Too many obits…but we can't let the passing of the lovely 'n' talented Edie Adams go without mention. Edie was a part of a lot of things I loved, including the Broadway show Li'l Abner, the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and almost anything Ernie Kovacs ever did. And right after I typed that sentence, I remembered another of my favorite movies she was in — The Apartment.
All the details of her life and career are recounted in this obit but I wanted to underscore one thing that is mentioned only briefly. She was, as you know, married to Ernie Kovacs, who was killed in an auto accident in 1962. When that happened, Edie was left millions of dollars in debt, owing to Mr. Kovacs' tendency to spend every cent he earned and then some. Another person in Edie's place might have filed for bankruptcy but she wouldn't do that. Instead, she kicked her career into overdrive, digging up jobs left and right, and also going to accounting school so she could learn how to better handle the money she made. And in a few years, she actually managed to pay off the debts. It was an amazing bit of personal achievement.
Edie was funny and Edie was lovely. I interviewed her briefly when I wrote an article about the Li'l Abner Broadway musical — a show, oddly enough, where she hated her part, even though it won her a Tony. She was more willing to talk about Mad World and about Mr. Kovacs. Of the former, I remember her saying, "All those years with Ernie taught me how to hold my own in a roomful of comics." It sure did.