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EDDIE LAWRENCE
Born Lawrence Eisler in NYC on March 29, 1919 he began his career performing at local functions and then he performed for the “Major Edward Bowes Original Amateur Hour” which aired on CBS Radio during the 1930’s and 40’s. From there he would appear on numerous radio programs including starring on one series with comic/character actor John Marley (best remembered for his screen roles in”Cat Ballou”, ”The Godfather”, ”W.C.Fields And Me” and ”Hooper”) where they spoofed well known books and movies of the day. Lawrence’s career was briefly interrupted by his serving in the US Army during WWII. Upon his return to the USA he began appearing on many TV shows and would later do voice overs for a series of movie cartoons for Paramount/Famous. He did the voice of ”Abner” a talking baseball who recounts how he helped a minor league team win the world’s series.
He also did character voices for the ”Percy & Ralph” movie cartoons where he played a little schnook ”Percy” who was always being exploited by a tall, thin, smooth-talking con man ”Ralph”. The character’s names were later changed to ”Swifty And Shorty”. (The ”Percy And Ralph” cartoons would later be seen on ”Cartoonies” hosted by ventriloquist Paul Winchell and his puppets ”Jerry Mahoney & Knucklehead Smiff” and on “The New Casper Cartoon Show” Saturday mornings on ABC TV during the mid to late 1960’s)
But Lawrence’s most famous creation was “The Old Philosopher,” a sad sounding sage who somehow comes up with crazy but positive advice for his followers. In my interview with Mr. Lawrence back in 1987 he recalled that he performed the skits in the Army as a character known as”Sentimental Max”.
He would perform the skits on a series of comedic LP’s which became popular with the public and with such well known celebrities as Noel Coward, Anthony Newley and Charles Laughton. In the fall of 1963 he was invited to audition for WPIX TV 11 in NYC for a new children’s comedy program. Lawrence won the audition and ”The Eddie Lawrence Show” debuted on Monday evening September 3,1963 where he performed character comedy skits and read viewers mail in-between reruns of “The Three Stooges” films. Despite the fact that the series was popular with teens and young adults Lawrence’s humor didn’t appeal to young children, the station management tried to remedy the situation by reassigning Lawrence’s collaborating producer and scriptwriter Chet Dowling with another comedy craftsman. Lawrence balked at the idea but his efforts were for naught. Other problems arose; the station execs prohibited him from receiving mail from his fans and when he asked if his shows could be pre-taped so that Lawrence could find the time to work on his stage musical “Kelly” they refused his request. Lawrence was forced to leave his kids TV program in the late fall of 1963 to concentrate on his stage musical. “Kelly” was not a hit and closed after a few performances. Despite the cancellation of his NYC shows Lawrence was still popular with teens and young adults who continued to send him fan mail - an entire high school class created and performed a song dedicated to his work, sung to him over the phone. TV appearances became few and far between. Eddie Lawrence did some voice overs for radio and TV commercials and he made a guest appearance on Johnny Carson’s version of NBC TV’s ”Tonight" show. This was when the "Tonight" show was still being taped in NYC. Lawrence would also perform his stand up routines at many venues his last television appearance was on a televised comedy concert hosted by Dr. Demento for the “Comedy Channel” in the 1990’s. He also found the time to indulge in his love for painting I was lucky enough to do an interview with Mr. Lawrence at his artist studio in the fall of 1987 and he was kind enough to provide information about his career to a young writer and reseacher. Eddie Lawrence is survived by his wife Marilyn White and his son Garrett Eisler.
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Eddie Lawrence, comic/ character actor/ mimic/ scriptwriter/ producer cartoon voice over performer and former NYC based kid's TV comedy host/ performer died on Tuesday March 27, 2014 at his home in NYC. He was 95 years old.
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