Comedian-actor Paul Lynde is remembered for his role as Harry McAfee in the Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie and its later film version, his slew of guest spots on TV sitcoms including Uncle Arthur on Bewitched, and certainly as the “center square” on the game show Hollywood Squares, where he delivered saucy one-liners for more than a decade.
The Mount Vernon, Ohio, native is also not remembered, having died in 1982 of a heart attack at the age of 55.
Certainly, some of his ardent fans in the area will remember Lynde’s arrest by Rossford police in the early hours of Aug. 13, 1974, for intoxication, and his Perrysburg court appearance the next day — which drew excited fans and media coverage.
Lynde was making his first appearance in town as the star of touring production Mother is Engaged at the Masonic Auditorium (later the Stranahan Theater). In a review by The Blade’s then-music critic Boris Nelson, Lynde was praised far more than the play itself: “I never suspected from the endless TV exposures he has suffered that he is as good an actor as he revealed himself to be live. And Paul Lynde is indeed the play.”
Lynde’s offstage performance at about 3 a.m. in the parking lot of the Riverview Apartments, on East River Road in Rossford, however, did not draw such praise.
As reported in The Blade, the actor was walking to his car when he began to shout obscenities at Patrolman Richard Caro, who was making a patrol of the apartment complex. The patrolman was unable to calm Lynde and called for assistance from another patrolman, who was also unable to calm him. Lynde was arrested and taken to the Perrysburg city jail, where he was held for about an hour.
The next day, word about Lynde’s Perrysburg Municipal Court appearance created a small frenzy of celebrity gawking. The municipal building’s grounds were filled with bicycles driven by the star’s young fans, parked cars lined the streets, and the courtroom was standing room only after its 75 seats were quickly claimed.
With an attorney by his side, Lynde said nothing during his appearance in front of Judge Judson Spore. The comic-actor pleaded no contest to a charge of public intoxication and was fined $100, plus $10 for court fees. Lynde was then led speedily out of the courtroom’s rear door, past a crowd of fans, and into the car of the local theater promoter and producer who helped bring Mother is Engaged to town. One boy grumbled of the star’s hasty exit, “He wouldn’t even sign autographs.”
Lynde would later refer to “the incident in Toledo” on an occasional Hollywood Squares. He also returned to the Toledo stage at least twice more, with touring productions of Stop, Thief, Stop, in 1975, and The Impossible Years in 1978. For promotion of the latter, Lynde stopped by the studio of WSPD (now WTVG), where he delivered, more or less, the weather forecast.
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First Published March 18, 2019, 10:00 a.m.