Shari Lewis, if you’re of a certain age, was everywhere, almost all at once, on television in the 50s and 60s and then again in the 90s on PBS. She made a career in children’s television but was much more than that. Lisa D’Apolito, writer and director, invites us in to see how much more there was to Shari than we ever imagined.
Born Phyllis Naomi Hurwitz, she was the daughter of a professor of education at Yeshiva University and the proclaimed “official magician” of New York City. He may have been called Abraham at home but in most circles he was Peter Pan the Magic Man and Shari often called herself Peter Pan’s daughter. Shari was a gifted and grateful daughter. She excelled at everything she tried, she was fully supported by parents who believed that there were no boundaries to what their daughter should try. She took acrobatics, piano, violin, ice skating and dance. Dance was her love but when she broke her leg at 13 she was devastated. Her father gave her a book on ventriloquism to take her mind off what she couldn’t do and focus on what she might be able to. A natural, she took to it immediately and, even though her leg healed and she could continue dancing, she had her new passion. Peter Pan’s daughter was soon winning contests and fans everywhere she went in the city. Married young, to her childhood sweetheart, Stan Lewis, she brought her puppetry everywhere. After winning first prize on the Arthur Murray Talent Scouts, she changed her name to Shari Lewis and her career took off. She hosted her first local children’s series in 1953, a variety show with games, guest performers and starring Samson and Taffy Twinkle, her puppets. Shari’s skill was amazing. Watching her perform in the clips D’Apolito presents, you can’t see her lips move. Edgar Bergen, perhaps the most famous of all ventriloquists with his “dummy” Charlie McCarthy, performed on radio with Charlie often calling out Bergen for moving his lips. No so, Shari. As a matter of fact, she perfected the art of working two puppets at the same time using different “voices.”
A true pioneer of early television children’s programming, the beautiful, charismatic Shari was on the air almost continuously from 1953-1963, landing her first network show in 1960 when she replaced another beloved children’s series, “The Howdy Doody Show.” By that time she had debuted the puppets who would be her staples for the rest of her career, Wing Ding, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse and her most beloved creation Lamb Chop.
She was the precursor to “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood” and was a voice for all the feelings that were within her young audience. She encouraged children to act on the best version of themselves and dream dreams and build them. She often used her puppets, especially Lamb Chop, to express her opinions on what should be. Cute, but radical at the time, is a sequence where Lamb Chop wants to be President of the United States. Hush Puppy tells her that that’s ridiculous, a girl has never been and will never be president. “That’s just silly,” replies Lamb Chop. I wonder how Lamb Chop would react now? Lewis often used her puppets to encourage others to take command of their personal stories. She had been supported in every way by her parents and she wanted that for others.
Lewis was married twice, having divorced husband Stan when he was embroiled in the Quiz Show Scandals of 1957. Her second husband, Jeremy Tarcher, came from a well-to-do Manhattan Family (his sister was Judith Kranz) and had a hard time matching Shari’s drive. For many years he helped produce her shows before launching his own publishing house. It was, like most, a marriage of ups and downs, especially when Shari’s show was cancelled.
Without her children’s show, she felt the need to reinvent and starting again was something that didn’t phase her. She moved the family, now including daughter Mallory, to Los Angeles where television had migrated. A singer and dancer before she was a ventriloquist, she went back to her roots, finding occasional acting work in episodic television and dancing on variety shows and specials. She appeared on talk shows and even headlined a Las Vegas act with Lamb Chop. It’s unclear whether the world was ready for the previously pure puppet doing double entendres with her mistress. She was a performer to her core and was willing to open a super market if there was going to be an audience. Ken Levine, a successful television comedy writer, remembered seeing her at a county fair. It was an audience of only four paid admissions and she still performed her complete act at full tilt.
If her reinvention wasn’t entirely successful, it’s certainly not because she didn’t try. She knew that children’s television was where her heart was and later in life she got another chance with a PBS series she called “Lamb Chop’s Play-Along.” Still full of positive energy, it featured audience participation and the world’s most beloved puppet, Lamb Chop. When that ended, she and her family created “The Charlie Horse Music Pizza.” An educator to the end, the surprising Ms. Lewis was more than the sum of her parts and we were the benefactors.
Now playing at the Laemmle Royal and Town Center.
