The Ernie Kovacs Blog: Ernie's Former New City Home For Sale

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Ernie's Former New City Home For Sale

Good morning Kovacsians. It's been a while.

Back in the mid 1950s when Ernie was doing his show from New York City he purchased a home for his mother Mary Kovacs in New City, New York, which is a suburb in Rockland County. The home is currently up for sale; you can see the listing and some additional photos by clicking the link above.

(ED. NOTE, 9/12/2009- I disabled the link to the property as it's apparently been sold or pulled off the market and the page no longer exists.- Al Quagliata)

Many Kovacs fans will remember that Ernie's daughters, Bette and Kippie, were kidnapped to Florida by their mother and Ernie's first wife, Bette Wilcox. According to Diana Rico's book "Kovacsland: A Biography Of Ernie Kovacs" Ernie filled the home with presents and decorations each Christmas in the hope they would all be reunited in time for the holiday. When they were finally reunited in the summer of 1955 the girls were brought to the house for the first time. Bette Kovacs remembered that there were still candy canes and stars on the ceiling in the room where they were to sleep and these remained there for all the years her grandmother occupied the home.

A nice story for a nice Sunday. Until next time, "It's Been Real!"

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On Tuesday, November 19, 2013, MVD Entertainment Group will release "Here's Edie: The Edie Adams Television Collection"! This is a 4 DVD, 12 hr set of the entire run of Edie Adams variety show which aired on ABC from 1962-64. It is the first-ever release of her classic variety show after more than 50 years. Bonus material includes Edie''s musical numbers from the Ernie Kovacs show, a 16-page booklet with rare photos, program notes and her iconic Muriel Cigar commercials. Here's a link to a press release which also lists the contents of the DVDs. Keep your eye on the links page where a link, when available, will be posted so you can pre-order the set.

Posting Comments

1. Please limit your comments to those about Ernie Kovacs or to the TV of the era and how it relates to him.

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Ernie Kovacs Links

Al Quagliata's Ernie Kovacs site, Ernie Kovacs Dot Net A Tribute To Televsion's Original Genius. Visit the site for even more EK links.

Here's an Ernie Kovacs FAQ. Please read it before sending us your question.

The Ernie Kovacs MySpace Fan Page.

Ernie Kovacs Blog updates on TWITTER.

"The Ernie Kovacs Collection" DVD Set.

The Ernie Kovacs Collection: Volume 2 which will be officially released on Tuesday, October 23, 2012.

Ernie Kovacs’ Current TV Schedule.

Jeff Edlestein's article in The Trentonian about erniekovacs.net and The Ernie Kovacs Blog.

Ben Model's Ernie Kovacs site, Kovacsland Online! - the Ernie Kovacs website.

Ben Model's "Ernie Kovacs" fan page on Facebook.

Ron Evry's "Ernie Kovacs" group on Facebook.

Edie Adams 10 Part Interview With Henry Colman from

"The Archive Of American Television".

A six part interview with Edie's son Josh Mills and assistant Becky Greenlaw.

Diana Rico, author of "Kovacsland: A Biography Of Ernie Kovacs". Read our interview with Diana.

"The Ernie Kovacs Phile", a wonderful book by the late David Walley (aka "Nothing In Moderation: The Ernie Kovacs Story").

Andy Horton, author of "Ernie Kovacs & Early TV Comedy: Nothing in Moderation". Read our interview with Andy.

"Intersecting Parallels: Keaton and Kovacs," a wonderful article by Rob Foster. Here is the Paley Center For Media’s catalog listing for the pilot discussed in the article. It is available for viewing at either the New York or Los Angeles locations. Rob also wrote a great piece called Square Bubbles: Broadband In Kovacsland which poses the question of what Ernie might have been doing were he alive today. Rob also wrote a Kindle book of preexisting and new material, entitled "Ernie's Journey's."

Some info on the color version of "The Silent Show" (aka "Eugene").

The "Kinescope HD" Blog, run by Paul Gluck, is a fantastic blog about the early days of TV. You can search there for posts on Ernie and other greats from the Golden Age Of Television. Here's a post on EK's "The Silent Show" (aka "Eugene").

EK used to write a parody of " Ripley's Believe It Or Not" called "Strangely Believe Its" for Mad Magazine. Here's a scan of an installment.

This page on The Broadcast Pioneers Of Philadelphia Website talks about Ernie’s early days on WPTZ in Philadelphia, particularly the legendary and first ever morning show on television, "3 To Get Ready". No copies of this program exist; in fact it’s listed on The Paley Center For Media’s "Television Programs We’re Looking For" list. This 1951 newspaper article talks about Dave Garroway and mentions EK; it was Garroway's return to the airwaves to host "Today" that would eventually force "3 To Get Ready" off the air.

"OUR MAN IN HAVANA" from BARNES AND NOBLE and also from AMAZON.

The 2004 Buster Keaton Celebration in Iola, Kansas. This was also a celebration of Ernie's work.

A review of Ernie's book "ZOOMAR" by artist Maurice Greenia.

On June 19, 2012, Omnivore Recordings released
"Ernie Kovacs Presents Percy Dovetonsils...Thpeaks." This is a previously unreleased comedy album from 1960 available in a variety of formats, including lavender vinyl. You can order your copy visiting the link.

If you would like us to place a link to your site on this blog or our parent site click here and read question 25.

Links To Ernie Kovacs Merchandise

On this blog and its parent site Ernie Kovacs Dot Net A Tribute To Television's Original Genius you will see links to the majority of Ernie's material which is available for purchase. This includes (but is not necessarily limited to): Books, DVDs, tapes, CDs and memorabilia on various auction sites. A great deal of time and effort has gone into searching for and compiling lists of all that is available from sites that are reputable. We don't, however, assume any responsibility if you are unhappy with a purchase you make from one of these sites.

The only items that were sold directly by this blog and its parent site are from The Vision Of Ernie Kovacs retrospect; we had the inventory and we shipped it but it has sold out (you can click the link to learn more about these items in case you'd like to purchase them from other sources). We also offer "The Ernie Kovacs Collection" DVD set through our sites but we are not the shipper; the set is shipped to you directly from Shout Factory Video. You can buy this wonderful set with confidence and we fully endorse it.

About This Blog

This blog is written by Kovacs fans Al Quagliata and Ben Model. Al started writing for Ben's EK website in the mid 90s and then started his own. This is the middle ground where these two Kovacsians meet to bring you all the latest goodies from Kovacsland!

Al Quagliata is a an actor and guitarist with a passion for Ernie's work and Ben Model is the official Ernie Kovacs curator and historian. Ben is also a renowned silent film accompanist and composer who is the curator for silent films at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City.

Video And Audio Clips On This Site

My name is Al Quagliata; I’m the editor of this blog and run the website Ernie Kovacs Dot Net A Tribute To Televsion's Original Genius. Even though Ernie Kovacs was the original video comedian and was so visual, there are very few clips on this blog and on my website. In most cases I can’t verify that the parties who post these clips (e.g. on sites such as YouTube and Facebook) have the right to do so and it’s not up to me to decide if they do, so as a general rule I don’t post clips. My feeling is that this material should be legally purchased so that the royalties go to the parties who own the rights. And, just because you purchase something, that doesn’t give you the right to post it online. In some cases the rights holders allow this streaming content on sites they run; that’s their call and has nothing to do with me, nor am I going to presume that I can do it without permission.

This goes for audio too: recordings of novelty songs, music from the Kovacs shows and various EK sketches, some of which are available on CD or LP. I understand that sometimes these items are hard to find but I am not going to provide links to free downloads.

With all this in mind please do not contact me asking for copies of videos, DVDs, CDs, LPs, or to ask me to stream video. I will not post ANY links to file sharing sites which are sent to me nor will I respond to any emails regarding same.

I can offer the following: The Museum Of Broadcast Communications in Chicago has their archives listed online so you can view the list. Some of these listings have a digital file accompanying them for viewing and ⁄ or listening. Sign up is free and there are some very interesting EK files available to watch and listen to online. My assumption is that a broadcast museum is not just putting up clips without permission which is why I’m willing to list the link.

While they don't have online viewing, you can visit the Paley Center For Media in New York or Los Angeles to view shows in their massive collection. The link will take you to a listing of everything they have regarding Ernie Kovacs so that you can plan your visit; you're limited as to how much time you can spend in the museum library and how many shows you can view on your visit so you wouldn't want to spend all of it searching the database. Write down the catalog numbers and titles of the programs you wish to see, which will make finding them easy once you arrive. Contact the museum for more details.

Contact The Ernie Kovacs Blog Or Comment On A Post

If you have any questions related to Ernie Kovacs you can contact us by clicking HERE. Please read our guidelines before sending an email. You should also read our Ernie Kovacs FAQ before contacting us; most of the commonly asked questions are answered there.

If your question is about a specific post on the blog you can place a comment on that post and we will answer your question by posting a comment in return. We moderate all comments so you will not see yours posted immediately. Generally you can expect to see it, along with an answer, within 24 hours.