Edie Adams (born Edith Elizabeth Enke;
April 16, 1927 – October 15, 2008) was an American comedian, actress, singer and businesswoman. She earned the
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
and was nominated for an
Emmy Award.
Adams was well known for her impersonations of sexy stars on stage and television, especially
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
.
She was the frequent television partner of
Ernie Kovacs
Ernest Edward Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was a Hungarian-American comedian, actor, and writer.
Kovacs's visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years aft ...
, her husband. Adams founded two beauty businesses: Edie Adams Cosmetics and Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl.
Early life
Adams was born in
Kingston, Pennsylvania
Kingston is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on the western bank of the Susquehanna River opposite the city of Wilkes-Barre. Kingston was first settled in the early 1770s; it was incorporated as a borough in ...
,
the only daughter of Sheldon Alonzo Enke and his wife, Ada Dorothy (née Adams). 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
Tenafly () is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the borough had a population of 15,409,[Tenafly High School
Tenafly High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school in Tenafly in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Tenafly Public Schools. S ...]
. Ada Enke 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.
She earned a vocal degree from
Juilliard
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
and then graduated from
Columbia School of Drama. She studied at the
Actors Studio in New York and at the
Traphagen School of Fashion
Traphagen School of Fashion was an art and design school in operation from 1923 to 1991, and was located at 1680 Broadway in New York City. The school was founded and directed by Ethel Traphagen Leigh (1883–1963) with a focus on the foundational ...
.
Initially, Adams could not decide whether to pursue a career in fashion design or music, so she tossed a coin, and music won.
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.
In 1950, she won the "
Miss U.S. Television
''Miss U.S. Television'' was a series of contests held by the DuMont Television Network and its affiliates during 1950. The contest searched for the woman "with the most outstanding talent and beauty".
The grand finals, aired September 3, 1950, f ...
" 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
Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...
's ''Talent Scouts''. She was seen by the producer of the
Ernie Kovacs
Ernest Edward Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was a Hungarian-American comedian, actor, and writer.
Kovacs's visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years aft ...
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
![Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams 1956](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Ernie_Kovacs_and_Edie_Adams_1956.jpg)
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
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
.
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
''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour'' is a collection of thirteen black-and-white one-hour specials airing occasionally from 1957 to 1960 (as opposed to the thirty-minute regular series, '' I Love Lucy''). The first five were shown as specials during ...
'' final television special on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, during which she performed the send-off song "
That's All".
Adams made four appearances on ''
What's My Line?
''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...
'' (once as "Edith Adams (Mrs. Ernie Kovacs)" while her husband was on the panel; once together with Kovacs; twice alone as Edie Adams).
![Edie Adams Li'l Abner 1956](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Edie_Adams_Li%27l_Abner_1956.JPG)
Adams starred on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in ''
Wonderful Town
''Wonderful Town'' is a 1953 musical with book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Leonard Bernstein. The musical tells the story of two sisters who aspire to be a writer and act ...
'' (1953) opposite
Rosalind Russell
Catherine Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907November 28, 1976) was an American actress, comedienne, screenwriter, and singer,Obituary '' Variety'', December 1, 1976, p. 79. known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the H ...
(winning the Theatre World Award), and as Daisy Mae in ''
Li'l Abner
''Li'l Abner'' is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe. It featured a fictional clan of hillbilly, hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA. Written a ...
'' (1956),
winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She played the Fairy Godmother in
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popular ...
's original ''
Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
'' 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
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
, gave Adams a chance with her own show, ''
Here's Edie
''The Edie Adams Show'' (also ''Here's Edie'' ) is an American variety television show that ran on ABC from September 16, 1963, until March 19, 1964. Its time slot was Thursdays from 10 to 10:30 p.m. Eastern time.
Edie Adams starred in the show ...
'', 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
Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...
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
''Fantasy Island'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Gene Levitt. It aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984. The series starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize as his assistant, Tattoo. ...
'', ''
The Love Boat
''The Love Boat'' is an American romantic comedy/drama television series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986; in addition, four three-hour specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990. The series was set on the luxury passenger cruise ship MS ''Pa ...
'', ''
McMillan & Wife
''McMillan & Wife'' (known simply as ''McMillan'' from 1976–77) is an American police procedural television series that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971, to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the ...
'', ''
Murder, She Wrote'' and ''
Designing Women
''Designing Women'' is an American television sitcom created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that aired on CBS from September 29, 1986, to May 24, 1993, producing seven seasons and 163 episodes. It was a joint production of Bloodworth/Thomason ...
''.
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
''The Apartment'' is a 1960 American romantic comedy-drama film directed and produced by Billy Wilder from a screenplay he co-wrote with I. A. L. Diamond. It stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, Dav ...
'' (1960). She was the wife of a presidential candidate (played by
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 19 ...
) in ''
The Best Man'' (1964) and was reunited with Robertson for the comedy ''
The Honey Pot
''The Honey Pot'', also known as ''The Honeypot'', is a 1967 American crime film, crime comedy-drama film written for the screen and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It stars Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson, Capucine, Edie Adams, an ...
'' (1967). In 2003, as one of the surviving headliners from the all-star comedy ''
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer with a story and screenplay by William Rose and Tania Rose. The film, starring Spencer Tracy with an all-star cast of comedians, is a ...
'' (1963), she joined actors
Marvin Kaplan
Marvin Wilbur Kaplan (January 24, 1927 – August 25, 2016) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Best known as Henry Beesmeyer in ''Alice'' (1978–1985).
Early years
Kaplan was born on January 24, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, th ...
and
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950 ...
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
![Edie muriel commercial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Edie_muriel_commercial.JPG)
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
Pete Candoli (born Walter Joseph Candoli; June 28, 1923 – January 11, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played with the big bands of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton and worked in the studios of the recording and television industries.
Ca ...
, with whom she appeared in a touring production of the
Cole Porter musical ''
Anything Goes
''Anything Goes'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap ant ...
''. 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.
Adams was a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
and campaigned for
Dwight Eisenhower's re-election during the
1956 presidential election.
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.
Death
![Edie Adams Grave](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Edie_Adams_Grave.JPG)
Adams died in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, California, on October 15, 2008, at age 81, from cancer and pneumonia.
She was interred in
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills
Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills is one of the six Forest Lawn cemeteries in Southern California. It is located at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, California 90068, in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Histor ...
, 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
Many words in the English vocabulary are of French origin, most coming from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern Engli ...
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.
''Edie Adams Interview, Archive of American Television''
Retrieved February 15, 2011. 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.[ ( PDF)]
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.
Filmography
Television
References
External links
The official Edie Adams website
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Edie
1927 births
2008 deaths
20th-century American actresses
Actresses from Pennsylvania
Actresses from 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
People from Tenafly, New Jersey
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