Ernie Kovacs celebration coming to Trenton
If you can make it
- and have any sense of history or humor - I encourage you to swing by the New Jersey State Museum Auditorium at 205 West State Street Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m. when the NJ Motion Picture & Television Commission will honor Trentonborn and raised legend Ernie Kovacs, who would’ve turned 100 this year.
If you’re asking, “who’s Ernie Kovacs?” then you should definitely come out. I’m not going to go through his entire biography here, but here’s the thumbnail: Born and raised in the city. Trentonian columnist from 19451950. Radio DJ during that same time. Got his own television show in Philadelphia in 1951. Graduated to New York. Married Edie Adams. Got famous. Graduated to Hollywood. Got even more famous. Died in a car accident in 1963. Pallbearers included Dean Martin and Jack Lemmon.
So yeah. You could say Kovacs was a big deal, and was only getting bigger when he died.
And while Kovacs isn’t a household name today, if you enjoy the work of David Letterman, or Conan O’Brien, or “Saturday Night Live” … or virtually any television show that plays with the form, they have Kovacs to thank. He pioneered it all. He was the first to play with the cameras, the first to do the man on the street interview, sketch humor … it all came from Kovacs’ brain. This is not an exaggeration. He was doing modern TV 25 years ahead of schedule.
And finally, the state is doing something to honor the man. I’ll be there - speaking, no less! alongside Mayor Reed Gusciora, Secretary of State Tahesha Way, Joel Hodgson - the star and creator of “Mystery Science Theatre 3000” - and Josh Mills, Edie Adams’ son from her second marriage and executor of the Kovacs estate.
“This will be a salute to Ernie,” Mills told me. “We’re all going to say a few words, there will be a presentation and a talk, and we’ll watch about 25 minutes of clips.”
It’s about time the state officially recognized Kovacs.
After all, he’s not a member of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, which would be like Babe Ruth not being enshrined in Cooperstown. It’s beyond ridiculous. And then there’s the bust … Out in Los Angeles, on the grounds of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences - that’s the Emmy people - sits a sculpture garden called the Walk of Fame. There’s busts of Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Johnny Carson. A legit who’s-who of Hollywood. Kovacs statue sits among them.
The sculptor made three Kovacs busts. A second one sits at the UCLA television museum.
The third? Collecting dust at the old NJN studios on Stockton Street. Not even kidding. It’s just sitting there. Has been for years. Only New Jersey would let this priceless piece of art sit unloved, when the other two are displayed in two of the most important meccas to television history.
“There has been talk about the bust,” Mills said. “The interesting thing is that it’s a defunct building and a defunct network. We’re literally at the point of trying to figure out who owns it, what part of the state. It’s a byzantine effort to figure it out. But we are talking about getting it out of cobwebs. Maybe 2020.”
In addition to the state’s affair, Mills will be at Randy Now’s Man Cave in Bordentown Wednesday evening for another Q&A opportunity, along with a 30-minute film celebrating the life of Kovacs.
I can’t stress this enough: If it weren’t for Ernie Kovacs, the world of comedy we know today simply would not exist. He changed history, and he shouldn’t be forgotten, certainly not in his home state, certainly not in his hometown.
If I sound a little preachy, it’s because I am. Sorry not sorry when it comes to this. At the very least, he deserves a few minutes of your time on Youtube …