Comic was deadpan mangler of language
Norm Crosby, the deadpan mangler of the English language who thrived in the 1960s, ’ 70s and ’ 80s as a television, nightclub and casino comedian, has died. He was 93.
Crosby’s daughter- inlaw, Maggie Crosby, told the New York Times that the comic died Nov. 7 of heart failure in Los Angeles.
Early in his career, Crosby realized he needed a gimmick to differentiate himself from the burgeoning generation of comics who were achieving fame on the network TV variety shows.
“I was looking around for fresh ideas, and I kept hearing people misuse words,” he told an interviewer in 1989. “So I started to use it in my act.”
He called the famed baby doctor Benjamin Spock “Dr. Spook.” With straight- faced sincerity, he said people “should have an apathy for one another; they should have rappaport for each other.” Today’s kids, he said, “gotta cut that umbrella cord and split.”
Crosby’s f irst steady work as a comic came at Blinstrub’s in his native Boston, which led to an engagement in the early 1960s at the prestigious Latin Quarter in New York.
Walter Winchell, in his widely read newspaper column, gave the comedian a rave, and offers from Johnny Carson and other TV shows and club dates poured in. Crosby became a favorite at Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos, and he played theaters, including many times at London’s Palladium, and concert halls. He also was a regular guest on Dean Martin’s celebrity roasts.
From 1978 to 1980, he starred in a syndicated TV show, “Norm Crosby’s Comedy Shop.”
For many years he served as co- host with Jerry Lewis on the Labor Day weekend telethon for muscular dystrophy.
As a public performer, Crosby thrived despite having poor hearing. During World War II, he served aboard a Coast Guard submarine chaser, and concussion from depth charges damaged his ears. He wore a hearing aid onstage.
“I was never shy about my hearing loss, probably because I got it from military service,” he said in a 1993 interview. “I got thousands of letters from people who had said they would never get a hearing aid but had changed their minds after they saw me being open about it.”
Crosby was a longtime spokesman for the Better Hearing Institute and hosted an annual golf benefit for the cause.
Crosby married Joan Crane Foley in 1966. They had two children.