During the Seventies, head writer Bill Richmond was working with Bob at Bob's mansion at Toluca Lake on a TV special. Bob was reading The Wall Street Journal and grousing about how he had failed to take advantage of a stock manipulation all the way back in 1935.
Richmond looked around at Bob's palatial home and said, "Yeah, Bob, you could have been on Easy Street."
The guy was so very smart with his money. He bought a ton of real estate all over LA and Palm Springs etc and I’m sure made much more on all of that than he ever made from the movie industry. He actually made the right decisions financially. My dad knew him and only ever said good things about him. Of course his wife decided to stay married to him no matter what, and he did have quite a ladies’ man life.