Today's video link will take you to an almost-15 minute TV show starring Pinky Lee. Mr. Lee was an odd celebrity. He was a one-time burlesque comedian — apparently, a pretty good one — who somehow became a kids' show host in early television. Someone at the company that made Tootsie Rolls seems to have adored him because he was usually sponsored by that product. Maybe it was because with his lisp, he always sounded like he was eating a Tootsie Roll and therefore had his back teeth cemented together.
He had an array of different shows on different channels over the years. Often during the periods when he didn't have a TV show, he could be found in Las Vegas, appearing in one of the many revues there that purported to replicate Minsky's-style burlesque. There was apparently some minor controversy over whether it was right and proper for a man who entertained children to also be consorting with strippers and gambling, but I don't know that it was what finally ended his TV career. I think evolving tastes took care of that. His "last hurrah" was around 1964 on local TV in Los Angeles where he tried to do exactly the same show he'd done ten years earlier. No one, not even Sid Caesar or Jackie Gleason, could do that in '64 and succeed.
There are many stories about Pinky Lee and things going wrong on live TV…words that shouldn't have been said, body parts that shouldn't have been exposed. The most famous though is probably the tale of him collapsing on camera in 1955, right in the middle of a broadcast. It was reported as a heart attack but when he returned to work weeks later, he insisted it was asthma…and it may well have been. Later, when his career wasn't going so well, he blamed the heart attack story for scaring off employers.
I had one encounter with Pinky Lee, back when I worked for Sid and Marty Krofft. He knew the Kroffts and had talked to them about hosting some show or being involved with something they did. He was interested in working with them but the feeling was not particularly mutual, and they had no idea what to do with him, anyway. Still, every month or three, he'd be on the phone or at the door with "the" project that would get him back on TV, where he knew he belonged and where he had not appeared for some time. This was around 1980 or so.
When the infamous Pink Lady TV show was announced, Lee was convinced that was it. Pink Lady…Pinky Lee…how was that not a combo of divine (pink) inspiration? He began calling the office every hour on the hour, asking when to report to work on the series. One day, I was sitting at my desk — I was the Head Writer — and suddenly, Pinky Lee danced in…and I mean, danced. He was in his seventies but he did a little time-step into my room. I was on the phone at the time and I remember saying to someone, "I'll have to call you back. I seem to have Pinky Lee performing in my office."
And perform, he did — telling me how wonderful he would be on our show. Yeah, like we really needed another star who no one had heard of and who didn't talk very well. I remember him just exuding energy and spittle, telling me how popular he still was; how everywhere he went, hordes stopped him to ask why he wasn't on the air these days.
At the time, "Buffalo" Bob Smith of Howdy Doody fame was big again, touring on college campuses to sold-out audiences. Pinky explained to me that those kids really wanted to see him instead and had contacted NBC trying to book him. NBC, he said, was mad at him over an old score and the network still owned a piece of Howdy Doody, so they'd steered all those inquiries to Bob Smith, instead. It was kind of sad, and yet you had to admire the guy's spirit and persistence in a way. He was actually pretty funny, at least in my office. I told him I'd discuss with the Kroffts if we could find a place for him on the show, knowing full well we wouldn't. In hindsight, maybe we should have. I mean, it's not like anything else we did would have hurt that series.
Here's Pinky Lee in all his glory. Like I said, this clip runs close to fifteen minutes. I'll be surprised if most of you make it past five but you might enjoy seeing a little of a pretty good TV host of that era strutting his stuff…
