100 and 220 yard sprints, member of Zeta Beta Tau (Alpha Beta, Chicago) fraternity, and editor of the university humor magazine. Phil Baker Block had paid his way through college selling material to comedian and radio emcee Phil Baker at $20 a joke ($300 in 2010 dollars). While still in college, he was Baker's head writer. However, getting into Baker's employ had required persistence and some chicanery. Block originally met Baker when he and his then writing partner, Phil Cole, introduced themselves while Baker was performing in Chicago. Based upon Baker's dismissive "Sure, sure, next time you're in New York look me up" the two promptly followed him to New York. Informed by his agent that he didn't know where Baker was, they went to every likely restaurant leaving the message "When Mr. Baker comes in, tell him that Block and Cole are here." Eventually discovering the suburb where Baker resided, but not the address, they devised the ruse of pretending to send him a wire from the local telegraph office. The attendant noticed the recipient and said "Why, Mr. Baker lives just a few blocks from here!" At Baker's home they told the maid, "Tell Mr. Baker that Block and Cole are here." Angered by all the restaurant messages, Baker charged to the door demanding "Who are Block and Cole, anyway?" Amused by the response that they were "his new writers", Baker met them at his offices the next day. Reading the script, they suggested a joke for his show, but once again he sent them on their way. Despondent and halfway back to Chicago they listened to Baker's radio show which included their joke. They turned the car around and armed with a new comedy routine were subsequently hired. After two years of studying law, Block quit for the profession of comedy writing. Writing career Block was considered one of the best writers of comedic radio scripts of the 1940s. During his days as a comedy writer, Time magazine described Block as a "serious, curly-haired, stocky ... gag-factory" who "resembles actor Edward G. Robinson". Radio, Broadway, Hollywood The 1930s and 1940s were the Golden Age of radio and there were significant financial rewards to be made for those writing for radio comedy programs. Phil Baker, for whom Block was the head writer, reportedly spent $1,500 per week on his three writers, equivalent to $24,000 in 2010 dollars. However,