Gallagher, comedian with local connections, dies

Gallagher, the comedian whose rise to watermelon-smashing fame was precipitated by years of playing Tampa Bay comedy clubs and opening shows for area rock acts, died Friday morning in Los Angeles, according to his manager. He was 76.

A native of North Carolina, Leo Gallagher graduated from Tampa’s Plant High School, and earned a degree in English literature from the University of South Florida.

He began honing his satirical style while working as road manager for Winter Haven singer/comedian Jim Stafford, whose early 1970s hit included “Swamp Witch” and “Spiders and Snakes.” The latter song was co-written by Stafford and Pasco County’s David Bellamy, later of the Bellamy Brothers.

Stafford’s stage shows included a segment featuring a talking guitar. The joke-cracking “voice” of the instrument was provided by Gallagher.

In 1974, Stafford, his record producer Phil Gernhard – and Gallagher – left the bay area for Los Angeles. David Bellamy and his brother Howard soon followed (Gernhard produced their first record, the No. 1 “Let Your Love Flow”).

Stafford, Gallagher and the Bellamy Brothers shared a home in the Hollywood Hills. “Jodie Foster lived down the street secretly,” Gallagher said in the book Phil Gernhard Record Man, “Across the street was a house built for Charlie Chaplin’s girlfriend Pola Negre.”

Gallagher was a cast member of The Jim Stafford Show, a Gernhard-produced summer replacement series on ABC in 1975. That same year, he made his first appearance on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.