the song Buy a Bond Today. Around 1948, Block wrote the material for an album for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis which was to be used as their audition for entry into television. Block also attained what columnist Hedda Hopper described as a "cushy deal" at a major film studio. By the late 1940s, Block was at the top of his profession. He was earning a four-figure weekly salary in a day when the average household income was just over $2,000 a year. He resided at the posh Hampshire House in the Central Park South area of New York City, a hotel which was home to Hollywood notables such as Frank Sinatra, Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, and William Wyler. He even dictated his jokes to a secretary. However, Block's father remained unimpressed by his son's success. After attending a radio show Block had written, which ended with tumultuous applause from the studio audience, his father said, "Well, are you ready to go back to law school?" The life of a comedy writer Columnist Elsa Maxwell, commenting on Block's approach to writing, said he was "serious – almost academic – about being funny." Block was once asked what was the hardest material to write for a comedian. He quipped, "The ad libs!" While it was widely believed that emcee Phil Baker ad-libbed the popular game show Take It or Leave It (later renamed The $64 Question), most of the shows were actually written by Block. An example of what appears to be casual conversation, but was actually a joke written by Block, was for entertainer Kenny Murray to say to his television studio audience: "I don't care whether you laugh at my jokes or not. But it will be pretty embarrassing for you if people all over the country find out you don't have a sense of humor." Lamenting the amount of comedy material a writer needs to supply for a weekly radio show, Block said, "The only difference between us and white mice on a wheel, is that we have ulcers." In order to meet the demand, Block did employ, at least on one occasion, other writers to assist him. Norman Barasch described Block giving him his first writing job at $75 a week when he ghost-wrote jokes for him while Block was head writer for Milton Berle and Ed Wynn. It was not only the volume of material that