As we continue digitizing the contents of the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate Archive, we’re constantly uncovering new connections. A great example of this is a letter dated August 30, 1949, from Management, Inc. in Beverly Hills, California. The letter is written by Guy Gadbois, a talent business manager for the Joe De Bona Racing Company, and is addressed to Pancho’s Rancho Oro Verde. In it, Gadbois is requesting to book a room at Pancho Barnes’ motel at the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
If the name Guy Gadbois sounds familiar, it’s because it was later used as the name of a character played by Peter Sellers in the 1975 movie, Return of the Pink Panther. The character was a pompous, misogynistic figure who would often say, “I’m Guy Gadbois.”
So, where did Peter Sellers get that name? Interestingly, Gadbois was not only the business manager for Joe De Bona, a pilot, but also for actress Julie Andrews, who was married to Blake Edwards, the writer and director of the Pink Panther movies. It turns out that the character of Guy Gadbois was named in honor of the real-life talent business manager. So, while the character name in the Return of the Pink Panther movie might seem like a made-up funny choice at first, the connection becomes clear when you trace the relationships behind the scenes of the Pink Panther films. It wasn’t just a random name, there was a personal connection to Gadbois through Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards.
You can watch a clip that has been posted to YouTube by ‘PinkPantherClips’ to get a flair for the Guy Gadbois character:
