Edie Adams

At 81 years old, Edie Adams has this physical status:

Edie Adams (born Edith Elizabeth Enke, 1927 – October 15, 2008) was an American comedian, actress, singer, and businesswoman.

She was a Emmy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner. Adams, a sexy actress on stage and television, was well-known for her impersonations, particularly Marilyn Monroe.

Ernie Kovacs' wife and frequent television companion until his death in a 1962 car accident.

Adams founded Edie Adams Cosmetics and Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl after Kovacs' death.

Early life

Adams was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, and Sheldon Alonzo Enke and his wife, Ada Dorothy (née Adams), were the only daughter of his mother. Sheldon Adams Enke, Sheldon Enke's older brother, was her elder sister. The family lived in Tenafly, New Jersey, where she attended Tenafly High School. They travelled to nearby places such as Shavertown and Trucksville and spent a year in New York City. Ada Enke taught her daughter how to play and piano; both her mother and daughter were members of the Grove City Presbyterian church choir. Adams' grandmother, a seamstress, taught her how to sew. Adams began making her own clothing in the sixth grade and would eventually have her own designer line of clothing called Bonham, Inc.

She received a bachelor's degree from Juilliard and later graduated from Columbia School of Drama. She studied at the Actors Studio in New York and the Traphagen School of Fashion. Adams first couldn't decide if she wanted to work in fashion design or music, so she tossed a coin, and music took first.

She appeared in Bonnie Maid's Versatile Varieties as one of the first "Bonnie Maids" doing live television commercials for the sponsor from 1949 to 1950.

In 1950, she won the "Miss U.S. Television" beauty competition, which culminated in an appearance with Milton Berle on his television show. Edith Adams was the name of her first television appearance. Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts was one of her early appearances. She was invited to audition by the producer of the Ernie Kovacs show Three to Get Ready (in Philadelphia). Adams had no expertise in popular music and could only perform three songs. "I sang them all during the audition, and if they had requested to hear another, I never would have made it." In July 1951, she became a member of the show. Adams had no idea of the program she was hired for. Adams' father was furious to learn that her job involved trying to avoid pies in the face as he saw his daughter on the show. In one of his last interviews, Kovacs reflected back on the beginnings, adding, "I wish I could say I was the good shot that fired her but it was my show in name only," the producer said. "Let's get married," I had something to say later today, and I said it.

Personal life

Adams was married twice more after Kovacs' death. In 1964, she married photographer Martin Mills. She married trumpeter Pete Candoli, with whom she appeared in a touring performance of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. Adams gave birth to daughter Mia Susan Kovacs (died in a car accident in 1982) and son Joshua Mills, in addition to raising stepdaughters Bette and Kippie from her marriage to Kovacs.

Adams, a Republican, lobbied for Dwight Eisenhower's re-election in 1956's presidential election.

Adams, an early promoter of civil rights, regularly lends her support to the campaign at celebrity appearances and on her own television show in 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. Entertainers of various races and sexes were unable to perform next to one another, meaning one had to be in front of or behind the other. Nonetheless, the New York City Ballet produced a televised performance of "Agon" (a ballet costumed in leotards and tights, choreographed 1957) with Arthur Mitchell (original cast and first black principal dancer at the New York City Ballet) dating from 1960.

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Career

Adams began appearing on television with Kovacs and talk show pioneer Jack Paar. Adams and Kovacs eloped in Mexico City on September 12, 1954, after a courtship with mariachi bands and an unexpected diamond engagement ring. Adams' marriage of Kovacs was initially unsure. She was on a six-week European cruise, aiming to reach a decision. Adams answered yes after three days away and several long-distance phone calls. It was Kovacs' second marriage and it lasted until his death in a car accident on January 13, 1962.

In 1957, Adams and Kovacs were nominated for their best appearances in a comedy film. In 1960, she and Kovacs appeared in The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour's final television special on CBS, during which she performed "That's All." Adams appeared on What's My Line? for four years. Edith Adams (Mrs. Ernie Kovacs) while her husband was on the panel; twice with Kovacs; twice alone as Edie Adams).

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

Following Kovacs' death, Adams' network, ABC, offered Adams a chance to star on Here's Edie, which earned five Emmy awards but only lasted one season in 1963. Kovacs was a well-known cigar smoker, and Adams produced a long line of TV commercials for Muriel Cigars. "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?" Muriel's pitch-lady returned after Kovacs's death, intoning in a Mae West style and sexy outfit. Adams performed, "Hey, big spender, spend a little money with me," the musical Sweet Charity's "Big Spender" was shown on another commercial. Adams's cigar advertisements made her one of the top three most well-known television stars in the nation. Adams made occasional television appearances, including on Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, McMillan & Wife, Murder, She Wrote, and Designing Women.

Adams appeared in many 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). She appeared in 2003 as one of the original headliners from the all-star comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), along with actor Marvin Kaplan and Sid Caesar at a 40th anniversary celebration of the film. She was also a hit nightclub headliner.

Adams won a "nasty custody dispute" with Kovacs' ex-wife over Edie's stepdaughters shortly after her husband's death. During a visit years ago, his ex-wife abducted the girls; because Kovacs was their legal guardian, he and Edie continued to search their daughters and bring them home.

Adams' mother-in-law, who refused to believe there were more debts than assets in her son's estate, is facing another court battle in the same year. Mary Kovacs accused her daughter-in-law of mismanaging the estate and petitioned for custody of her granddaughters. Adams served as the administrator of her husband's estate and guardian of the three children for years. She worked for years to pay her late husband's tax debt to the IRS. Edie and her family's friends had planned a TV special benefit for the couple's children, but they turned down, saying, "I can take care of my own children." She spent the next year doing virtually non-stop.

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

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