I had always thought of the C-97 series as
a B-29/50 with the top half of the fuselage cut off and replaced to form that distinctive double bouble cross section the Stratolifter series is known for. Don’t know how accurate that simplification is, but it’s how I view it…

You’ve got the basic idea…but it’s more like the fuselage lobe was added onto the lower B-29 structure. The six YC-97s first flew with B-29 engines and shorter tail, them was reworked with different engines and the larger tail used in the B-50. I haven’t looked at the dates yet to see whether the C-97A or B-50 came first, not that it really matters.

…there was a Twin Bonanza? How was I not aware of this?

Yes, the model 50 was a very large twin.
At first Beech toyed with the idea of having two engines stacked on top of each other in the nose driving a single prop. As you might expect, the fuselage was deeper and generally scaled up to accommodate the large cowling necessary. Well, the CAA mandated a firewall between the engines, so they reverted to conventional wing mounts.
However they kept the large fuselage…it’s basically a Bonanza with a wide center section as well as being deeper. They used the expensive Bonanza tooling for the cabin windows and right side door.
It’s so wide it can sit three across the front seat area and has various seating arrangements in the back…a couch, toilet area and airstair doors were options.
The US Army bought some as L-23/U-8s.

Beech later made a real “twin Bonanza”…a regular size Bonanza fuselage with their Travel Air (basically smaller engines and straight tail) and Baron series.

The Twin Bonanza was enlarged and developed into a “cabin class” twin, the Queen Air…which became the King Air when PWC turboprops were added.