gale was actually Lucy's first choice to play Fred Mertz but other contractual obligations kept him from taking the job so Lucy had to settle for the occasional guest appearance as Ricky's boss at the Tropicana.

Gale Gordon died at the age of 89 in July of 1995 of lung cancer.