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Edie Adams
Adams in 1958
Born	Edith Elizabeth Enke (1927-04-16)April 16, 1927 Kingston, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	October 15, 2008(2008-10-15) (aged 81) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills
Other names	Edythe Adams Edith Adams Edith Candoli
Education	Juilliard School (BM) Columbia University (BA) Actors Studio
Occupations	Comedian actress singer businesswoman
Years active	1951–2004
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Ernie Kovacs ​ ​(m. 1954; died 1962)​ Martin Mills ​ ​(m. 1964; div. 1971)​ Pete Candoli ​ ​(m. 1972; div. 1988)​
Children	2

Edie Adams (born Edith Elizabeth Enke; April 16, 1927 – October 15, 2008) was an American comedian, actress, singer and businesswoman. She earned a Tony Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Adams was well known for her impersonations of sexy stars on stage and television, especially Marilyn Monroe. She was the frequent television partner of Ernie Kovacs, her husband. Adams founded two beauty businesses: Edie Adams Cosmetics and Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl.

Early life

Adams was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, the only daughter of Sheldon Alonzo Enke and Ada Dorothy (née Adams), whom she described as "two conservative native Pennsylvanians". She had an elder brother, Sheldon Adams Enke. The family moved to nearby areas such as Shavertown and Trucksville and spent a year in New York City before settling in Tenafly, New Jersey, where she attended Tenafly High School. Ada Enke, who had a "trained dramatic soprano voice," taught her daughter singing and piano; mother and daughter were members of the Grove City Presbyterian church choir. Adams's grandmother, a seamstress, taught her how to sew. She made her own clothing beginning in the sixth grade and Adams would later have her own designer line of clothing, called Bonham, Inc.

After high school, she wanted to pursue a career as a vocalist, but was unsure whether she would make the cut after music school auditions. She knew that her costuming skills were at a level to constitute a fallback, with Traphagen School of Fashion as her "safe school" during the college application process. In the event, she succeeded in getting into Juilliard, where she earned a vocal degree, and then took a "fifth year" and graduated from Columbia School of Drama. She also later studied at the Actors Studio in New York. While at Juilliard she was, by her own account, one of the first women to be interviewed for the Kinsey Report on female sexuality. While still at Juilliard, she taught part-time at the Barbizon School of Modeling and gave assemblies at New Jersey high schools, intended to recruit female students for various colleges and commercial schools. The assemblies had been conceived more as lectures, but once she discovered that her pay would be mainly commissions for interest generated, she turned them much more into performances.

Although she studied and sang serious music at Juilliard, summer jobs (including performing in a production of The Pirates of Penzance) and her New York social life introduced her to lighter, more popular performance styles, as well as to New York's café society and the Brill Building crowd. One of her vocal teachers, Dusolina Giannini gave her some half-encouraging, half-discouraging advice: to abandon her hopes of being an opera singer and "go straight into musical comedy." After turning down an offer from Richard Rodgers to be an understudy in the road company of South Pacific. She also turned down a 5-year contract from MGM that would have groomed her toward becoming a movie actress, but would not have promised her any specific film work.

She knew that with her Juilliard education she could fall back to being a music teacher, but was still determined to try to break into show business. She began going to every audition (not only as a singer, but for legitimate theater) and entering every vocal contest she could find. She passed an audition to go on the road with Vaughn Monroe, but her father put his foot down about her traveling with a big band. In 1949–50, she appeared in the early live television show Bonnie Maid's Versatile Varieties as one of the original "Bonnie Maids" doing live commercials for the sponsor. According to her memoir, she did a three-week stint in Montreal and Toronto singing with a trio led by Artie Arturo.

In 1950, she won the "Miss U.S. Television" beauty contest, which led to an appearance with Milton Berle on his television show. Her earliest television work billed her as Edith Adams. One of her early appearances was on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. She was seen by the producer of the Ernie Kovacs show Three to Get Ready (in Philadelphia), who invited her to audition. Adams had very little experience with popular music and could perform only three songs. She later stated: "I sang them all during the audition, and if they had asked to hear another, I never would have made it." She became part of the show in July 1951. Adams had never seen the program she was hired for. When he saw his daughter on the show, Adams's father was upset to find her role involved trying to avoid pies in the face. In one of his last interviews, Kovacs looked back on the early days, saying, "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.'"

Career

Adams began working regularly on television with Kovacs and talk show pioneer Jack Paar. After a courtship that included mariachi bands and an unexpected diamond engagement ring, Adams and Kovacs eloped; they were married on September 12, 1954, in Mexico City. Adams was initially uncertain about marrying Kovacs. She went on a six-week European cruise, hoping to come to a decision. After three days away and many long-distance phone calls, Adams returned home with an answer: yes. It was Kovacs's second marriage and lasted until his death in a car accident on January 13, 1962.

Adams and Kovacs received Emmy nominations for best performances in a comedy series in 1957. In 1960, she and Kovacs played themselves in The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour final television special on CBS, during which she performed the send-off song "That's All". Adams made four appearances on What's My Line? (once as "Edith Adams (Mrs. Ernie Kovacs)" while her husband was on the panel; once together with Kovacs; twice alone as Edie Adams).

Adams starred on Broadway in Wonderful Town (1953) opposite Rosalind Russell (winning the Theatre World Award), and as Daisy Mae in Li'l Abner (1956), winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She played the Fairy Godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's original Cinderella broadcast in 1957. Adams was to play Daisy Mae in the film version of Li'l Abner but was unable due to the late arrival of her daughter, Mia Susan Kovacs.

After Kovacs's death, his network, ABC, gave Adams a chance with her own show, Here's Edie, which received five Emmy nominations but lasted one season, in 1963. Kovacs was a noted cigar smoker, and Adams did a long-running series of TV commercials for Muriel Cigars. She remained the pitch-lady for Muriel well after Kovacs's death, intoning in a Mae West style and sexy outfit, "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?" Another commercial for Muriel Cigars, which cost 10 cents, showed Adams singing, "Hey, big spender, spend a little dime with me" (based on the song "Big Spender" from the musical Sweet Charity). Adams's cigar commercials made her one of the top three most-recognizable television celebrities. In subsequent years, Adams made sporadic television appearances, including on Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, McMillan & Wife, Murder, She Wrote and Designing Women.

Adams played supporting roles in several films in the 1960s, including the embittered secretary of two-timing Fred MacMurray in the Oscar-winning film The Apartment (1960). She was the wife of a presidential candidate (played by Cliff Robertson) in The Best Man (1964) and was reunited with Robertson for the comedy The Honey Pot (1967). In 2003, as one of the surviving headliners from the all-star comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), she joined actors Marvin Kaplan and Sid Caesar at a 40th anniversary celebration of the film. She was also a successful nightclub headliner.

Shortly after her husband's death, Adams won a "nasty custody battle" with Kovacs's ex-wife over Edie's stepdaughters. His ex-wife had previously kidnapped the girls during a visit years before; because Kovacs was their legal guardian, he and Edie had worked tirelessly to locate his daughters and bring them home.

Another court battle began for Adams in the same year, this time with her mother-in-law, who refused to believe there were more debts than assets in her son's estate. Mary Kovacs accused her daughter-in-law of mismanaging the estate and petitioned for custody of her granddaughters. The dispute lasted for years, with Adams remaining the administrator of her husband's estate and guardian of the three girls. She worked for years to pay her late husband's tax debt to the IRS. The couple's celebrity friends planned a TV special benefit for Edie and her family, but she declined, saying, "I can take care of my own children." She spent the next year working practically non-stop.

Starting over

Adams started her own businesses, Edie Adams Cosmetics, which sold door-to-door, and Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl beauty salons, which she began in 1967. She once owned a 160-acre (65 ha) California almond farm and was the spokeswoman for Sun Giant nuts. Because of her 20 years of commercials for Muriel Cigars (retiring in 1976) and her successful business ventures, Adams went from being mired in debt after Kovacs's fatal accident in 1962 to being a millionaire in 1989.

Personal life

After Kovacs's death, Adams was married two more times. In 1964, she married photographer Martin Mills. In 1972, she married trumpeter Pete Candoli, with whom she appeared in a touring production of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes. In addition to raising stepdaughters Bette and Kippie from her marriage to Kovacs, Adams gave birth to daughter Mia Susan Kovacs (killed in an automobile accident in 1982) and son Joshua Mills.

Although Adams identified as a Democrat, she campaigned for Republican Dwight Eisenhower's re-election during the 1956 presidential election,. as well as for other liberal Republicans such as Jacob Javits and later Nelson Rockefeller.

Adams was an early advocate of civil rights, frequently lending her support to the movement at celebrity events and on her own television show during the early sixties. She insisted that her duet with Sammy Davis Jr. on her variety show Here's Edie be staged so that they were seated next to each other – as equals. Prior to that, entertainers of different races and sexes were unable to perform next to one another, so that one had to be in front of or behind the other.

There is a street named after Adams in San Antonio, Texas.

Death

Adams died in Los Angeles, California, on October 15, 2008, at age 81, from cancer and pneumonia. She was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, alongside her first husband Ernie and between her daughter, Mia, and her stepdaughter, Kippie. After her death an article in The New York Times said that her work "both embodied and winked at the stereotypes of fetching chanteuse and sexpot blonde".

Kovacs' legacy

Adams archived her husband's television work, which she described during a 1999 videotaped interview with the Archive of American Television. She later testified on the status of the archive of the short-lived DuMont Television Network, where both she and husband Kovacs worked during the early 1950s. Adams said that so little value was given to the film archive that the entire collection was loaded into three trucks and dumped into Upper New York Bay.

Upon discovering that her husband's work was disappearing through being discarded and re-use of the tapes, Adams initially used the proceeds of his insurance policy and her own earnings to purchase the rights to as much footage as possible.

Since 2008, Edie Adams' son Joshua Mills has run Ediad Productions, Inc., which controls the rights to all the Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams TV shows and recordings. Ben Model is the archivist for the Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams television collections.

In 2015, the Library of Congress acquired a collection of more than 1,200 kinescopes, videotapes and home movies featuring Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams, from Joshua Mills, Edie Adams' son and the president of Ediad Productions.

Filmography

Television

References

1. ^ (Adams & Windeler 1990, p. 334) "I was and remain a notoriously liberal Democrat, but not where Senator Javits was concerned. He was a special kind of Republican. I felt the same way about Nelson Rockefeller and later campaigned for him."
2. ^ Weber, Bruce (October 16, 2008). "Edie Adams, Actress and Singer (and Flirt With a Cigar), Dies at 81". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2008.
3. Lucy E. Cross. "Edith Adams". Masterworks Broadway. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
4. ^ Thomas, Bob (February 15, 1960). "Edie Adams Explains Why She Does Satire Acting". Reading Eagle. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
5. ^ Toomey, Elizabeth (August 22, 1956). "Dogpatch Queen Is Edith Adams". Schenectady Gazette. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
6. Wilson, Earl (March 13, 1956). "TV Lipstick Model Gets the Kiss-Off". The Milwaukee Journal.
7. (Adams & Windeler 1990, p. 12)
8. Jackson, Kenneth T. The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives: 2006-2008, p. 3. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. ISBN 9780684315751. Accessed October 9, 2018. "While attending Tenafly High School, Adams joined the choir and the glee club and sang in the school's operettas."
9. (Adams & Windeler 1990, p. 18)
10. ^ Apone, Carl (July 9, 1967). "Daisy Mae From Grove City, PA". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
11. Crane, Leila (September 2, 1983). "Edie Gets Recharge From Her Audience". The Hour. Retrieved November 12, 2010.
12. (Adams & Windeler 1990, pp. 58–59)
13. (Adams & Windeler 1990, p. 72)
14. (Adams & Windeler 1990, p. 76)
15. (Adams & Windeler 1990, pp. 76–78)
16. (Adams & Windeler 1990, pp. 69–71)
17. (Adams & Windeler 1990, p. 74)
18. (Adams & Windeler 1990, pp. 75–76)
19. (Adams & Windeler 1990, pp. 79–80)
20. ^ (Adams & Windeler 1990, p. 80)
21. (Adams & Windeler 1990, pp. 80–81)
22. (Adams & Windeler 1990, pp. 84–86)
23. "Video-YouTube-Leena Queen of the Jungle". YouTube. 1956. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
24. Dudek, Duane (June 16, 1986). "'Vision of Ernie Kovacs' honors first video artist". Milwaukee Journal.
25. Kleiner, Dick (May 30, 1954). "The Marquee". Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
26. ^ "Tony-Winning Actress Edie Adams Dead At 81". CBS News. October 16, 2008. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
27. Thurber, Jon (October 17, 2008). "Tony award-winning actress, TV star". LA Times. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
28. ^ "Kovacs in Philly". Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
29. Humphrey, Hal (April 6, 1968). "TV Show on Ernie Kovacs Scheduled on ABC" (PDF). Record Newspapers. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
30. Ryan, Jack (January 21, 1962). "Ernie Kovacs:Serious-Minded Clown". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
31. ^ Wilson, Earl (February 18, 1954). "Edith Adams Does Her Sleeping In Afternoon". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
32. Kleiner, Dick (January 30, 1954). "The Marquee: About Edith Adams". Gazette and Bulletin. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
33. Nachman, Gerald (2003). Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. pp. 200. ISBN 9780375410307. OCLC 50339527. Retrieved July 11, 2010. ernie kovacs.
34. Wilson, Earl (September 17, 1954). "Nasty Old Civilian Food". Miami News. p. 17. Retrieved July 10, 2010 – via Newspapers.com.
35. ^ Adir, Karin, ed. (2001). The Great Clowns of American Television. McFarland & Company. p. 270. ISBN 0-7864-1303-4. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
36. Kovacs, Edie Adams (July 20, 1958). "Ernie Kovacs-what a husband!". Palm Beach Post. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
37. Kanfer, Stefan, ed. (2004). Ball of fire: the tumultuous life and comic art of Lucille Ball. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 384. ISBN 0-375-72771-X. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
38. "They Reduce In Fast Musical". Daytona Beach Morning Journal. December 22, 1956. Retrieved November 12, 2010.
39. "Li'l Abner-Broadway and Dogpatch". Life. January 14, 1957. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
40. Vallance, Tom (October 18, 2008). "Edie Adams: Actress, singer and comedienne and widow of Ernie Kovacs". The Independent. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
41. "Altadis USA Company History". Altadis USA.
42. "Edie's No. 3 Personality On Tube". Daytona Beach Morning Journal. June 18, 1972. Retrieved March 4, 2012.
43. ^ Bunzel, Peter (April 5, 1963). "Edie Wins A Big One". Life. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
44. "Grandmother Again Held On Kidnapping". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. January 28, 1954. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
45. "Edie Adams has part in Kovacs revival". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. May 14, 1984. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
46. "Ernie Kovacs Estate Causes Family Dispute". The Montreal Gazette. December 26, 1962. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
47. "Survivors Tilt Over Kovacs' Will". The Spokesman-Review. March 16, 1963. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
48. "Edie Adams Wins Custody of Ernie's Two Daughters". The Daily Times. September 14, 1962. p. 5. Retrieved January 8, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
49. "Taxes, Debts Ate Up Most of Kovacs' Estate". Redlands Daily Facts. December 20, 1966. p. 12. Retrieved January 8, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
50. ^ Wilson, Earl (July 30, 1963). "Edie Pays Off Ernie's Debts". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
51. ^ Roddy, Dennis (August 1, 1998). "Edie Hits a High Note". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
52. "Edie Adams: She's Out There Pitchin'". The Palm Beach Post. May 20, 1972. p. 104. Retrieved November 26, 2010 – via Newspapers.com.
53. "Ad for Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl salon". Schenectady Gazette. November 23, 1968. Retrieved March 4, 2012.
54. "House-to-House Selling Benefits From Recession". St. Petersburg Times. March 29, 1971. Retrieved March 4, 2012.
55. Clark, Kenneth R. (September 2, 1982). "Edie Adams Narrates Kovacs Special". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
56. Reilly, Sue (April 14, 1980). "It's More Than a Vegas Act When Susan Anton Sings Lost-Love Blues Over Sly Stallone". People. Retrieved January 9, 2019. Then in 1976 she got her shot, replacing Edie Adams as the Muriel cigar girl.
57. Kleinschmidt, Janice (November 30, 2009). "Forever Young: Susan Anton comes home for Christmas to perform with The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies". Arts & Entertainment. Palm Springs Life. Retrieved January 9, 2019. Then Edie Adams retired from her role as the Muriel Cigar Girl.
58. "Edie Adams Pens Memoirs". Schenectady Gazette. October 12, 1989. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
59. "Littlest Star for the Kovacs". The Miami News. June 29, 1959. p. 12. Retrieved March 21, 2012 – via Newspapers.com.
60. "Crash Kills Daughter Of Late Ernie Kovacs". The Pittsburgh Press. May 10, 1982. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
61. Motion Picture Magazine, Issue 549, November 1956, Brewster Publications, Inc., Page. 27
62. "S6 E4: Monomania L.A." YouTube. March 18, 2015. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
63. Brown, Merrisa (September 30, 2014). "San Antonio street names and groupings". mysanantonio.com.
64. Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. (2 volume set). McFarland. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4766-2599-7. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
65. Edie Adams Interview|Archive of American Television. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
66. Adams, Edie (March 1996). "Television/Video Preservation Study: Los Angeles Public Hearing" (PDF). National Film Preservation Board. Library of Congress. Retrieved September 24, 2007. (PDF)
67. Thomas, Bob (March 27, 1968). "Edie Adams Arranges Ernie Kovacs' Special". Sumter Daily Item. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
68. "Ernie Kovacs".
69. "Ernie Kovacs - Contact".
70. "Josh Mills's schedule for SF Sketchfest 2020".
71. "Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams: A Vision of Early TV as More Than Ephemeral Entertainment | Now See Hear!". May 6, 2019.
72. "Ernie Kovacs, Edie Adams Archives Acquired by Library of Congress". The Hollywood Reporter. December 3, 2015.
73. "Library of Congress Acquires Ernie Kovacs-Edie Adams Collection". December 3, 2015.
74. "JOSHUA MILLS; 'Ernie in Kovacsland;' Co-Curator, Runs estates of Ernie Kovacs original TV genius &". YouTube. August 9, 2023.
75. ^
    • WPTZ (1952). "Kovacs on the Corner". archive.org. Philadelphia. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
    • WPTZ (1952). "Kovacs on the Corner". youtube. Philadelphia. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
76. "Eddie's Back And Full Of Guest Stars". The News and Courier. November 11, 1958. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
77. Humphrey, Hal (July 20, 1958). "Edie Adams:Songs Before Laughter". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
78. "Edie Adams, Miss Umeki Join Guests". The Modesto Bee. September 18, 1959.
79. "Edie Adams Gets Role". The Montreal Gazette. September 30, 1961. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
80. "Edie Adams". erniekovacs.info. Archived from the original on March 23, 2010. Retrieved July 12, 2010.

Sources

• Adams, Edie; Windeler, Robert (1990). Sing a Pretty Song... New York: William Morrow and Co. ISBN 0688073417.

External links

• The official Edie Adams website
• Edie Adams at IMDb
• Edie Adams at the Internet Broadway Database

• 1927 births
• 2008 deaths
• 20th-century American actresses
• Actresses from Pennsylvania
• Actresses from Tenafly, New Jersey
• American cosmetics businesspeople
• American musical theatre actresses
• American Presbyterians
• American television actresses
• American women comedians
• Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
• Businesspeople from Pennsylvania
• Deaths from cancer in California
• Columbia University School of the Arts alumni
• Deaths from pneumonia in California
• Donaldson Award winners
• Juilliard School alumni
• People from Kingston, Pennsylvania
• People from Grove City, Pennsylvania
• Tenafly High School alumni
• Theatre World Award winners
• Tony Award winners
• Traphagen School of Fashion alumni
• Pennsylvania Republicans
• New Jersey Republicans
• California Republicans
• 20th-century American comedians
• 20th-century American singers
• 20th-century American women singers
• 20th-century American businesspeople
• 20th-century American businesswomen
• American film actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• Comedians from Pennsylvania
• Comedians from New Jersey