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.

35.5 Linear Feet (71 boxes and 33 oversize boxes)

Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.