- As with fellow "professional drunks" Jack Norton and Foster Brooks, he was a nondrinker in private life.
- On the commentary of The Simpsons (1989) Season Five DVD, the show writers admit that Barney Gumble was based in part on Fontaine's Crazy Guggenheim.
- Father of 11 children.
- Parents were circus performers: father Ray Fontaine - strong man and mother Anna McCarthy - trapeze artist.
- He had a good singing voice when not in character, something he proved both on Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine (1962) and in the best-selling album "Songs I Sing on 'The Jackie Gleason Show'". The latter went to number one on the Billboard Album Charts in 1962.
- Inducted into the Haverhill [Massachusetts] Citizens Hall of Fame.
- The character and voice of "Pete Puma" in the Warner Brothers cartoon Rabbit's Kin (1952) was based on Fontaine's character of "Crazy Guggenheim." Pete's voice was provided by Stan Freberg. Freberg reprised this voice in another Warners cartoon and in 1990 on Tiny Toon Adventures (1990).
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