Rats In My Room

WFMU's blog site posts MP3's of many many of the LP's from their collection. I found today that the entire album "Music To Suffer By", recorded by Leona Anderson — whose immortal "Fish" and "Rats in My Room" were Kovacs show staples — are posted there.

Click here to go to the WFMU blog page for the album, where you can listen to and or download the entire album as well as see hi-res images of the front and back of the LP sleeve. The back has liner notes and photos of the recording session.

Happy Halloween!

Ben Model, in NYC

Good Ol' Officer Boyle Of The EEFMS

Good evening Kovacsians. When Edie Adams passed away last week I sent an email to our good friend Jack Phillippe, who grew up in Philadelphia and as a young man was a guest on a January 1952 episode of "Kovacs On The Corner."

Hearing of Edie's passing made Jack reminisce about growing up in Philly during the 1950's and watching the great television shows of that time. He wanted to share some artifacts from his collection with all of us and has been gracious enough to take the time to send me some scans.

The first is of an EEFMS card; it's an original from Ernie's very first show on WPTZ Channel Three, NBC in Philadelphia, "3 To Get Ready." Jack sent this once before and I posted it, but this time its a bit bigger and clearer. Enjoy:

One staple of Philadelphia televison in the 1950s was Officer Pete Boyle, played by that icon of Philadelphia Kids' TV Peter Boyle Sr.. Pete Sr. was the father of the late actor Peter Boyle Jr. most recently of "Everybody Loves Raymond" fame. "Offcier Pete Boyle" appeared in his own shows on WPTZ and many times as a guest on Ernie's. In fact, he played his "Officer Boyle" character the day that Jack appeared as a guest on "KOTC!"

Jack went to high school with Peter Boyle Jr. in the 1950s and Peter was an actor even back then. These photos are some extracts from a playbill that Jack kept from his high school days; they're for a musical called "Song Of Norway" in which the young Mr. Boyle appeared.

A very young Peter Boyle (a far cry from Frank Barone!):

Here he is on the cast list (even in high school it seems he had an understudy):

Peter Boyle Sr. hosted a very well known kids show in Philly called "Chuckwagon Pete" in which played the title character. Here's an ad he took out in the playbill:

You can click on the "Peter Boyle Sr." link above to see a photo of "Chuck Wagon Pete" and read more about the show.

Jack, thanks again for some great memories.

Until next time, "it's been real!"

AL QUAGLIATA

P.S.- The Ernie Kovacs My Space Fan Page is up to 828 friends since our last post. As always we thank everyone who requested an add or accepted a request from us. We also thank you for the nice comments sent about Edie.

Edie Adams Passes Away At The Age Of 81

It is with great sadness that fans everywhere mourn the death of the wonderful Ms. Edie Adams, who passed away on October 15th, 2008 at the age of 81. According to her son Josh Mills the cause of death was cancer and pneumonia.

My fellow Kovacs Blogger Ben Model took the time today to compile some information which I've taken and consolidated into this post. Thanks Ben.

Here's you go folks, courtesy of Ben Model:

Edie Adams' obituary appears in today's New York Times, written by Bruce Weber. To read it, click here.

Among Edie's major accomplishments, although not mentioned in the obit, is the fact that she spent decades saving and hunting down Kovacs programs...scripts, kinescopes, 2" master tapes etc etc. She was an amazing woman, full of life and always working on some project or other, and she will be missed.

Here's a link to an obit posted on Playbill.com and another on Theatermania.com.

For the story as posted by the AP click here

Here's Edie's performance on the 1950 Miss U.S. Television program. She had won that title and this was her first major television exposure:

Ben Model

It's the end of an era my fellow Kovacsians.

Rest in peace Edie and say hi to Ernie for us. It's been real.

Al Quagliata

Al Wein Sculpture Exhibit In Boston

Albert Wein (1915-1991), who did set design for some of Ernie's ABC specials, has a career retrospective at the Boston Athenaeum, running through the end of November. Entitled "Albert Wein: American Modernist," the exhibit showcases more than 50 of his classic sculptures, paintings and medals. The use of sculptures and special props like that are in quite a few of the 1961 programs, and I'm sure the sculpture of a woman with a hole in her stomach being carved by Miklos Molnar was one of Wein's creations. There's a link to an article on the retrospective here, and the museum's website is here.

The photograph is of a sculpture of Bacchus by Wein hung in Ernie's wine cellar.

Ben Model

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Ben, thanks for a great post. I want to add that back in December of 2006 sculptor Michael Keropian let me know about the website for Al Wein. Michael worked for Al and as far as I know is still involved with his art work. This is a great site and I strongly suggest that all Kovacs fans pay a visit!

Al Quagliata