Newhart became a television star in a rather roundabout fashion. In the late 1950s, following college, army service, and a few short-term jobs, he appeared to have settled into an accounting career, but his hobby was performing comedy routines on radio. Some of his demonstration tapes so impressed Warner Brothers' recording division that Warner signed him to record a comedy album, even though he had never performed on the concert stage. His first album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, was a major hit of 1960. His humor was intelligent and original; some of his now-classic routines involved an inexperienced security guard reporting King Kong's climb up the Empire State Building, Abraham Lincoln's publicist coaching him on the Gettysburg address, and Sir Walter Raleigh's boss hearing about the discovery of tobacco ("...you stick it between your lips...you set fire to it?"). Many of these routines were played out as telephone conversations, of which the audience heard only Newhart's side; often he ended the conversation with an indignant "Same to you, fella!"