Bob Newhart believed Minneapolis played a pivotal role in his comedy career

Bob Newhart, who died Thursday at the age of 94, last played the Twin Cities in 2019 as a headliner at the Minneapolis Comedy Festival. Before his appearance, he spoke to the Star Tribune by phone about how the market here came through for him at a make-or-break time in his career.

“I recorded an album for Warner Bros. in January of 1960 and never heard back from them,” he said. “A few months later, I called them up and said, ‘I don’t know if you remember me, but I made a comedy record for you and I haven’t heard anything.’ They said, ‘It’s going crazy in Minneapolis.’”

The late Howard Viken at WCCO Radio was putting Newhart’s sketches on the air every chance he got.

“They were even publishing in the paper what times certain bits would be airing, like: ‘Abe Lincoln at 5:30 p.m.,’” Newhart said.

That record, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” would become one of the bestselling comedy albums of all time and would win a Grammy for album of the year in 1961.

The legendary comedian was so grateful that he recorded much of his follow-up, 1960′s “The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!,” at Freddie’s Cafe, once the hippest joint in Minneapolis.

It was while appearing at that club that he forged a friendship with “Laugh-In” co-host Dick Martin, who wound up directing the last episode of “Newhart” in 1990, still considered one of the cleverest finales in TV history.

“I can’t remember what hotel he was staying at, but he called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to come out to Interlachen [country club] and play golf with him and Dan Rowan [Martin’s comedy partner],” Newhart said. “He didn’t know me from Adam, but that’s how it was in those days with fellow nightclubbers.”

At the end of the chat, Newhart remembered that Martin had been staying at the Radisson.

When he was told that he had quite a memory, he responded in the affirmative.

“Yes,” Newhart said. “But I can’t remember what I had for breakfast.”