When Shari Lewis gave her first command performance in Great Britain Princess Anne came up to Shari after the show and asked, “How did you start doing what you do? It's so unusual for a girl.” To which Shari replied, “Well, my father was the official magician for the City of New York. We always had magic and puppets around the house.” The Princess took in what she had just heard, paused a second and then, without missing a beat, replied, “Yes, one does tend to get involved in one's family business, doesn't one?”

Over the years Shari Lewis’ career may have taken her across America and to many foreign lands performing for foreign royalty and four or five US Presidents. Yet as far as Shari’s career would take her it never took her far from her roots. Born into a family of educators and entertainers Shari learned music from her mother, Ann Ritz Hurawitz, who was the music coordinator for the New York public school system … and magic, puppetry and ventriloquism from her father, Abe Hurawitz. Although Abe’s main job was professor for the Yeshiva University, the children of New York City knew him as "Peter Pan the Magic Man." Abe taught magic throughout the depression in the parks under Mayor LeGuardia. All the while applying his philosophy on education … children learn more when they are having fun in the process. A philosophy Shari would put to use on her many children’s shows in the years to come.

Although a lot of ventriloquists seem to be drawn to the art initially out of shyness, Shari's husband of forty years, Jeremy Tarcher, says that wasn’t the case with Shari Lewis. “Not my gal. Shy was never a term that one would have applied to her in terms of large public gatherings. We have pictures of her working at the band shell at the park at three years of age.” Tarcher admits that in small private situations Shari might be much less outgoing and bubbly … unaffected by being a television performer, but never shy.

It was at one of Shari's visits to the parks where her father performed regularly that Shari met ventriloquist John W. Cooper. Cooper, a retired African-American ventriloquist who was a top vaudeville performer in his day, was in his eighties when they met. He would often treat the local kids to an impromptu show in the park. Eventually Cooper would give interested onlookers pointers and tips on throwing their voice and little Shari caught on quickly. Before long she was fooling her father with voice throwing pranks around the house … not an easy task since many of her father’s friends were ventriloquists.

For her first prank, at the age of twelve, Shari convinced her father that he had heard his younger daughter calling out to him from behind the door of a locked broom closet. When he ran over and threw the door open he was greeted by an empty closet and the mischievous giggles of his other daughter, Shari, who stood beside him in the hall. From this day forth Shari’s father knew what his daughters true calling would be, even if young Shari didn’t realize it just yet.

As she grew into a teenager Shari continued to have a variety of entertainment interests. She attended the High School of Music and Art in New York, where she studied violin, theory and orchestration. She also studied piano, guitar, several other instruments and a variety of styles of dance … all the while performing ventriloquism at her local community centers and variety shows with a professional wooden headed classic style ventriloquist figure her father had given her. Although her father was encouraging her to pursue ventriloquism seriously Shari was leaning towards a career in music and dance as her choice at the time. Then at the age of nineteen Shari Lewis was chosen to perform on the television show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. At the end of Godfrey's show, which consisted of performances by largely unknown talents, the studio audience voted. Shari was the hit of the evening and won first place.

The following year Shari Lewis got her first TV show — a fifteen minute educational spot for a local New York station called Facts and Fun with Shari Lewis that aired on Saturday mornings. This would lead to a series of shows over the next few years on local New York television stations featuring Shari and her ventriloquist figures. Eventually she would come to the attention of national childrens show host Bob Keeshan. Keeshan decided Shari would be perfect for his show Captain Kangaroo. So he offered her a guest appearance in 1957 but the only hitch was he didn't want her to use her wooden figures for the show. Shari Lewis went home and found a sock puppet her father had given her two years earlier which she had largely ignored, and brought it to the studio with her for the taping of Captain Kangaroo show. The world would meet and fall in love with Shari's little Lamb Chop on that day.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little lamb. How I wonder where I am. All my friends are on the farm, but here I am on Shari's arm.” … these words, from one of Shari Lewis' shows, came out of the mouth of her sweet, prankish and coy, six year old sidekick, Lamb Chop. And on Shari's arm she would stay for the next five decades becoming Shari Lewis' most popular character. Lewis' talent as a ventriloquist is very apparent when watching her work but she will probably be best remembered for putting so much life into a simple sock puppet … the body language … the realistic facial expressions. Her skills were so convincing that you’d forget you were watching puppets. How could so much emotion come out of a simple sock puppet on a hand? When the sock was on Shari Lewis' hand it could.

“I think there’s a simplicity about Lamb Chop that is an important part of her appeal,” Shari Lewis once said of her little lamb. Along with Lamb Chop two other sock puppets would become popular with Shari's audiences as well … Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy. Shari, Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy would educate and entertain children and their children's children … always remembering to make learning musical, magical and FUN!

Shari Lewis' advice to children … “consider this period of life like a bank. Any time you put in on something worthwhile will pay off dividends, as you're older. And I will just suggest, study anything that anybody is willing to teach you — anything! Because you never know what's going to come in handy.” During her show business career Shari Lewis would tap into all the many things she had studied shile growing up … her music, dance, magic, ventriloquism, everything helped to shape her act and her TV shows.

“Shari was not interested in just entertaining children … she was interested in entertaining herself … interested in entertaining me. She thought … I guess, that I represented enough of a child,” recalls husband Tarcher of their years together working on her many children's shows. He was the audience she ran ideas by when creating for all her young fans. “We worked together on a lot of her shows and we enjoyed that collaborative relationship a great deal.”

“I think Shari, and most ventriloquists, feel that their ventriloquism is only the artistic means by which they are able to be comedic. They are both the straight man and the punch line person. People think of them as ventriloquists while they think of themselves as comedians,” said Tarcher of Shari Lewis' craft. “Her standards were always that you have to be genuinely funny not stupidly funny. I think that’s what gave her the longevity. She won Emmys in the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s for special shows and for regular children’s series. It was an extraordinary record of five decades of winning awards and pleasing audiences of all ages and all kinds.”

Like so many other live children's show hosts that had gone before her, eventually her popular '60s children's show would be replaced with one of the animated cartoon shows that were all but taking over the Saturday morning line up. Shari would continue to be seen on television in a string of specials during the years that followed, many of which garnered her Emmy awards.

After the run of her NBC network series, The Shari Lewis Show, had come to an end new facets to her career began opening up for Shari Lewis. She branched out beyond children's entertainment into many new directions. Sci-Fi fans will remember her for writing, along with her husband Jeremy Tarcher, "The Lights of Zetar", an episode of the series Star Trek. It was the final episode in season three of the original series back in the late 1960s.

Now with a regular television show no longer hindering her ability to travel she began playing Las Vegas and nightclubs. “Shari worked one night with Edgar Bergen … it was a great experience she loved it,” recalls Tarcher of her nightclub and Vegas work. She had long-term contracts with The Sahara in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. She opened for Jack Benny, Donald O'Conner and many other wonderful stars. “People of all ages enjoyed her shows,” recalls Tarcher, “and she found that she could work Las Vegas at midnight as easily as she could work in the afternoon on television.” Lamb Chop and the gang would even get the chance to perform on the Great White Way when Lamb Chop on Broadway played for a limited engagement at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 1994.

Shari Lewis' husband Tarcher said that musical theater held a special place for Shari. During this period of her career Shari Lewis had the chance to do summer tours of musicals like "Funny Girl," "Damn Yankees" and several other musical theater classics. She had always loved it and had auditioned for several musicals before her children's show career took off. But at the time her petite stature kept her from getting parts even though she was well received at auditions. Lewis' love for musical theater had always had a strong influence on her when she was creating her children's shows … so being able to perform in musicals after her network show ended was a special thrill for her.

Musical theater didn't just have a strong influence on Shari's shows … Shari's TV shows would have an influence on the future generation of Broadway creative talent. Rupert Holmes, multiple Tony Award winner for the Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood remembers growing up in the '50s watching Shari Lewis on TV. “I can't begin to tell you how hip Shari Lewis was in 1957. She'd been on other stations, but suddenly she had this hour show on Saturday morning called Shariland. It was as if someone had opened a nightclub for kids, and a sophisticated one at that. I have such admiration for the subtle wit and flair she put out there each week. Her puppet cast performed some of the best deadpan takes since Jack Benny. My own work in musical theatre has been influenced and inspired by those astounding one-woman "duets and trios" she'd perform weekly with her puppet cast. An unforgettable writer, singer, puppeteer and entertainer who appealed to all ages.”

In the late '60s or early '70s Shari Lewis was asked to appear with the Dallas Symphony for a performance of "Peter and the Wolf." They wanted her to perform with Lamb Chop to help instill a greater interest in the piece amoung youngsters. Shari Lewis asked if she could conduct. They said we didn’t know you could conduct. To which Lewis replied … Oh yes, I can conduct. “Shari had a long musical background and had seen her mother conduct orchrestras while growing up so she had no fear of doing it herself,” recalls husband Jeremy Tarcher. “They said… Fine, we’ll make it possible for you to conduct a piece. At that point Shari started taking conducting lessons. She had the confidence that she could do it. That she could learn how to do a single piece of music within a couple of months. She was very good at it. From that initial concert came many other conducting opportunities.” One of few women conductors, she has performed with and conducted more than 100 symphony orchestras.

During the '70s Shari Lewis would create more childrens programing but this time for her fans in Great Britian. Her popular BBC series, The Shari Lewis Show, centered around a puppet-run television station. She did 18 shows a year for the BBC. Lewis remained true to her belief in old-fashioned kids' shows. Her holiday specials in the '80s and '90s became public TV perennials … Shari's Christmas Concert, Lamb Chop in the Haunted Studio and Lamb Chop's Special Chanukah. Throughout her career Lewis wrote more than 60 children's books and created many audio cassettes and home videos.

By the '90s Shari Lewis was a regular on TV in America once again this time hosting a children's series for PBS television, Lamb Chop's Play-Along! Shari was now performing for the sons and daughters of her original TV audience. A second series for PBS, The Charlie Horse Music Pizza, followed Lamb Chop's Play-Along! to success. The latest series featured Dom DeLuise as the Pizza chef. DeLuise was not new to Shari Lewis' fans having made a guest appearance on her network show back in the '60s. Shari Lewis had used many well known names on her children's programs over the years. “We had had many well known actors in the Shari Lewis show … Ossie Davis, Jerry Orbach, Dom DeLuise and Margaret Hamilton,” recalls husband Jeremy Tarcher. “We employed lots of character actors and comedy performers on the first network show.”

Shari Lewis and daughter Mallory Tarcher were the first mother and daughter team to win an Emmy together. Mallory (now going under the name of Lewis like her mom) worked as a writer, producer and creative supervisor on Shari's more recent shows. “Mallory has been working in the industry since she was a little girl and manipulated puppets on her mother's shows. So she has the background and the talent,” says her father of Mallory's years of experience getting Lamb Chops movements and body language to match her mother's so she could assist in the filming of her TV shows.

But Mallory had never tried imitating Lamb Chop's voice. Then came the Emmy Awards and a posthumous award for Shari Lewis. When daughter Mallory Tarcher went up to accept … she brought her famous 'sister' Lamb Chop up on stage with her. To the surprise of everyone in the theater Lamb Chop spoke … There wasn't a dry eye in the audience. “It’s essentially indistinguishable,” says Jeremy Tarcher of daughter Mallory's similarities to her mother when she's voicing Lamb Chop. And although Mallory never tried her hand at ventriloquism while her mother was alive she found that she has indeed inherited her mom's knack for no lip movement, as well.

“One of my great joys in life is being able to perform with Lamb Chop,” says daughter Mallory of her appearances with her mom's beloved sidekick in recent years. “She and I perform for the USO, and my favorite moment was being on stage with Wayne Newton at a welcome home celebration for our troops. When I walked out with Lambie 50,000 soldiers and their families started chanting “LAMB CHOP LAMB CHOP.” I started to cry and I looked towards the heavens and thought to myself “Can you hear that mom, they still love you.”

So the baton has been passed and Lamb Chop will have the chance to be enjoyed by another generation of children with daughter Mallory bringing the little sock puppet to life this time. Of course as Princess Anne said … “one does tend to get involved in one's family business, doesn't one?”

…

This is the song that doesn't end
Yes it goes on and on my friend
Some people started singing it
Not knowing what it was
And they'll continue
Singing it forever
Just because
This is the song that doesn't end
Yes it goes on and on my friend ...

…

And may Lamb Chop go on and on as well …
Thanks for the music, the magic and the memories Shari.

For the latest on Lamb Chop and more visit Mallory (Tarcher) Lewis' web site … www.lambchop.tv

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