Ernie Kovaks

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=169 style=" border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC;" BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="017a0ad1dyxtip.jpg"> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="698" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 111 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="00d69690.jpg" border=0 width="105" height="105" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> Waxahachie Independant School District    <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#00FF00" FACE="Comic Sans MS" >               Waxahachie, Texas</FONT></div> <div> <B>Waxahachie High School Alumni 1962</B></div> <div> <B>WHS Seniors '62</B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=268 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="01f9b9c3.jpg"> <div>                                                   </div> <div> <B><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">  </SCRIPT> </B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="5" CELLPADDING="12" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="560" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#00FF00" BORDERCOLORDARK="#00FF00" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#000000 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 2176 WIDTH="498"><div> <I><B> </B></I></div> <div> <I><B> <TABLE BORDER="3" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="318" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFFFFF" BORDERCOLORDARK="#FFFFFF" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#000000 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 299 ><NOBR><div> <B><IMG SRC="0c2fa150.jpg" border=0 width="250" height="277" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Ernie Kovaks</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was a creative and innovative entertainer from the early days of television. His on-air antics would go on to inspire TV shows like Laugh-In, the Uncle Floyd Show, Saturday Night Live and TV hosts like David Letterman.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Kovacs became a pioneer of television comedy as a distinct medium; earlier television comedians mostly continued comedy styles of vaudeville, film, or radio.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>His shows were innovative for their time because of their ad-libbed routines; experimentation with video effects (including superimpositions, reverse polarity, and reverse scanning which flipped images upside down); the use of quick "blackouts" and running gags; abstraction and non-sequitur; and a willingness to break the "fourth wall" by allowing viewers to see activity beyond the set - including crew members and, on occasion, outside the studio itself. He would also talk to the off-camera crew, or introduce segments from the control room.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Kovacs invented many camera tricks that are still common today. One of his most popular gags was a bit where Kovacs (as one of his characters, "Eugene") sat down at a table to eat his lunch. He took items out of his lunch box and one by one, each item mysteriously rolled down the table into a gentleman reading the newspaper at the other end. Kovacs then started to pour a glass of milk. The milk appeared to pour from the thermos in an unusual direction. The visual trick, which had not been seen on TV before, was created with a crooked table and an equally crooked camera tilted to the same angle as the table.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Kovacs constantly pushed the envelope of what was possible in the video medium, and accomplished many visual tricks with very primitive and improvised means to produce effects that later were more commonly done electronically. He once had the inspiration of attaching a children's kaleidoscope to the camera lens with cardboard and tape -- the resulting abstract images, set to music, were very avant-garde and very much ahead of his time.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Kovacs was rarely seen without a cigar, which he often incorporated as a prop. In one memorable segment, he was seen sitting in an easy chair, calmly reading a newspaper. After a short interval, he took the cigar out of his mouth and exhaled smoke. The unique feature of this otherwise ordinary sequence was that it took place entirely underwater. (The "smoke" was actually milk that Kovacs had filled his mouth with prior to submerging.)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Other popular bits included such gems as an all-gorilla version of Swan Lake; a poker game set to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; The Nairobi Trio, three derby-hatted apes miming mechanically to the tune "Solfeggio"; the Silent Show, in which a nerdy character interacts with the world accompanied solely by music and sound effects; parodies of typical TV commercials and movie genres; and various musical segments with everyday items (such as kitchen appliances or office equipment) moving in sync to music. He used everything from long, extended sketches and mood pieces to quick "blackout" gags lasting a few seconds. (One famous example was a bit involving a used-car salesman, a jalopy, and a breakaway floor -- a bit that cost $50,000 to produce and lasted 6 seconds on screen!) There were no wasted moments in a Kovacs show, with gags starting during the opening theme song, and continuing even into the midst of the ending credits (which frequently incorporated bizarre fake credits and comments interspersed between the legitimate crew names and titles).</B></div> <div> <B> </B></div> <div> <B>Some of the many faces of Ernie Kovacs:</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0c5abd60.jpg" border=0 width="427" height="214" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Recurring characters created by Kovacs included fey and lisping poet Percy Dovetonsils; German disc jockey Wolfgang von Sauerbraten; horror show host Auntie Gruesome; bumbling magician Matzoh Heppelwhite; Miklos Molnar, the sardonic Hungarian host of a cooking show; Frenchman Pierre Ragout; the silent character Eugene (above) and Mr. Question Man, who would answer queries supposedly sent in by viewers.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Kovacs died in a car accident in Los Angeles. He was driving a rear-engined Chevrolet Corvair station wagon, a make of car later named as "unsafe at any speed" by consumer advocate Ralph Nader. During a rare Southern California rainstorm, he lost control of the car while making a fast turn and crashed into a power pole. Kovacs was thrown halfway out the passenger door, killed almost instantly--his chest and head taking fatal injuries. A photographer was on the scene moments later, and a morbid image of Kovacs' dead body appeared the next day on front pages all over the United States. His dear friend, actor Jack Lemmon, identified Kovacs' body at the county morgue when his wife proved unable to do so. At the time of his death, he owed the IRS several hundred thousand dollars in back taxes. Kovacs had always felt the tax system was unfair, and had simply refused to pay, resulting in the eventual garnishment of up to 90% of his wages. Edie Adams eventually paid off the taxes herself, refusing monetary help (in the form of a benefit concert) from their celebrity friends, though many of them rallied to help her with film and television work.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Kovacs is buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. His epitaph reads "Nothing in moderation-We all loved him".</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Kovacs' daughter with Edie Adams, Mia Susan, was killed in 1982, also in an automobile accident (off Mullholland Drive). His daughter Kippie died in 2001, after a lingering illness and an adult lifetime of poor health. She is buried next to her father and younger half sister. Ernie has one grandchild, Keigh, the daughter of Kippie and screenwriter Bill Lancaster (deceased), the son of actor Burt Lancaster. Kovacs' oldest daughter Elizabeth was alive and doing well as of 2006.</B></div> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="laughter_2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Laughter 2"><B>Back</B></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=42 style=" border-top: 1px solid #CCCCCC;" BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="0182a2f1dyxtip.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="http://whs62.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net">Home</A>     <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Roll" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Roll">Roll Call</A>    <A HREF="http://whs62.net/In_Memory" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/In_Memory">In Memory</A>   <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Long_Ago" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Long_Ago">Long Ago</A>    <A HREF="http://www.whs62.net/Our_50s/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.whs62.net/Our_50s/">Our 50's</A>   <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Reunions" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Reunions">Reunions</A>   <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Today" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Today">Today</A>    <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Contacts" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Contacts">Contacts</A>    <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Links" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Links">Links</A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>