And We Call It Ballantine Note

Carl Ballantine, best remembered as Lester Gruber, the conniving leader of the crew of the PT 107 on McHale’s Navy, has died at the age of 92. He got his start as a comic magician in vaudeville style routines where his routines were either obviously staged or failed gloriously. His running comedic commentary was still good enough for him to boast that, although he never actually performed a trick, he was the first magician to headline in Las Vegas. He also played Lycus the slave merchant in the 1972 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, starring Phil Silvers, he played a friend of Buddy Young, Jr. at the Shriners Club in Mr. Saturday Night, and had cameos as a magician on The Cosby Show, Night Court, Blacke’s Magic, Alice, Fantasy Island, and BJ and the Bear.