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A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events. The term dates back to the appointment of Bernard André by Henry VII of England, though analogous appointments date back to ancient Greece and (in Padua) to Albertino Mussato.

Over a dozen national governments continue the tradition today.

Background[link]

In ancient Greece the laurel was sacred to the god Apollo, and was used to form a crown or wreath of honour for poets and heroes. This custom, first revived in Padua for Albertino Mussato,^[1] was followed by Petrarch's own crowning ceremony in the audience hall of the medieval senatorial palazzo on the Campidoglio on the 8th of April 1341.^[2] For lack of detailed knowledge on Roman precedents, these ceremonies took on the character of doctoral candidatures.^[3]

It has since become widespread, both in fact and as a metaphor. The word laureate or laureated thus came in English to signify eminence or association with glory (cf. Nobel laureate). Laureate letters were once the dispatches announcing a victory. The term laureate became associated with degrees awarded by European universities (the term baccalaureate for the degree of bachelor reflects this idea). As a royal degree in rhetoric, poet laureate was awarded at European universities in the Middle Ages. The term might also refer to the holder of such a degree, which recognized skill in rhetoric, grammar and language.

Poets Laureate by country[link]

Canada[link]

The Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate is appointed as an officer of the Library of Parliament. The position alternates between an English and French speaking laureate each term. Candidates must be able to write in both English and French, must have a substantial publication history (including poetry) displaying literary excellence and must have written work reflecting Canada, among other criteria.

The first ever Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate was awarded to George Bowering in 2002. In 2004, the title was transferred to Pauline Michel and in 2006 to John Steffler. His term ended on December 3, 2008 and Pierre DesRuisseaux was named the new laureate on April 28, 2009. In December, 2011, Fred Wah was named Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada.

Dominican Republic[link]

Poets Laureate of Dominican Republic include: Pedro Mir (1984).

Ethiopia[link]

Poets Laureate of Ethiopia include: Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin.

Germany[link]

Poets Laureate of Nazi Germany include: Hanns Johst from 1935 to 1945.

India[link]

Sripada Krishnamurty Sastry was the first poet laureate of Andhra Pradesh, India.

Tamil Nadu

Kannadasan was the poet laureate of Tamil Nadu at the time of his death.

Ireland[link]

The title Saoi, equivalent to Poet Laureate in Ireland but including artists and writers distinguished in other aspects of literature, may be held by up to 7 members of Aosdana at any given time. Holders include: dramatist Brian Friel and poet Seamus Heaney.

Netherlands[link]

The unofficial Poet Laureate of Netherlands is currently: Ramsey Nasr as Dichter des Vaderlands (Poet of the Fatherland). Gerrit Komrij was the first Dichter des Vaderlands. The title isn't officially designated but was created by Dutch media.^{[citation needed]}

New Zealand[link]

New Zealand has only had an official poet laureate for a few years. Originally sponsored by Te Mata vineyards and known as the Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate, the award is now administered by the National Library of New Zealand and the holder is officially called New Zealand Poet Laureate. The post is held for two years. Unlike the butt of sack traditionally offered to English poets laureate, New Zealand offers a Tokotoko, which is a carved wooden ceremonial orator's staff.

The first holder of the title was Bill Manhire who held the post of Poet Laureate from 1998–99. Other former Poets Laureate include, Hone Tuwhare (2000–01), Elizabeth Smither (2002–03), Brian Turner (2004–05), Jenny Bornholdt (2006–07), Michele Leggott (2008–09) and Cilla McQueen (2009–11). The current poet laureate is Ian Wedde (2011–2013).^[4][5]

Nigeria[link]

Poets Laureate of Nigeria include: Obo Aba Hisanjani.^{[citation needed]}

Saint Lucia[link]

Poets Laureate of Saint Lucia include: Derek Walcott.^{[citation needed]}

United Kingdom[link]

From the more general use of the term "poet laureate" arose its restriction in England to an official office of Poet Laureate, attached to the royal household. King James I essentially created the position as it is known today for Ben Jonson in 1617, although Jonson's appointment does not seem to have been made formally. The office was a development from the practice in earlier times when minstrels and versifiers formed part of the king's retinue. Richard Cœur-de-Lion had a versificator regis (English: king's poet), Gulielmus Peregrinus (William the Pilgrim), and Henry III had a versificator named Master Henry. In the fifteenth century, John Kay, a versifier, described himself as Edward IV's "humble poet laureate".

No single authentic definitive record exists of the office of Poet Laureate of England. According to Wharton,^{[citation needed]} King Henry I paid 10 shillings a year to a versificator regis. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400) was called Poet Laureate, being granted in 1389 an annual allowance of wine. W. Hamilton describes Chaucer, Gower, Kay, Andrew Bernard, John Skelton, Robert Whittington, Richard Edwards and Samuel Daniel as "volunteer Laureates".

John Skelton studied at the University of Oxford in the early 1480s and was advanced to the degree of "poet laureate" in 1488, when he joined the court of King Henry VII to tutor the future Henry VIII. The title of laureate was also conferred on him by the University of Louvain in 1492 and by the University of Cambridge in 1492–3.^{[citation needed]} He soon became famous for his rhetoric, satire and translations and was held in high esteem by the printer William Caxton, who wrote, in the preface to The Boke of Eneydos compyled by Vargyle (Modern English: The Book of the Aeneid, compiled by Virgil) (1490):

But I pray mayster John Skelton, late created poete laureate in the unyversite of Oxenforde, to oversee and correct this sayd booke.

The title of Poet Laureate, as a royal office, was first conferred by letters patent on John Dryden in 1670, two years after Davenant's death. The post then became a regular institution. Dryden's successor Shadwell originated annual birthday and New Year odes. The poet laureate became responsible for writing and presenting official verses to commemorate both personal occasions, such as the monarch's birthday or royal births and marriages, and public occasions, such as coronations and military victories. His activity in this respect has varied according to circumstances, and the custom ceased to be obligatory after Pye's death. The office fell into some contempt before Southey, but took on a new lustre from his personal distinction and that of Wordsworth and Tennyson. Wordsworth stipulated, before accepting the honour, that no formal effusions from him should be considered a necessity; but Tennyson was generally happy in his numerous poems of this class.

On Tennyson's death there was a considerable feeling that no possible successor was acceptable, William Morris and Swinburne being hardly suitable as court poets. Eventually, however, the undesirability of breaking with tradition for temporary reasons, and thus severing the one official link between literature and the state, prevailed over the protests against allowing anyone of inferior genius to follow Tennyson. It may be noted that abolition had been similarly advocated when Warton and Wordsworth died. Edward Gibbon had condemned the position's artificial approach to poetry:

From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been false and venal: but I much doubt whether any age or court can produce a similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in every reign, and at all events, is bound to furnish twice a year a measure of praise and verse, such as may be sung in the chapel, and, I believe, in the presence, of the sovereign. I speak the more freely, as the best time for abolishing this ridiculous custom is while the prince is a man of virtue and the poet a man of genius.

— Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Chapter LXX (footnote)

The salary has varied, but traditionally includes some alcohol. Ben Jonson first received a pension of 100 marks, and later an annual "terse of Canary wine". Dryden had a pension of £300 and a butt of Canary wine. Pye received £27 instead of the wine. Tennyson drew £72 a year from the Lord Chamberlain's department, and £27 from the Lord Steward's "in lieu of the butt of sack".

The present British Poet Laureate is Carol Ann Duffy, appointed poet laureate in May 2009.

Scotland

The Edinburgh Makar was traditionally seen as the unpaid equivalent of a poet laureate, tasked with representing and promoting poetry in Scotland. Since 2004, the Scottish Parliament has appointed an official Scots Makar, from the Makars of the various cities. On 16 February 2004, Professor Edwin Morgan was appointed to both the Edinburgh post and the national role. On his death he was succeeded (in January 2011) by Liz Lochhead.^[6]

Wales

Wales has had a long tradition of poets and bards under royal patronage, with extant writing from mediæval royal poets and earlier. An office of National Poet for Wales was established in April 2005. The first holder, Gwyneth Lewis, was followed by Gwyn Thomas

United States of America[link]

The United States Library of Congress has since 1937 appointed an official Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress until 1984. An Act of Congress changed the name of the position in 1985 to Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. A number of the American states' legislatures have created official government positions which are occupied by Poets Laureate who are prominent either locally, nationally, or sometimes both.

Laureates receive a US$35,000 stipend and are given the responsibility of overseeing an ongoing series of poetry readings and lectures at the library, and a charge to promote poetry. No other duties are specified, and laureates are not required to compose for government events or in praise of government officials. However, after the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, the Poet Laureate then in office, Billy Collins, was asked to write a poem to be read in front of a special joint session of Congress. Collins wrote "The Names" which he read on September 6, 2002, which is available in streaming audio and video.^[7] When the $35,000 stipend was originally instituted, the amount was quite large and was intended to allow the poet laureate to abandon worries about earning a living and devote his or her time entirely to writing poetry. That amount has remained the same over the years, so the intent of making it a nice living for a poet is no longer being fulfilled. Now it functions as a bonus for a poet who usually is teaching at a university and earns the bulk of his or her living that way.

U.S. Poets Laureate: Philip Levine was named the 18th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry of the United States.^[8] Levine will succeed W.S. Merwin, who was the country's seventeenth Poet Laureate. Former Poets: Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, Ted Kooser, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, Karl Shapiro, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wilbur, Joseph Brodsky, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Hass, Donald Hall, Robert Pinsky (three terms), Mark Strand, Audre Lorde and Maxine Kumin, among others.

District of Columbia

Minnesota

The State of Minnesota has appointed a Poet Laureate since 2007. The first appointee to the position was Robert Bly. In 2011, Bly was succeeded by Joyce Sutphen.

Utah

The state of Utah has appointed a Poet Laureate since 1997. The first Poet Laureate was David Lee who was appointed from January 24, 1997 to December 2002. Followed by Kenneth W. Brewer from January 24, 2003 to March 15, 2006. The third Poet Laureate was Katharine Coles from October 27, 2006 to May, 2012. Currently the Utah Poet Laureate is Lance Larsen, appointed May 3rd by Governor Gary Herbert.

Virginia

The commonwealth of Virginia has appointed a Poet Laureate since December 18, 1936. The first Poet Laureate was Carter Warner Wormeley; he was appointed for life. The appointments made from 1942 until 1992 were for one year at a time, many were for more than one term. In 1992, the appointment was increased to a two-year term, and beginning in 1998 the appointments were made from list of nominees presented by the Poetry Society of Virginia; which was established at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1923.^[9]

Colorado

The State of Colorado appointed one of the most widely known Poets Laureate of the late 20th century, singer/songwriter John Denver. ^[10]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Poet Laureate of Canada
• Map of Canadian Poets Laureate
• Poets Laureate of South Africa
• List of U.S. Poets Laureate
• Poets Laureate for the Commonwealth (state) of VIRGINIA, United States of America via The Poetry Society of Virginia
• Poets Laureate for the Commonwealth (state) of VIRGINIA, United States of America via The Library of Congress, Washington DC
• Poet Laureate of Winona, Minnesota (2009 - )

Ted Kooser (born 25 April 1939) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006.^[1]

Biography[link]

Life[link]

Born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939, Kooser earned a BS at Iowa State University in 1962 and the MA at the University of Nebraska in 1968. He is the author of twelve collections of poetry. He is former vice-president of Lincoln Benefit Life, an insurance company, and lives on land near the village of Garland, Nebraska. He owned a book publishing company, Windflower. He teaches as a Visiting Professor in the English department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is married to Kathleen Rutledge, former editor of the Lincoln Journal Star.

Career[link]

On August 12, 2004, he was named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the Librarian of Congress to serve a term from October 2004 through May 2005. In April 2005, Ted Kooser was appointed to serve a second term as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. During that same week Kooser received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book "Delights and Shadows" (Copper Canyon Press, 2004).

Kooser lives in Garland, Nebraska, and much of his work focuses on the Great Plains. Like Wallace Stevens, Kooser spent much of his working years as an executive in the insurance industry, although Kooser sardonically noted in an interview with the Washington Post that Stevens had far more time to write at work than he ever did. Kooser has won two NEA Literary Fellowships (in 1976 and 1984), the Pushcart Prize, the Nebraska Book Awards for Poetry (2001) and Nonfiction (2004), the Stanley Kunitz Prize (1984), the James Boatwright Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2005).

He hosts the newspaper project "American Life in Poetry."^[2]

Bibliography[link]

• Official Entry Blank. (1969).
• Grass County. (1971).
• Twenty Poems. (1973).
• A Local Habitation and a Name. (1974).
• Not Coming to Be Barked At. (1976).
• Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems. (1980).
  • includes Abandoned Farmhouse
• One World at a Time. (1985).
• The Blizzard Voices. (1986).
• Weather Central. (1994).
• A Book of Things. (1995).
• Riding with Colonel Carter. (1999).
• Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison. (2001).
• Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry. (with Jim Harrison) (Copper Canyon Press, 2003).
• Delights and Shadows. (Copper Canyon Press, 2004).
• Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps. (2004).
• Flying At Night : Poems 1965-1985. (2005).
• Lights on a Ground of Darkness: an evocation of place and time. (2005).
• The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice For Beginning Poets. (2005).
• Valentines. (2008).

contributor to: Letters to a Young Iowan, 2007, Ice Cube Press

References[link]

1. ^ "Poet Laureate Timeline: 2001-present". Library of congress. 2009. http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-2001-present.html. Retrieved 2009-01-01. 
2. ^ American Life in Poetry

External links[link]

• Official website
• Ted Kooser: Online Resources from the Library of Congress
• American Life in Poetry, Kooser's syndicated newspaper feature
• Author interview in Guernica Magazine (Guernicamag.com)
• Ted Kooser biographical summary
• Linton Weeks, Washington Post, "Poet Laureate's Prized Words", April 5, 2005, page C1
• A review of Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser.
• Fresh Air radio interview – 4 April 2005
• Television Profile of Ted Kooser - NET Television

Billy Collins
Collins at the Calabash Literary Festival in St. Elizabeth's, Jamaica, May 2010.
Born	(1941-03-22) 22 March 1941 (age 71) New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Professor, Poet, Author, Anthologist
Nationality	American

Billy Collins (born William James Collins March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003.^[1] He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004-2006.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Collins was born in New York City to William and Katherine Collins. Katherine Collins was a nurse who stopped working to raise the couple's only child. Mrs. Collins had the ability to recite verses on almost any subject, which she often did, and cultivated in her young son the love of words, both written and spoken. Billy Collins attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains and received a B.A. (English) from the College of the Holy Cross in 1963; he received his M.A. and Ph.D in English from the University of California, Riverside. His professors at Riverside included Victorian scholar and poet Robert Peters.^[2][3] In 1975 Collins founded The Mid Atlantic Review with his good friend and co-editor, Michael Shannon.^[4]

Career[link]

Collins in La Jolla, San Diego, 2008

Collins is a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College in the Bronx, where he joined the faculty in 1968 and has taught for over thirty years. Additionally, he is a founding Advisory Board member of the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies at Lehman College. He also has taught and served as a visiting writer at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York as well as teaching workshops across the U.S. and in Ireland. Collins is a member of the faculty of SUNY Stonybrook Southampton College, where he teaches poetry workshops. Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2001 and held the title until 2003. Collins served as Poet Laureate for the State of New York from 2004 until 2006. Collins has been named Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Winter Park Institute in Winter Park, Florida, an affiliate of Rollins College. He is on the editorial board at The Alaska Quarterly Review, not actively involved since 2000.^[5][6] He is on the advisory board at the Southern Review, and is similarly named in other journals.

As U.S. Poet Laureate, Collins read his poem The Names at a special joint session of the United States Congress on September 6, 2002, held to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks.^[7] Though, unlike their British counterparts, U.S. poets laureate are not asked or expected to write occasional poetry, Collins was asked by the Librarian of Congress to write a poem especially for that event. Collins initially refused to read "The Names" in public, though he has read it two times in public since 2002. He vows not to include it in any of his books, refusing to capitalize in any way on the 9/11 attacks. However, "The Names" was included in the The Poets Laureate Anthology, put out by the Library of Congress, for which Collins wrote the foreword. The only published version of "The Names," it contains a number of regrettable typographical errors. As Poet Laureate, Collins instituted the program Poetry 180 for high schools. Collins chose 180 poems for the program and the accompanying book, Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry-- one for each day of the school year. Collins edited a second anthology, 180 More Extraordinary Poems for Every Day to refresh the supply of available poems. The program is online, and poems are available there for no charge.^[8]

In 1997, Collins recorded The Best Cigarette, a collection of 34 of his poems, that would become a bestseller. In 2005, the CD was re-released under a Creative Commons license, allowing free, non-commercial distribution of the recording. He also recorded two of his poems for the audio versions of Garrison Keillor's collection Good Poems (2002). Collins has appeared on Keillor's radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, numerous times, where he gained a portion of his large following. In 2005, Collins recorded Billy Collins Live: A Performance ^[9] in New York City. Collins was introduced by his friend, actor Bill Murray.

Billy Collins has been called "The most popular poet in America" by the New York Times.^[10] When he moved from the University of Pittsburgh Press to Random House, the advance he received shocked the poetry world — a six-figure sum for a three-book deal, virtually unheard of in poetry.^[11] The deal secured for Collins through his literary agent, Chris Calhoun of Sterling Lord Literistic, with the editor Daniel Menaker, remained the talk of the poetry world, and indeed the literary world, for quite some time.^[12]

Over the years, the U.S. magazine Poetry has awarded Collins several prizes in recognition of poems they publish. During the 1990s, Collins won five such prizes. The magazine also selected him as "Poet of the Year" in 1994. In 2005 Collins was the first annual recipient of its Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and in 1993, from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

One of his most critically acclaimed works, "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July" ^[13] has been added to the preserved works of the United States Native American literary registry as being deemed a culturally significant poem.

Awards and honors[link]

• 1983, Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts
• 1986, Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts
• 1991, National Poetry Series publication prize - winner, Questions About Angels
• 1992, New York Public Library 'Literary Lion'
• 1993, Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
• 1994, Poetry Magazine - Poet of the Year
• 1995, Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, Academy of American Poets - shortlist, The Art of Drowning
• 2001, American Irish Historical Society Cultural Award
• 2001–2003, US Poet Laureate
• 2004–2006, New York State Poet Laureate^[14]
• 2005, Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry

Poetry collections[link]

• Pokerface (1977)
• Video Poems (1980)
• The Apple That Astonished Paris. University of Arkansas Press. 1988. ISBN 978-1-55728-024-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=LcwWbWcOGQAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=billy+collins#v=onepage&q&f=false. ; University of Arkansas Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-55728-823-3
• Questions About Angels (1991)
• The Art of Drowning University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-8229-5567-2
• Picnic, Lightning (1998)
• Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes (2000)
• Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems. Random House. 2001. http://books.google.com/books?id=_uxrn_B6nQIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=billy+collins#v=onepage&q&f=false. ; reprint Random House, Inc., 2002, ISBN 978-0-375-75519-4
• Nine Horses. Random House, Inc.. 2002. ISBN 978-1-58836-278-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=6MYci63f-yoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=billy+collins#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• The Trouble with Poetry. 2005. http://books.google.com/books?id=dtMhdlM_q48C&printsec=frontcover&dq=billy+collins#v=onepage&q&f=false. ; reprint Random House, Inc., 2007, ISBN 978-0-375-75521-7
• She Was Just Seventeen (2006)
• Ballistics. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4000-6491-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=lTiSa7Oxvd8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=billy+collins#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• "Horoscopes for the Dead" (2011) ISBN 978-1-4000-6492-2

Editor[link]

• Billy Collins, ed. (2003). Poetry 180. Random House, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-8129-6887-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=ssxHjRNX9-QC&printsec=frontcover&dq=billy+collins#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Billy Collins, ed. (2005). 180 More Extraordinary Poems for Every Day. Random House, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-8129-7296-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=LBD3cfm2_dcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=billy+collins#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Billy Collins, ed. (2010). Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds. Illustrator David Sibley. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-15084-2. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Billy Collins

• Collins online resources at the Library of Congress
• Billy Collins profile at PoetryFoundation.org
• Billy Collins profile at poets.org
• George Plimpton (Fall 2001). "Billy Collins, The Art of Poetry No. 83". Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/482/the-art-of-poetry-no-83-billy-collins. 

Ernie Kovacs
Ernie Kovacs on the set of his television show, 1956.
Birth name	Ernest Edward Kovacs
Born	(1919-01-23)January 23, 1919 Trenton, New Jersey United States
Died	January 13, 1962(1962-01-13) (aged 42) Los Angeles, California United States
Medium	newspaper radio television magazine film
Nationality	Hungarian-American
Years active	1949–1962
Genres	Character comedy Surreal comedy Improvisational comedy Prop comedy Spoof Sketch
Influences	Buster Keaton
Influenced	David Letterman Chevy Chase Craig Ferguson Dan Rowan Dick Martin George Carlin Martin Scorsese James Lipton Jimmy Kimmel
Spouse	Bette Lee Wilcox (1945–1952) (divorced) 2 children Edie Adams (1954–1962) (his death) 1 child
Notable works and roles	Silent Show–Eugene The Nairobi Trio Percy Dovetonsils
Emmy Awards
Emmy 1962 outstanding electronic camera work (posthumously) Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 1988 Television Hall of Fame

Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian and actor.

Kovacs' uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comedic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his death in an automobile accident. Such iconic and diverse shows as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live, The Uncle Floyd Show, Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and TV hosts such as David Letterman and Craig Ferguson have been influenced by Kovacs.^[1][2][3][4] Chevy Chase thanked him during his acceptance speech for his Emmy award for SNL.^[5] Chase appeared in the 1982 documentary called Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius, speaking again of the impact Kovacs had on his work.^[6]

On or off screen, Kovacs could be counted on for the unexpected, from having marmosets as pets to wrestling a jaguar on his live Philadelphia television show.^{[7][8][9][10]} When working at WABC (AM) as a morning-drive radio personality and doing a mid-morning television show for NBC, Kovacs disliked eating breakfast alone while his wife was sleeping in after her Broadway performances. His solution was to hire a taxi driver to come into their apartment with his own key and whose job was to make breakfast for them both, then take him to the WABC studios.^[11][12]

While Kovacs and his wife Edie Adams received Emmy nominations for best performances in a comedy series in 1957, his talent was not formally recognized until after his death.^[13] The 1962 Emmy for outstanding electronic camera work and the Directors' Guild award came a short time after his fatal accident.^[14][15] A quarter century later, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.^[16] Kovacs also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television.^[17] In 1986, the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) presented an exhibit of Kovacs' work, called The Vision of Ernie Kovacs. The Pulitzer Prize winning television critic, William Henry III wrote for the museum's booklet:^[18]

Kovacs was more than another wide-eyed, self-ingratiating clown. He was television's first significant video artist. He was its first surrealist... its most daring and imaginative writer. He was... television's first and possibly only auteur. And he was a genius. In commercial terms, a genius is any entertainer... who finds a new way to make money. Kovacs never fit that description. Kovacs' genius lay in the realm of art. There, a genius is someone who causes an audience to look at the world in a new way.

Early life and career[link]

Kovacs' father Andrew immigrated from Hungary at age 13. He worked as a policeman, restaurateur, and bootlegger; the last so successfully that he moved his wife Mary, and sons Tom and Ernie, into a 20-room mansion in the better part of Trenton.^[19][20]

Though a poor student, Kovacs was influenced deeply by his Trenton Central High School drama teacher, Harold Van Kirk, and received an acting scholarship at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1937 with Mr. Van Kirk's help. The end of Prohibition and the Depression brought hard financial times to the family. When Kovacs began drama school, all he could afford was a fifth floor walk-up apartment on West 74th Street in New York City.^[21][22] During this time, Ernie managed to see a lot of "Grade B" movies (admission was only a dime); many of them were the spark of his routines later on.^[19]

A 1938 local news story shows him as a member of the Prospect Players, not yet sporting his trademark mustache.^[23] Like any aspiring actor, Kovacs used his class vacation time to pursue roles in summer stock companies. While working in Vermont in 1939, he became so seriously ill with pneumonia and pleurisy that his doctors didn't expect him to survive. Over the next year and a half, his comedic talents emerged as he entertained both doctors and patients with his antics during stays at several hospitals.^[24] While hospitalized, he also developed a lifelong love and understanding of classical music through the gift of a radio, which he kept tuned to WQXR. By the time he was released, his parents had separated, and he went back to Trenton, living with his mother in a two-room apartment over a store.^[19][25]

His first paid entertainment work came in 1941, as a disc jockey on Trenton's WTTM radio. Ernie spent the next nine years with WTTM, becoming the station's director of Special Events along the way; in this position he did things like trying to see what it was like to be run over by a train (leaving the tracks at the last minute) and broadcasting from the cockpit of a plane for which he took flying lessons. Kovacs was also involved in local theater; a news clipping from a local paper ran a photo and the news that he was doing some directing for the Trenton Players Guild in early 1941.^[26] The Trentonian, a local weekly newspaper, offered him a column in June 1945; Ernie called it "Kovacs Unlimited".^[19][27]

Start in television[link]

Showing up at NBC's Philadelphia affiliate, WPTZ (now KYW-TV), for an audition wearing a barrel and shorts got him his first television job. Kovacs' first show was Pick Your Ideal, a fashion and promotional program for the Ideal Manufacturing Company. Before long he was also the host of Deadline For Dinner and Now You're Cooking, shows featuring tips from local chefs.^[28] When Kovacs' guest chef did not show up in time to go on the air, Ernie offered a recipe for "Eggs Scavok" (Kovacs spelled backward).^[29][30] They soon led to a show called Three to Get Ready.^[18][29]

Kovacs and Gertrude on 3 To Get Ready, 1951. Gertrude was one of the donations of Kovacs' viewers when he asked them to bring anything they no longer wanted to the WPTZ-TV lobby.

Three to Get Ready was groundbreaking, as the first regularly scheduled early morning (7–9am) show in a major TV market. Prior to this, it had been assumed that no one would watch TV at such an early hour.^[31] While the show was billed as early morning news and weather, Kovacs provided this and more in an original manner. When rain was in the weather forecast, Kovacs would get on a ladder and pour water down on the staff member reading the report.^[29] Goats were auditioned for a local theater performance and tiny women appeared to walk up his arm.^[32][33][34] Kovacs also went outside of the studio for some of his sketches, running through a downtown Philadelphia restaurant in a gorilla suit in one, and looking into a construction pit saying it was deep enough to see to China, when a man in Chinese clothing popped up, said a few words in the language, and ran off.^[29] Since the weekly prop budget for the show was a scant $15, Kovacs once asked his viewers to send unwanted items to Channel 3; they filled the station's lobby.^[29]

The only character no one ever saw inspired more gifts; he was Howard, the World's Strongest Ant. From the time of his WPTZ debut, Howard received over 30,000 gifts from Kovacs' viewers, including a mink lined swimming pool.^[33] Ernie began his Early Eyeball Fraternal & Marching Society (EEFMS) while doing Three to Get Ready. There were membership cards with by-laws and ties; the password was a favorite phrase of Kovacs'-"It's Been Real".^{[28][29][35][36]} Ernie brought the EEFMS to New York in 1952 when he moved to WCBS.^[37][38] The success of Three to Get Ready proved the theory wrong and was one of the factors that led NBC to create The Today Show. WPTZ did not begin broadcasting Today when it premiered on January 14, 1952; network pressure caused the station to drop Three to Get Ready for it at the end of March of that year.^[29][39][40]

In early 1952, Kovacs was also doing a late morning show for WPTZ called Kovacs On the Corner. The show had a Sesame Street feel, as Kovacs would walk through an imaginary neighborhood, talking with various characters such as Pete the Cop (played by Pete Boyle, father of the late actor Peter Boyle) and Luigi the Barber. As with Three to Get Ready, Kovacs did some special segments. "Swap Time" was one of them; viewers could bring their unwanted items to the WPTZ studios to trade them live on the air with Kovacs. Creative control was wrested from Kovacs soon after the show's debut; beginning on January 4, 1952, it ended on March 28, 1952—the same day as Three to Get Ready.^[29][30] Kovacs then moved on to WCBS-TV with a local morning show and a later network one. While both were cancelled, the morning program suffered the same fate as his WPTZ show-the air time being taken by the station's network in 1954.^[41]

Visual humor and characters[link]

At WPTZ, Kovacs began using the ad-libbed and experimental style that would become his reputation, including video effects, superimpositions, reverse polarities and scanning, and quick blackouts. He was also noted for abstraction and carefully timed non sequitur gags and for carefully allowing the so-called fourth wall to be breached.^[33] Kovacs' cameras commonly showed his viewers activity beyond the boundaries of the show set—including crew members and outside the studio itself. Kovacs also liked talking to the off-camera crew and even introduced segments from the studio control room.^[42] Ernie frequently made use of accidents and happenstance, incorporating the unexpected into his shows. One of Kovacs' Philadelphia broadcasts was "enlivened" by a homeless man who sought shelter inside the TV studio; Kovacs invited him onto the set, where he slept for the duration of the telecast, but nonetheless was introduced on camera to the audience as "Sleeping Schwartz." He was once knocked out when a pie in the face still had the plate under it.^[43]

Kovacs' love of spontaneity extended to his crew, who would occasionally play on-air pranks on him to see how he would react.^[44] During one of his NBC shows, Kovacs was appearing as the inept magician Matzoh Heppelwhite. The sketch called for the magician to frequently hit a gong, which was the signal for a sexy female assistant to bring out a bottle and shot glass for a quick snort of alcohol. Stagehands substituted real liquor for the iced tea normally used for the gag. The look on Ernie's face upon taking the first shot was priceless when he realized that he would be called upon to drink a shot of liquor for each successive gong. Kovacs pressed on with the sketch and was quite inebriated by the end of the show.^[45] On another occasion, as "Percy Dovetonsils", he found that his drink contained a live fish.

Kovacs helped develop camera tricks still common almost 50 years after his death, one of which became one of his signature gags. His character Eugene sat at a table to eat his lunch, but as he removed items one at a time from a lunch box, he watched them inexplicably roll down the table into the lap of a man reading a newspaper at the other end. When Kovacs poured milk from a thermos bottle, the stream flowed in a seemingly unusual direction. Never seen on television before, the secret was using a tilted set in front of a camera tilted at the same angle.^[46]

He constantly sought new techniques and used both primitive and improvised ways of creating visual effects that would later be done electronically. One innovative construction involved attaching a kaleidoscope made from a toilet paper roll to a camera lens with cardboard and tape and setting the resulting abstract images to music.^[47] Another was a soup can with both ends removed fitted with angled mirrors. Used on a camera and turning it could put Kovacs seemingly on the ceiling.^[29] An underwater stunt involved Kovacs—an inveterate cigar smoker—sitting in an easy chair, reading his newspaper and somehow smoking his cigar. Removing it from his mouth, Kovacs was able to exhale a puff of white smoke, all while floating underwater. The trick: the "smoke" was a small amount of milk which he filled his mouth with before submerging. Kovacs repeated the effect for a Dutch Masters commercial on his ABC game show, Take a Good Look.^[48]

One of the special effects he employed made it appear as if he was able to look through his assistant, Barbara Loden's, head. The illusion was performed by placing a black patch on Loden's head and standing her against a black background while one studio camera was trained on her. A second one photographed Kovacs, who used the studio monitor to position himself exactly so that his eye would appear to be looking through a hole in her head.^[46]

He also developed such routines as an all-gorilla version of Swan Lake, a poker game set to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the Silent Show, in which Eugene interacts with the world accompanied solely by music and sound effects, parodies of typical television commercials and movie genres, and various musical segments with everyday items (such as kitchen appliances or office equipment) moving in sync to music.^[49][50] A popular recurring sketch was The Nairobi Trio, three derby-hatted apes miming mechanically and rhythmically to the tune of Robert Maxwell's "Solfeggio".

Kovacs could use extended sketches and mood pieces or quick blackout gags lasting only seconds. Some could be expensive, such as his famous used car salesman routine with a jalopy and a breakaway floor: it cost $12,000 to produce the six-second gag.^[51] He was also one of the first television comedians to use odd fake credits and comments between the legitimate credits and, at times, during his routines.^[52][53]

Kovacs reportedly disliked working in front of a live audience, as was the case with the shows he did for NBC in the 1950s. He found the presence of an audience distracting, and those in the seats frequently did not understand some of the more elaborate visual gags and special effects, which could only be appreciated by watching studio monitors instead of the stage.^[54]

Like many comedians of the era, Kovacs created a rotation of recurring roles. In addition to the silent "Eugene," his most familiar characters were the fey, lisping poet Percy Dovetonsils, and the heavily accented German disc jockey, Wolfgang von Sauerbraten. Mr. Question Man, who answered viewer queries, was a satire on the long-run (1937–56) radio series, The Answer Man. Others included horror show host Auntie Gruesome, bumbling magician Matzoh Heppelwhite, Frenchman Pierre Ragout, and Miklos Molnar, the sardonic Hungarian host of a cooking show.^[55] The Miklos character wasn't always confined to a kitchen; Kovacs performed a parody of The Howdy Doody Show with "Buffalo Miklos" as the host.^[54][56][57] Poet Percy Dovetonsils can also be found playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on a disappearing piano and as a "Master Detective" on the "Private Eye-Private Eye" presentation of the US Steel Hour on CBS March 8, 1961.^[58][59] On the same show, the Nairobi Trio abandons their instruments for a safe cracking job; still with a background of "Solfeggio" but speaking, two of the three appear in an "Outer Space" sketch.^[60][61]

Kovacs being made up for the U.S. Steel Hour "Private Eye-Private Eye" program in 1961. In addition to playing many of his usual cast of characters on the show, Kovacs played a butler (upper right), a skin diver (lower left), and Santa Claus.

Kovacs never hesitated to lampoon those considered institutions of radio and television. He had a late night talk show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, on DuMont Television Network's New York flagship station, WABD, that began in April 1954. Stage, screen, and radio notables often dropped by as guests. Archie Bleyer, head of Cadence Records, came to chat one evening. Bleyer had been the long-time orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey's radio and television shows. He had been fired by Godfrey the year before along with fellow cast member, Julius La Rosa, when it was discovered Bleyer's record company had a contract with La Rosa without Godfrey's knowledge. Bleyer and Kovacs were shown in split-screen, with Kovacs wearing a red wig, headphones, and playing a ukelele in a Godfrey imitation, while talking with his guest.^[42]

Kovacs' television programs included Three to Get Ready (an early morning program seen on Philadelphia's WPTZ from 1950 through 1952), It's Time for Ernie (1951, his first network series),^[29][62] Ernie in Kovacsland, (a summer replacement show for Kukla, Fran and Ollie, 1951),^[63] The Ernie Kovacs Show (1952–56 on various networks),^[42][53] a twice-a-week job filling in for Steve Allen as host of The Tonight Show on Mondays and Tuesdays (1956–57), and game shows Gamble on Love, One Minute Please,^[7] Time Will Tell (all on DuMont),^[42] and Take a Good Look (1959–61).^[64] Kovacs later publicly accused Allen of stealing material and characters from him and then performing them in only slightly obfuscated form.^{[citation needed]} (For example, Kovacs' "Mr. Question Man" bore a resemblance to Allen's "Answer Man," and later, Johnny Carson's long-running Carnac character.)^[65] Kovacs also had a short stint as a celebrity panelist on What's My Line?, but took his responsibilities less than seriously, often eschewing a legitimate question for the sake of a laugh. An example: Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, the founder of the automobile company, was the program's "mystery guest." Previous questioning had established that the mystery guest's last name was synonymous with an automobile brand, Kovacs asked, "This may seem like a long shot, sir, but by any chance are you Abraham Lincoln?"—a reference to the Ford Motor Company's brand of luxury automobile.^[66] When Kovacs gave an interview admitting that he was absent from the show when he wanted to go out for dinner on a Sunday, his stint on the panel show was over.^[67]

Kovacs became a regular on NBC Radio's Monitor beginning in late 1958, often using Mr. Question Man in his radio monologues.^[68][69][70]

TV specials[link]

Kovacs slapped the hood of this prop car, sending it down into a hole in the ground, circa 1960–1961.

He also did several television specials, including the famous Silent Show (1957), featuring his character, Eugene, the first all-pantomime prime-time network program. After the break-up of the Dean Martin--Jerry Lewis partnership, NBC offered Lewis the opportunity to host his own 90-minute color TV special. Lewis opted to take only 60 minutes, leaving the network 30 minutes to fill; no one wanted this time slot, but Kovacs was willing to have it.^[71] The program contained no spoken dialogue and contained only sound effects and music.^[72] Starring Kovacs as the mute, Chaplinlike character "Eugene," the program contained surreal sight gags.^[73] Kovacs developed the Eugene character during the fall of 1956 when hosting the Tonight Show. Expectations were high for the Lewis program, but it was Kovacs' special that received the most attention; Kovacs received his first movie offer, had a cover story in Life, and received the Sylvania Award that year.^[18] In 1961, Kovacs and his co-director, Joe Behar, were recipients of the Directors Guild of America Award for a second version of this program over the ABC network.^[30]

A series of monthly half-hour specials for ABC in 1961–62 is often considered his best television work. Shot on videotape using new editing and special effects techniques, it won a 1962 Emmy Award.^[14] Kovacs and co-director Behar also won the Directors Guild of America award for an Ernie Kovacs Special based on the earlier silent "Eugene" program. Kovacs' last ABC special was aired posthumously, on January 23, 1962.^[15] What made Kovacs unique may also have been what made him a hard sell to television viewers used to situation comedies and variety shows. Having a cult following at best, Kovacs rarely had a highly rated show. His friend Jack Lemmon was once quoted as saying that no one ever understood Kovacs' work because "he was always 15 years ahead of everyone else."^{[citation needed]}

"The existence of these separate shows is testament to both the success and failure of Ernie Kovacs," says the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "A brilliant and innovative entertainer, he was a failure as a popular program host; praised by critics, he was avoided by viewers... The Ernie Kovacs shows were products of the time when television was in its infancy and experimentation was acceptable. It is doubtful that Ernie Kovacs would find a place on television today. He was too zany, too unrestrained, too undisciplined. Perhaps Jack Gould of The New York Times said it best for Ernie Kovacs: 'The fun was in trying'."^[74]

Other shows had greater success while using elements of Kovacs' style. Laugh-In producer George Schlatter was married to actress Jolene Brand, who had appeared in Kovacs' comic troupes over the years and had been a frequent participant in his pioneering sketches. Laugh-In made frequent use of the quick blackout gags and surreal humor that marked many Kovacs projects. Another link was a young NBC staffer, Bill Wendell, Kovacs' usual announcer and sometimes a sketch participant. From 1980–95, Wendell was the announcer for David Letterman, whose show and style of humor were greatly influenced by Kovacs.^[44]

The Music Man[link]

Kovacs loved music and its humor possibilities; he was also known for his eclectic musical taste. His main theme song was called "Oriental Blues" by Jack Newlon, which borrows heavily from "Rialto Ripples", a quirky piano number by George Gershwin. The rendition most often heard was a piano-driven trio version, but for his primetime show in 1956, music director Harry Sosnik presented a full-blown big band version.

The German song "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" from The Threepenny Opera (later anglicized to the well-known "Mack the Knife"), frequently underscored his blackout routines. Robert Maxwell's "Solfeggio" became associated closely enough with the derby-hatted apes that it became better known among Kovacs admirers as "The Song of the Nairobi Trio."

An unusual treatment of "Sentimental Journey", by Mexican bandleader Juan García Esquivel, accompanied video of an empty office in which various items (pencil sharpeners, water coolers, wall clocks) come to life in rhythm with the music, a variation on several famous animations of a decade earlier.^[52] The original three-minute presentation was outlined by Kovacs in a four-page, single-spaced memo to his staff. The perfectionist Kovacs can be seen by reading it, as he describes in minute detail what had to be done and how to do it. The memo ends with this: "I don't know how the hell you're going to get this done by Sunday--but 'rots of ruck." (signed) "Ernie (with love)".^[75] Kovacs also made careful use of the shrill singer Leona Anderson—who had somewhat less than a classical (or even listenable) voice, by some estimations—in comic vignettes.^[76]

Kovacs used classical music as background for silent sketches or abstract visual routines, including "Concerto for Orchestra", by Béla Bartók; music from the opera "The Love of Three Oranges", by Sergei Prokofiev; the finale of Igor Stravinsky's suite "The Firebird"; and Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks". He may have been best known for using Haydn's "String Quartet, Opus 3, Number 5" (the "Serenade," actually composed by Roman Hoffstetter), which was used in a series of 1960-61 commercials he created and videotaped for his sponsor, Dutch Masters.

For the show of May 22, 1959, Kovacs On Music, Kovacs began by saying, "I have never really understood classical music, so I would like to take this opportunity to explain it to others." Presented in the form of the gorilla version of Swan Lake which differed from the usual performance only in the persona of the dancers, giant paper clips moving to music and other sketches, Ernie's offerings showed his instinct for the classics and made them more comprehensible to his viewers.^{[49][19][54][77]}

He also served as host on a jazz LP to benefit the American Cancer Society in 1957, Listening to Jazz with Ernie Kovacs. It was a 15-minute recording featuring some of the giants of the art, including pianists Jimmy Yancey and Bunk Johnson, soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, guitarist Django Reinhardt, composer/pianist/bandleader Duke Ellington and longtime Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams. Both the Library of Congress and the National Library of Canada have copies of this recording in their collections.^[78]

In print[link]

Kovacs wrote a novel, Zoomar: A Sophisticated Novel about Love and TV (Doubleday, 1957), based on television pioneer Pat Weaver; it took Kovacs only 13 days to write.^[79][80] In a 1960 interview, Edie Adams related that the novel was written after Kovacs' experiences with network television while he was preparing to air the Silent Show.^[81] The 1961 British edition was retitled T.V. Medium Rare by its London based publisher, Transworld.

While he worked on several other book projects, Kovacs' only other published title was How to Talk at Gin, published posthumously in 1962. He intended part of the book's proceeds to benefit Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.^[82] During 1955–58, he wrote for Mad (his favorite humor magazine), including the feature "Strangely Believe It!" (a parody of Ripley's Believe It or Not! that was a regular feature on his TV shows) and "Gringo," a board game with ridiculously complicated rules that was renamed "Droongo" for the TV show.^[83] Kovacs also wrote the introduction to the 1958 collection Mad For Keeps: A Collection of the Best from Mad Magazine.

Television guest star[link]

Kovacs as Barney Colby, the super detective, 1959.

Kovacs and Edie Adams were the guest stars on the final installment of the one-hour I Love Lucy format, known in network airings as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and in syndication as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. Kovacs and Adams appeared in the episode, "Lucy Meets the Moustache," which filmed March 2 and aired April 1, 1960. It was the last time Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared together before the breakup of their marriage. According to Adams, Lucy and Desi barely talked to each other in between scenes, and divorce proceedings began March 3, the day after the show's filming.^[84]

Kovacs also appeared in roles on other television programs. For General Electric Theater's "I Was a Bloodhound" in 1959, Kovacs played the role of detective Barney Colby, whose extraordinary sense of smell helped him solve many seemingly impossible cases. Colby was hired by a foreign country to recover their symbol of royalty, a baby elephant, who was being held for ransom.^[85][86]

Films[link]

Kovacs found Hollywood success as a character actor, often typecast as a swarthy military officer (almost always a "Captain" of some sort) in such films as Operation Mad Ball, Wake Me When It's Over, and Our Man in Havana.^[87] He garnered critical acclaim for roles such as the perennially inebriated writer in Bell, Book and Candle and as the cartoonishly evil head of a railroad company (who resembled Orson Welles' title character in Citizen Kane) in It Happened to Jane, where he had his head shaved and his remaining hair dyed grey for the role.^[88][89] In 1960, he played the off center base commander Charlie Stark in the comedy Wake Me When its Over. His own personal favorite was said to have been the offbeat Five Golden Hours (1961), in which he portrayed a larcenous professional mourner who meets his match in a professional widow played by Cyd Charisse. Kovacs' last film, Sail a Crooked Ship, was released shortly before his death.^[90]

Kovacs had been chosen to appear as Melville Crump in Stanley Kramer's star-packed comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, with Adams portraying his wife, Monica Crump. After his death, the role went to comedian Sid Caesar. Kovacs had also been slated to appear with Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak in The Notorious Landlady but was posthumously replaced by Fred Astaire.

Personal life[link]

First marriage[link]

Kovacs and his first wife, Bette Wilcox, were married on August 13, 1945. When the marriage ended, he fought for custody of their children, Elizabeth ("Bette") and Kip Raleigh ("Kippie"). The court awarded Kovacs full custody upon determining that his former wife was mentally unstable.^[91] The decision was extremely unusual at the time, setting a legal precedent. Wilcox subsequently kidnapped the children, taking them to Florida.^[92] After a long and expensive search, Kovacs regained custody. These events were portrayed in the 1984 film, Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter, which earned an Emmy Award nomination for its writer, April Smith.^{[93][94][95][96]}

Kovacs' first wife made a legal attempt to gain custody of her two daughters shortly after his death. She began August 2, 1962 by claiming $500,000 was her share of Kovacs' estate and charging her ex-husband had abducted the girls in 1955; Kovacs was granted legal custody of his daughters in 1952.^[91][97] On August 30, she filed an affidavit claiming Edie was "unfit" to care for the girls.^[98] Both Bette and Kippie testified they wanted to stay with Edie.^{[99][100][101]} Kippie's testimony was very emotional; in it she referred to Edie as "Mommy" and her birth mother as "the other lady."^[102] Upon hearing the verdict that the girls would remain in their home, Edie Adams broke down, saying, "This is what Ernie would have wanted. Now I can smile." Bette Kovacs' reaction was, "I'm so happy I can hardly express myself.", after learning she and her sister would not need to leave Edie.^[103]

Second marriage[link]

Kovacs and his second wife, Edie Adams, met in 1951 when she was hired to work on his WPTZ show, Three To Get Ready.^[29] Her appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts caught the eye of Kovacs' producer, and he asked her to audition for the program. A classically trained singer, she was able to perform only three popular songs. Edie said later, "I sang them all during the audition, and if they had asked to hear another, I never would have made it." ^[13][105] Quoting Kovacs, "I wish I could say I was the big shot that hired her, but it was my show in name only--the producer had all the say. Later on I did have something to say and I said it, 'Let's get married.'" ^[18][21]

After the couple's first date, Kovacs proceeded to buy a Jaguar, telling Adams he wanted to take her out in style. He was seriously taken with the beautiful and talented young woman, courting her with imagination and flair.^[7][22] Kovacs' attempts to win Adams' heart included hiring a mariachi band to serenade her backstage at the Broadway musical she was performing in and the sudden gift of a diamond engagement ring, telling her to wear it until she made up her mind.^[54] Ernie continued this romantic quest after the show went out of town.^[106]

Adams booked a six week European cruise which she hoped would let her make up her mind whether or not to marry Kovacs. After only three days away and many long-distance calls, she cut short her trip and returned to say "yes".^[19][22] They eloped and were married on September 12, 1954 in Mexico City.^[13] The ceremony was presided over by former New York City mayor William O'Dwyer and was performed in Spanish, which neither Kovacs nor Adams understood; O'Dwyer had to prompt each of them to say "Sí" at the "I do" portion of the vows.^[22][107] Adams, who had a very middle class upbringing in suburban New Jersey, was smitten by Kovacs' quirky ways; the couple remained together until his death. (Adams later said about Kovacs, "He treated me like a little girl, and I loved it—Women's Lib be damned!")^[22]

Adams also supported Kovacs' struggle to reclaim his two older children after the kidnapping by their mother. She also was a regular partner on his television shows. Kovacs usually introduced or addressed her in a businesslike way, as "Edith Adams". Adams was usually willing to do anything he envisioned, whether it was singing seriously, performing impersonations (including a well-regarded impression of Marilyn Monroe), or taking a pie in the face or a pratfall if and when needed. The couple had one daughter, Mia Susan Kovacs, born June 20, 1959.^[108][109]

Kovacs and his family shared a 16 room apartment in Manhattan on Central Park West that seemed perfect until Ernie went to California for his first movie role in Operation Mad Ball.^[46] The experience of the totally different, laid-back lifestyle of Hollywood made a big impression on him.^[110] He realized he was working far too much in New York; in California he would be able to work fewer hours, do just as well or better, and have more time for Edie and his daughters. At the time he was working most of the time and sleeping about two or three hours a night.^[12] When he was telling his girls a bedtime story and found himself thinking of writing it up instead, Ernie realized it was time for a change. Kovacs moved his family there in 1957, after Edie finished Li'l Abner on Broadway.^[79][111]

Death[link]

Kovacs was killed in an automobile accident in Los Angeles in the early morning hours of January 13, 1962. Kovacs, who had worked for much of the evening, met Adams at a baby shower given by Billy Wilder for Milton Berle and his wife, who had recently adopted a three-year-old boy. The couple left the party in separate cars.^[112] After a light southern California rainstorm, Kovacs lost control of his Chevrolet Corvair station wagon while turning fast, and crashed into a power pole at the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Boulevards. He was thrown halfway out the passenger side, dying almost instantly from chest and head injuries.^[113]

He may have lost control of the car while trying to light a cigar. A photographer managed to arrive moments later, and images of Kovacs in death appeared in newspapers across the United States.^[114][115] An unlit cigar lay on the pavement, inches from his outstretched arm.^[116] Years later, in a documentary about Kovacs, Edie Adams described telephoning the police impatiently when she learned of the crash. An official cupped his hand over the receiver, saying to a colleague, "It's Mrs. Kovacs, he's on his way to the coroner - what should I tell her?" With that, Edie Adams's fears were confirmed, and she became inconsolable. Jack Lemmon, who also attended the Berle party, identified Kovacs' body at the morgue when Adams was too distraught to do so.^[112]

After attending funerals for Hollywood friends, Kovacs had expressed his wishes to Adams that any funeral services for him be kept simple.^[82] In keeping with her husband's request, Adams made arrangements for Presbyterian services held at the Beverly Hills Community Presbyterian Church.^[117] The active pallbearers were Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Billy Wilder, Mervyn Leroy, and Joe Mikolas. Ernie's father, Andrew, and brother, Tom, served as honorary pallbearers.^[118] Among those in attendance were George Burns, Groucho Marx, Edward G. Robinson, Kirk Douglas, Jack Benny, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Buster Keaton, and Milton Berle.^[119] While there was no typical Hollywood-type eulogy, the church's pastor paid tribute to Kovacs, adding that he once summed up his life in two sentences: "I was born in Trenton, N. J. in 1919 to a Hungarian couple. I've been smoking cigars ever since." ^[120]

Kovacs is buried in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. His epitaph reads, "Nothing in moderation—We all loved him."^[121] Only one of Kovacs' three children survives: his eldest, Elizabeth, from his first marriage. Kippie, his second daughter, died on July 28, 2001 at the age of 52, after a long illness and a lifetime of poor health.^[122] Kippie and her husband, Bill Lancaster (1947–1997), a screenwriter and the son of actor Burt Lancaster, are the parents of Kovacs' only grandchild, Keigh Lancaster.^{[123][124][125]} His only child with Edie Adams, Mia Susan, was killed on May 8, 1982, also in an automobile accident.^[126] Mia and Kippie are buried close to their father; when Edie died in 2008, she was buried between Mia and Kippie.^[127]

Tax evasion[link]

A frequent critic of the U.S. tax system, Kovacs owed the IRS several hundred thousand dollars in back taxes, thanks to his simple refusal to pay the bulk of them. Up to 90% of his earnings were garnished as a result.^[128] His long battles with the IRS inspired Kovacs to tie up his money in a convoluted series of paper corporations in the U.S. and Canada. He would give them bizarre names, such as "The Bazooka Dooka Hicka Hocka Hookah Company" to thumb his nose at the government.^[108] In 1961, Kovacs was served with a $75,000 lien for back taxes; that same day he bought the California Racquet Club with the apparent hope of being able to use it as a tax write-off.^[129] The property had mortgages at the time of purchase which were later paid by Edie Adams.^[130][131]

His tax woes also affected Kovacs' career, forcing him to take any offered work to pay off his debt.^[54][132] This included the ABC game show Take a Good Look, appearances on variety shows such as NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, and some of his less memorable movie roles. He also filmed an unaired 1962 pilot episode for a proposed CBS series, Medicine Man (co-starring Buster Keaton, pilot episode titled "A Pony For Chris"). Kovacs' role was that of Dr. P. Crookshank, a traveling medicine salesman in the 1870s selling Mother McGreevy's Wizard Juice, also known as "man's best friend in a bottle".^[82] This was quietly abandoned after his death, which occurred the day after filming some scenes for the pilot in Griffith Park. CBS initially intended to air the show as part of a summer replacement program, The Comedy Spot, but decided against it due to issues with Kovacs' estate.^[133] The pilot is part of the public collection of the Paley Center for Media.^[134][135]

Adams, who married and divorced twice after Kovacs' death, refused help from celebrity friends who planned a benefit for the purpose.^{[82][136][137][138]} Saying "I can take care of my own children," and being determined to accept offers only from those who wanted to hire her for her talents, Edie managed to pay off all of Ernie's debts.^[13][131]

Some of the issues regarding Kovacs' tax problems were still unresolved years after his death. Ernie had purchased two insurance policies in 1951; his mother was named as the primary beneficiary of them. The IRS placed a lien against them both for their cash value in 1961. To stop the actions being taken against her, Mary Kovacs had to go to Federal court. In early 1966 their ruling resolved the issue, with the last sentence of the document reading: "Prima facie, it looks as if, within the limits of discretion permitted the government by the relevant statutes, an injustice is being done Mary Kovacs."^[139]

Lost and surviving work[link]

Most of Kovacs' early television work was done live and has survived only in the form of a very few short film clips or kinescopes. Some videotapes of his ABC specials were preserved; others, such as his quirky game show, Take a Good Look, exist only in short videotape segments.^[48] After his death, Edie Adams discovered not only that her husband owed ABC a lot of money, but also that some networks were systematically erasing and reusing tapes of Kovacs' shows or literally dumping the kinescopes and videotapes in New York Bay. She succeeded in buying the rights to the surviving footage and tapes with the proceeds from Kovacs' insurance policy and with her own earnings after Kovacs' IRS debts were paid.^[136][137] Most of Kovacs' salvaged work is available to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles Library's Department of Special Collections, and there is also some material available at both locations of the Paley Center for Media.^{[128][140][141]}

"The first time I was made aware of the willful destruction of videotapes was in 1962, after the sudden death of my husband, Ernie Kovacs. He had been working on two shows for ABC here in Hollywood. "Three months after his death, several members of his ABC crew came to see me at home and asked if I couldn't do something about the fact that ABC was using the wall of Kovacs's master tapes as used tape to tape over the news, the weather, public service blurbs, or anything, to recoup some of the moneys owed to them by Ernie."

"So, I called up my lawyer and told him to use the modest insurance policy to pay them off and buy back the 12-foot wall of Kovacs' tapes they were "saving money" by using. In all, about 40 hours was there, and by the time it was transferred to my storage facility, only 15 hours of it showed up."

"In the earlier '70's, the Dumont network was being bought by another company, and the lawyers were in heavy negotiation as to who would be responsible for the library of the Dumont shows currently being stored at the facility, who would bear the expense of storing them in a temperature controlled facility, take care of the copyright renewal, et cetera."

"One of the lawyers doing the bargaining said that he could "take care of it" in a "fair manner," and he did take care of it. At 2 a.m., the next morning, he had three huge semis back up to the loading dock at ABC, filled them all with stored kinescopes and 2" videotapes, drove them to a waiting barge in New Jersey, took them out on the water, made a right at the Statue of Liberty and dumped them in the Upper New York Bay. Very neat. No problem."

–Edie Adams, National Film Preservation Board testimony, 1996

The 1984 television movie, Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter, helped return Kovacs to the public eye, though the focus was on his bid to retrieve his kidnapped children instead of his professional life. Edie Adams appeared in a cameo in this film, playing Mae West; it was one of the impressions she performed in shows with Kovacs.^{[93][142][143]} Telecasts of edited compilations of some of his work by PBS (station WTTW, Chicago) under the title The Best of Ernie Kovacs in 1977, inspired the film.^[144] These broadcasts are still available in a five volume VHS or two disc DVD set (released in 1992 and 2000 respectively); since these are out of print copies usually have to be acquired used. The DVD set features extras that are not in the VHS set. The series, which was narrated by Ernie's close friend Jack Lemmon, was distributed by Kultur Films (formerly White Star Video).

In the early 1990s, The Comedy Channel broadcast a series of Kovacs' shows under the generic title of The Ernie Kovacs Show. The package included both the ABC specials and some of his 1950s shows from NBC. By 2008, there were no broadcast, cable, or satellite channels airing any of Kovacs' television work, other than his panel appearances on What's My Line? on the Game Show Network.

On April 19, 2011 Shout! Factory released The Ernie Kovacs Collection, six DVDs with over 13 hours of material spanning Kovacs' television career. The company's website also offers an extra disc with material from Tonight! and The Ernie Kovacs Show, as well as a rare color kinescope of the complete 30-minute, 1957 NBC color broadcast featuring "Eugene".^[145]

References[link]