Ernie Kovacs (1919-1962) was one of the leading innovators of comedy in television. He also published a novel and acted in movies. The collection consists of Profuselies cartoons, scripts, recordings of Kovacs' television shows, manuscripts of his novel, Zoomar, as well as personal papers, contracts, financial papers, and scrapbooks.

Kovacs was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on January 23, 1919; acted in stock companies and wrote for The Trentonian; was a disc jockey and special-events announcer for Trenton's radio station WTTM; began his television career at Philadelphia's WPTZ in 1950 and was one of the leading innovators of comedy in the new medium; his first network television program was It's Time for Ernie (1951); continued to work on radio while doing television; wrote all of his own material; married singer Edie Adams in 1954, and she frequently starred in his television shows; won 3 Emmy awards during 1956-1957 season; published a novel, Zoomar, in 1957; began his film career with Operation Mad Ball (1957); during 1961-1962, he concentrated most of his efforts on his monthly television specials; died in an auto accident in Beverly Hills, California, in 1962.

71 boxes (35.5 linear ft.) 33 oversize boxes

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCLA. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physica1 items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.