Shari Lewis

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Shari Lewis

Born	January 17, 1933 New York, New York
Died	August 02, 1998 (aged 65) Los Angeles, California

Shari Lewis (born Sonia Phyllis Hurwitz; January 17, 1933 – August 2, 1998) was an American ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children's television show host, most popular during the 1960s. She is best known as the original puppeteer of Lamb Chop, first appearing on Hi Mom, a local morning show that aired on WNBC in New York.

Lewis was Jewish-American. Her father was a founding member of Yeshiva University in New York City. Her parents encouraged Shari to perform and at the age of thirteen her father taught her magic acts with Jewish content. As a young girl Shari had instruction in acrobatics, juggling, piano, violin and ventriloquism, the latter by John W. Cooper. She also learned how to play the piano and violin at New York's High School of Music and Art, dance at the American School of Ballett, and acting with Sanford Meisner of the Neighborhood Playhouse. She attended Columbia University for one year, then left college to go into show business.

In 1952, Lewis and her puppetry won first prize on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television show. In March 1956, she and Lamb Chop were on Captain Kangaroo and by 1960 she had her own television program. Graduating to network television in 1960 with The Shari Lewis Show as host and puppeteer. The programs featured such characters as Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, Lamb Chop, and Crowie. Lamb Chop, who was little more than a sock with eyes, served as a sort of sassy alter-ego for Shari. Subsequent television programs introduced these characters (minus the black crow, whose characterization became more problematic after the 1960s) to a new generation of children. In 1992, her new Emmy-winning show Lamb Chop's Play-Along began a five year run on PBS.

The video Lamp Chop's Special Chanukah was released in 1996 and received the Parent's Choice award of the year.

On August 2, 1998, Lewis died while undergoing treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, for ovarian cancer she had been diagnosed with only two months prior. Lewis developed viral pneumonia, which – with her cancer – proved to be a fatal combination. Lewis was 65 years old. Two years later, her daughter, Mallory Tarcher (as of 2006, she has legally changed her name to Mallory Lewis) resumed her mother's work with the Lamb Chop character.

Lewis was the recipient of numerous awards during her lifetime, including:

12 Emmy Awards
Peabody Award (1960)
John F. Kennedy Center Award for Excellence and Creativity (1983)
7 Parent's Choice Awards
Action for Children's Television Award
1995 American Academy of Children's Entertainment award for Entertainer of the Year
Dor L'Dor award of the B'nai B'rith (1996)
3 Houston Film Festival awards
Silver Circle Award of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (1996)
Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence (1996)
2 Charleston Film Festival Gold Awards (1995)
Houston World Festival silver and bronze awards (1995)
New York Film and Video Festival Silver Award (1995)
Monte Carlo Prize for the World's Best Television Variety Show (1963)

In addition to writing over 60 books for children, she and her second husband wrote an episode of Star Trek, entitled "The Lights of Zetar".

Her first husband was Stan Lewis. Her second husband, Jeremy Tarcher, is the brother of Judith Krantz. Her only child, Mallory Tarcher, was a writer on Lamb Chop's Play-Along and The Charlie Horse Music Pizza.

[edit] Television shows

The Shari Lewis Show - 1960
The Shari Lewis Show (BBC) - 1975
Lamb Chop's Play-Along - 1992
The Charlie Horse Music Pizza - 1996

[edit] Episodic TV appearances

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1966) - Lewis was the guest star in the episode known as The Off-Broadway Affair; she played an adorably perky, somewhat ditsy understudy.

Lewis (and Lamb Chop) guest-starred on episode 2.20 of The Nanny, which premiered on February 13, 1995.