The Library of Congress, in its latest step to preserve the work of great entertainers, has acquired a collection of kinescopes, videotapes and home movies featuring comedian Ernie Kovacs and his wife, singer-actress Edie Adams, it was announced Thursday.
The library purchased the comprehensive collection, which includes more than 1,200 audiovisual items, from Josh Mills, the president of Ediad Productions and Adams’ son. The price was not disclosed.
Kovacs was renowned for his innovative, surrealistic and out-of-the-box television comedy, while Adams had a successful career on the big and small screen and on Broadway and was memorable in a series of sultry cigar commercials (“Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it sometime?”). They often worked together.
Kovacs, 42, died on Jan. 13, 1962, in a car crash on Santa Monica Boulevard on his way home from a party in Beverly Hills. Adams, 81, died of cancer on Oct. 15, 2008.
Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com
