Posts
Of course I remember Edie Adams, who died yesterday from pneumonia and cancer, for her performance as Fred MacMurray's secretary in the Oscar-winning film "The Apartment," but what I'll really remember her for was something she didn't do.
Her husband's weekly television program, "The Ernie Kovacs Show," was must-see television for me when it aired. I laughed hysterically no matter how many times I saw the The Nairobi Trio, three derby-wearing apes, miming to the tune "Solfeggio." During one spell, he had this running gag with trap doors and you never knew when it would be sprung. I remember once Jimmy Durante was a guest on Kovacs show and he did a takeoff on his own television program, complete with the ending in which Durante put on his coat and hat, turned to the camera and said "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are." He would then walk out a back door into a barren stage illuminated by three spotlights shining on it. When he would get to the first spotlight, Durante would turn to the audience and doff his hat. Same with the second. When he did it at the third spotlight, it was the signal for the show's ending credits to roll and Durante turned again and disappeared into the darkness. However, on Kovacs' show, when Durante reached the second spotlight, the trap door opened and he was gone.
Kovacs loved to do parodies on other television shows of the era. One week it was announced that the upcoming show would feature a parody of "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle," which starred Irish McCalla, someone I considered a pretty hot babe at the time. I couldn't wait to see Edie Adams as Sheena because Edie was a pretty hot babe herself and I was anxious to see her in the skimpy leopard-skin outfit Sheena wore. The skit begins. An intrepid band of jungle explorers are trapped by something (I can't remember exactly what) when one of them looks offstage and cries "Look, it's Sheena." And here she comes swinging across the stage on a vine. Only it isn't Edie Adams. It's Kovacs himself, in a blonde wig, his ever-present cigar protruding from beneath his thick mustache, the leopard-skin outfit fitted over a white body stocking. I fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard.
So, Edie, here's to you. I never saw you as Sheena. But that means I'll never forget you either.
Her husband's weekly television program, "The Ernie Kovacs Show," was must-see television for me when it aired. I laughed hysterically no matter how many times I saw the The Nairobi Trio, three derby-wearing apes, miming to the tune "Solfeggio." During one spell, he had this running gag with trap doors and you never knew when it would be sprung. I remember once Jimmy Durante was a guest on Kovacs show and he did a takeoff on his own television program, complete with the ending in which Durante put on his coat and hat, turned to the camera and said "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are." He would then walk out a back door into a barren stage illuminated by three spotlights shining on it. When he would get to the first spotlight, Durante would turn to the audience and doff his hat. Same with the second. When he did it at the third spotlight, it was the signal for the show's ending credits to roll and Durante turned again and disappeared into the darkness. However, on Kovacs' show, when Durante reached the second spotlight, the trap door opened and he was gone.
Kovacs loved to do parodies on other television shows of the era. One week it was announced that the upcoming show would feature a parody of "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle," which starred Irish McCalla, someone I considered a pretty hot babe at the time. I couldn't wait to see Edie Adams as Sheena because Edie was a pretty hot babe herself and I was anxious to see her in the skimpy leopard-skin outfit Sheena wore. The skit begins. An intrepid band of jungle explorers are trapped by something (I can't remember exactly what) when one of them looks offstage and cries "Look, it's Sheena." And here she comes swinging across the stage on a vine. Only it isn't Edie Adams. It's Kovacs himself, in a blonde wig, his ever-present cigar protruding from beneath his thick mustache, the leopard-skin outfit fitted over a white body stocking. I fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard.
So, Edie, here's to you. I never saw you as Sheena. But that means I'll never forget you either.
No comments:
Post a Comment