[2] Instead he worked as a radio singer and appeared in stock plays including The Old Lady Shows His Medals.

The lack of leading men in World War II was a boost to Bowman's career and he co-starred with Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl and Jean Arthur in The Impatient Years.

He was the original actor who played Lucille Ball's husband in the audition program serving as a pilot for My Favorite Husband, airing on CBS Radio July 5, 1948;[5] however, he was not available for the full series after CBS approved it, so when it debuted later that month it starred Ball and Richard Denning as the leads.

[9] In the early 1950s, he became television's second Ellery Queen, stepping into the role after the first, Richard Hart, died unexpectedly of a coronary.

In 1969 he was hired by the Nixon administration to help freshman representatives and politicians from marginal districts with their delivery, content and staging.

[10] From 1974 until his death, he was Chairman of the Kingstree Group, an international consulting firm, which offers communication advice to business and political leaders all over the world.

Bowman was responsible for developing the 'conversational' approach to spoken communication, which is recognized today as the only successful model for business and political presentations and media interviews.