Bob Cummings

I've mentioned in previous posts several famous people who were either born in the Ozarks or grew up here. Another such person, whom I don't believe I've discussed on this blog before, is Robert "Bob" Cummings. Cummings was a famous film and television actor. In the 1940s and early 1950s, he was known mainly as a film actor for comedies like the Bride Wore Boots with Barbara Stanwyck and dramas like Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. During the latter fifties, he turned to television and had his own show, a popular comedy called The Bob Cummings Show.
Cummings was born in Joplin in 1910 and grew up there. His father was a doctor on the first staff of St. John's Hospital there, and Dr. Cummings also established a hospital in Webb City. Bob's mother was a Science of Mind minister. Bob learned to fly airplanes at a very young age, and when he was in high school, he earned money by charging residents of Joplin $5 to take them for airplane rides. When the government started licensing flight instructors, Cummings was issued Certificate #1, making him the first officially licensed flight instructor in the U.S. After high school graduation at Joplin, Cummings briefly attended Drury College in Springfield before moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later to New York to pursue an acting career.