Edie Adams

Adams was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, the only daughter of Sheldon Alonzo Enke and Ada Dorothy (née Adams), whom she described as "two conservative native Pennsylvanians".{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|p=12}} She had an elder brother, Sheldon Adams Enke. The family moved to nearby areas such as Shavertown and Trucksville and spent a year in New York City before settling in Tenafly, New Jersey, where she attended Tenafly High School.Jackson, Kenneth T. [https://books.google.com/books?id=L8paAAAAYAAJ&q=%22edie+adams%22+%22tenafly+high+school%22 The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives: 2006-2008], p. 3. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. {{ISBN|9780684315751}}. Accessed October 9, 2018. "While attending Tenafly High School, Adams joined the choir and the glee club and sang in the school's operettas." Ada Enke, who had a "trained dramatic soprano voice,"{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|p=18}} taught her daughter singing and piano; mother and daughter were members of the Grove City Presbyterian church choir.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=z9MbAAAAIBAJ&pg=4799,2683486&dq=ernie+kovacs+light+cigar&hl=en|title=Daisy Mae From Grove City, PA|author=Apone, Carl|date=July 9, 1967|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|access-date=October 27, 2010}} Adams's grandmother, a seamstress, taught her how to sew. She made her own clothing beginning in the sixth grade and Adams would later have her own designer line of clothing, called Bonham, Inc.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lydJAAAAIBAJ&pg=1803,268395&dq=ernie+kovacs+california&hl=en|title=Edie Gets Recharge From Her Audience|author=Crane, Leila|date=September 2, 1983|newspaper=The Hour|access-date=November 12, 2010}}

After high school, she wanted to pursue a career as a vocalist, but was unsure whether she would make the cut after music school auditions. She knew that her costuming skills were at a level to constitute a fallback, with Traphagen School of Fashion as her "safe school" during the college application process.{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|pp=58–59}} In the event, she succeeded in getting into Juilliard, where she earned a vocal degree, and then took a "fifth year" and graduated from Columbia School of Drama. She also later studied at the Actors Studio in New York. While at Juilliard she was, by her own account, one of the first women to be interviewed for the Kinsey Report on female sexuality.{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|p=72}} While still at Juilliard, she taught part-time at the Barbizon School of Modeling{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|p=76}} and gave assemblies at New Jersey high schools, intended to recruit female students for various colleges and commercial schools. The assemblies had been conceived more as lectures, but once she discovered that her pay would be mainly commissions for interest generated, she turned them much more into performances.{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|pp=76–78}}

Although she studied and sang serious music at Juilliard, summer jobs (including performing in a production of The Pirates of Penzance) and her New York social life introduced her to lighter, more popular performance styles, as well as to New York's café society and the Brill Building crowd.{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|pp=69–71}} One of her vocal teachers, Dusolina Giannini gave her some half-encouraging, half-discouraging advice: to abandon her hopes of being an opera singer and "go straight into musical comedy."{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|p=74}} After turning down an offer from Richard Rodgers to be an understudy in the road company of South Pacific,{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|pp=75–76}} she also turned down a 5-year contract from MGM that would have groomed her toward becoming a movie actress, but would not have promised her any specific film work.{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|pp=79–80}}

She knew that with her Juilliard education she could fall back to being a music teacher, but was still determined to try to break into show business.{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|p=80}} She began going to every audition (not only as a singer, but for legitimate theater) and entering every vocal contest she could find.{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|pp=80–81}} She passed an audition to go on the road with Vaughn Monroe, but her father put his foot down about her traveling with a big band. In 1949–50, she appeared in the early live television show Bonnie Maid's Versatile Varieties as one of the original "Bonnie Maids" doing live commercials for the sponsor.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} According to her memoir, she did a three-week stint in Montreal and Toronto singing with a trio led by Artie Arturo.{{harv|Adams|Windeler|1990|pp=84–86}}

File:Ernieandedie.jpg|year=1956|access-date=9 July 2010}}{{cbignore}}]]

File:Take a good look adams kovacs 1960.JPG, 1960]]

In 1950, she won the "Miss U.S. Television" beauty contest,{{Cite news|title='Vision of Ernie Kovacs' honors first video artist|author=Dudek, Duane|date=June 16, 1986|newspaper=Milwaukee Journal}} which led to an appearance with Milton Berle on his television show. Her earliest television work billed her as Edith Adams.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1KkpAAAAIBAJ&pg=2373,3960082&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=The Marquee|author=Kleiner, Dick|date=May 30, 1954|newspaper=Pittsburgh Press|access-date=July 11, 2010}} One of her early appearances was on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. She was seen by the producer of the Ernie Kovacs show Three to Get Ready (in Philadelphia), who invited her to audition. Adams had very little experience with popular music and could perform only three songs. She later stated: "I sang them all during the audition, and if they had asked to hear another, I never would have made it." She became part of the show in July 1951.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tony-winning-actress-edie-adams-dead-at-81/|title=Tony-Winning Actress Edie Adams Dead At 81|date=October 16, 2008|work=CBS News|access-date=August 16, 2010}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-oct-17-me-adams17-story.html|title=Tony award-winning actress, TV star|author=Thurber, Jon|date=October 17, 2008|newspaper=LA Times|access-date=August 16, 2010}} Adams had never seen the program she was hired for. When he saw his daughter on the show, Adams's father was upset to find her role involved trying to avoid pies in the face.{{cite news|url=http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2018/Troy%20NY%20Times%20Record/Troy%20NY%20Times%20Record%201968/Troy%20NY%20Times%20Record%201968%20-%203163.pdf#xml=http://www.fultonhistory.com/dtSearch/dtisapi6.dll?cmd=getpdfhits&u=ffffffffcb130f53&DocId=3949408&Index=Z%3a%5cIndex%20I%2dE%2dV&HitCount=2&hits=48c+48d+&SearchForm=C%3a%5cinetpub%5cwwwroot%5cFulton%5fNew%5fform%2ehtml&.pdf|title=TV Show on Ernie Kovacs Scheduled on ABC|author=Humphrey, Hal|date=6 April 1968|publisher=Record Newspapers|access-date=8 September 2013}} In one of his last interviews, Kovacs looked back on the early days, saying, "I wish I could say I was the big shot that hired her, but it was my show in name only—the producer had all the say. Later on I did have something to say and I said it, 'Let's get married.{{'"}}{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7rceAAAAIBAJ&pg=5709,4130335&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs:Serious-Minded Clown|date=January 21, 1962|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|author=Ryan, Jack|access-date=August 6, 2010}}

File:Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams 1956.jpg

Adams began working regularly on television with Kovacs and talk show pioneer Jack Paar.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=miAhAAAAIBAJ&pg=3229,3186135&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Edith Adams Does Her Sleeping In Afternoon|author=Wilson, Earl|date=February 18, 1954|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|access-date=July 11, 2010}} After a courtship that included mariachi bands and an unexpected diamond engagement ring, Adams and Kovacs eloped; they were married on September 12, 1954, in Mexico City.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r6Q8AAAAIBAJ&pg=1134,9683779&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=The Marquee: About Edith Adams|date=January 30, 1954|author=Kleiner, Dick|newspaper=Gazette and Bulletin|access-date=July 11, 2010}}{{cite book |last1= Nachman |first1=Gerald |author-link1= Gerald Nachman |title=Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s|url=https://archive.org/details/seriouslyfunnyre00nach |url-access= registration |quote= ernie kovacs. |location=New York, NY |publisher=Pantheon Books |date=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/seriouslyfunnyre00nach/page/200 200] |isbn= 9780375410307 |oclc=50339527 |access-date=July 11, 2010 }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13843447/ernie_edie_married/|title=Nasty Old Civilian Food|author=Wilson, Earl|page=17|date=September 17, 1954|newspaper=Miami News|access-date=July 10, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} Adams was initially uncertain about marrying Kovacs. She went on a six-week European cruise, hoping to come to a decision. After three days away and many long-distance phone calls, Adams returned home with an answer: yes.{{Cite book|editor-last=Adir|editor-first=Karin|title=The Great Clowns of American Television|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=2001|page=270|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5jr9L--C4tMC&q=edie+adams&pg=PA169|isbn=0-7864-1303-4|access-date=July 17, 2010}}{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NMoqAAAAIBAJ&pg=2654,3557750&dq=edie+adams&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs-what a husband!|author=Kovacs, Edie Adams|date=July 20, 1958|newspaper=Palm Beach Post|access-date=November 7, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} It was Kovacs's second marriage and lasted until his death in a car accident on January 13, 1962.

Adams and Kovacs received Emmy nominations for best performances in a comedy series in 1957. In 1960, she and Kovacs played themselves in The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour final television special on CBS, during which she performed the send-off song "That's All".{{Cite book|editor-last=Kanfer|editor-first=Stefan|title=Ball of fire: the tumultuous life and comic art of Lucille Ball|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2004|page=384|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j66uvWzubRwC&q=edie%20adams&pg=PA214|isbn=0-375-72771-X|access-date=July 17, 2010}} Adams made four appearances on What's My Line? (once as "Edith Adams (Mrs. Ernie Kovacs)" while her husband was on the panel; once together with Kovacs; twice alone as Edie Adams).

File:Edie Adams Li'l Abner 1956.JPG

Adams starred on Broadway in Wonderful Town (1953) opposite Rosalind Russell (winning the Theatre World Award), and as Daisy Mae in Li'l Abner (1956),{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7I8tAAAAIBAJ&pg=888,3827284&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=They Reduce In Fast Musical|date=December 22, 1956|newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning Journal|access-date=November 12, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P1QEAAAAMBAJ&q=abner+li%27l+intitle%3Alife&pg=PA74|title=Li'l Abner-Broadway and Dogpatch|newspaper=Life|date=January 14, 1957|access-date=June 13, 2011}} winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She played the Fairy Godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's original Cinderella broadcast in 1957.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/edie-adams-actress-singer-and-comedienne-and-widow-of-ernie-kovacs-965485.html|title=Edie Adams: Actress, singer and comedienne and widow of Ernie Kovacs|author=Vallance, Tom|date=October 18, 2008|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=February 9, 2011}} Adams was to play Daisy Mae in the film version of Li'l Abner but was unable due to the late arrival of her daughter, Mia Susan Kovacs.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qhUrAAAAIBAJ&pg=1860,5798573&dq=edie+adams&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Explains Why She Does Satire Acting|author=Thomas, Bob|date=February 15, 1960|newspaper=Reading Eagle|access-date=November 7, 2010}}

After Kovacs's death, his network, ABC, gave Adams a chance with her own show, Here's Edie, which received five Emmy nominations but lasted one season, in 1963. Kovacs was a noted cigar smoker, and Adams did a long-running series of TV commercials for Muriel Cigars.{{Cite web|url=http://www.altadisusa.com/company.asp|title=Altadis USA Company History|publisher=Altadis USA}} She remained the pitch-lady for Muriel well after Kovacs's death, intoning in a Mae West style and sexy outfit, "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?" Another commercial for Muriel Cigars, which cost 10 cents, showed Adams singing, "Hey, big spender, spend a little dime with me" (based on the song "Big Spender" from the musical Sweet Charity). Adams's cigar commercials made her one of the top three most-recognizable television celebrities.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z08fAAAAIBAJ&pg=4936,825773&dq=edie+adams&hl=en|title=Edie's No. 3 Personality On Tube|date=June 18, 1972|newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning Journal|access-date=March 4, 2012}} In subsequent years, Adams made sporadic television appearances, including on Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, McMillan & Wife, Murder, She Wrote and Designing Women.

Adams played supporting roles in several films in the 1960s, including the embittered secretary of two-timing Fred MacMurray in the Oscar-winning film The Apartment (1960). She was the wife of a presidential candidate (played by Cliff Robertson) in The Best Man (1964) and was reunited with Robertson for the comedy The Honey Pot (1967). In 2003, as one of the surviving headliners from the all-star comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), she joined actors Marvin Kaplan and Sid Caesar at a 40th anniversary celebration of the film. She was also a successful nightclub headliner.{{Cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TkkEAAAAMBAJ&q=edie+adams&pg=PA93-IA2|title=Edie Wins A Big One|author=Bunzel, Peter|date=April 5, 1963|newspaper=Life|access-date=July 17, 2010}}

Shortly after her husband's death, Adams won a "nasty custody battle" with Kovacs's ex-wife over Edie's stepdaughters. His ex-wife had previously kidnapped the girls during a visit years before; because Kovacs was their legal guardian, he and Edie had worked tirelessly to locate his daughters and bring them home.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wiEhAAAAIBAJ&pg=1402,4911650&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Grandmother Again Held On Kidnapping|date=January 28, 1954|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|access-date=July 10, 2010}}{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=beYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=7159,3233920&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Edie Adams has part in Kovacs revival|date=May 14, 1984|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=July 11, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Another court battle began for Adams in the same year, this time with her mother-in-law, who refused to believe there were more debts than assets in her son's estate. Mary Kovacs accused her daughter-in-law of mismanaging the estate and petitioned for custody of her granddaughters.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RYEuAAAAIBAJ&pg=3374,4556406&dq=mary+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs Estate Causes Family Dispute|date=December 26, 1962|newspaper=The Montreal Gazette|access-date=October 15, 2010}}{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XHIpAAAAIBAJ&pg=4548,529017&dq=mary+kovacs&hl=en|title=Survivors Tilt Over Kovacs' Will|date=March 16, 1963|newspaper=The Spokesman-Review|access-date=October 15, 2010}} The dispute lasted for years, with Adams remaining the administrator of her husband's estate and guardian of the three girls.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8242539/edie_retains_guardianship/|title=Edie Adams Wins Custody of Ernie's Two Daughters|page=5|date=September 14, 1962|newspaper=The Daily Times|access-date=January 8, 2017|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8242549/edie_remains_administrator_of_ernies/|title=Taxes, Debts Ate Up Most of Kovacs' Estate|date=December 20, 1966|newspaper=Redlands Daily Facts|page=12|access-date=January 8, 2017|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DBUmAAAAIBAJ&pg=5544,5248530&dq=ernie+kovacs+californian&hl=en|title=Edie Pays Off Ernie's Debts|author=Wilson, Earl|date=July 30, 1963|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times|access-date=October 27, 2010}} She worked for years to pay her late husband's tax debt to the IRS.{{Cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/19980801roddy.asp|title=Edie Hits a High Note|author=Roddy, Dennis|date=August 1, 1998|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=July 12, 2010}} The couple's celebrity friends planned a TV special benefit for Edie and her family, but she declined, saying, "I can take care of my own children." She spent the next year working practically non-stop.

{{clear|left}}

File:Edie muriel commercial.JPG commercial, 1965–1966]]

Adams started her own businesses, Edie Adams Cosmetics, which sold door-to-door, and Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl beauty salons, which she began in 1967.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13843089/edie_adams/|title=Edie Adams: She's Out There Pitchin'|page=104|date=May 20, 1972|newspaper=The Palm Beach Post|access-date=November 26, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_oxGAAAAIBAJ&pg=5134,5310315&dq=edie+adams+cut+n+curl&hl=en|title=Ad for Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl salon|date=November 23, 1968|newspaper=Schenectady Gazette|access-date=March 4, 2012}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NgEzAAAAIBAJ&pg=5184,7910743&dq=edie+adams+cosmetics&hl=en|title=House-to-House Selling Benefits From Recession|date=March 29, 1971|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times|access-date=March 4, 2012}} She once owned a 160-acre (65 ha) California almond farm and was the spokeswoman for Sun Giant nuts.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lp4cAAAAIBAJ&pg=2293,801869&dq=edie+adams+muriel&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Narrates Kovacs Special|date=September 2, 1982|author=Clark, Kenneth R.|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|access-date=November 26, 2010}} Because of her 20 years of commercials for Muriel Cigars (retiring in 1976){{cite news |last1=Reilly |first1=Sue |title=It's More Than a Vegas Act When Susan Anton Sings Lost-Love Blues Over Sly Stallone |url=https://people.com/archive/its-more-than-a-vegas-act-when-susan-anton-sings-lost-love-blues-over-sly-stallone-vol-13-no-15/ |access-date=9 January 2019 |work=People |date=April 14, 1980 |quote=Then in 1976 she got her shot, replacing Edie Adams as the Muriel cigar girl.}}{{cite news |last1=Kleinschmidt |first1=Janice |department=Arts & Entertainment |title=Forever Young: Susan Anton comes home for Christmas to perform with The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies |url=https://www.palmspringslife.com/forever-young/ |access-date=9 January 2019 |work=Palm Springs Life |date=November 30, 2009 |quote=Then Edie Adams retired from her role as the Muriel Cigar Girl.}} and her successful business ventures, Adams went from being mired in debt after Kovacs's fatal accident in 1962 to being a millionaire in 1989.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_BQxAAAAIBAJ&pg=4944,3522984&dq=edie+adams+muriel&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Pens Memoirs|date=12 October 1989|newspaper=Schenectady Gazette|access-date=26 November 2010}}

After Kovacs's death, Adams was married two more times. In 1964, she married photographer Martin Mills. In 1972, she married trumpeter Pete Candoli, with whom she appeared in a touring production of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes. In addition to raising stepdaughters Bette and Kippie from her marriage to Kovacs, Adams gave birth to daughter Mia Susan Kovacs (killed in an automobile accident in 1982) and son Joshua Mills.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13843586/ernie_edie_and_mia_1959/|title=Littlest Star for the Kovacs|date=June 29, 1959|page=12|newspaper=The Miami News|access-date=March 21, 2012|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N-EhAAAAIBAJ&pg=7029,5596234&dq=ernie+kovacs+californian&hl=en|title=Crash Kills Daughter Of Late Ernie Kovacs|date=May 10, 1982|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|access-date=October 27, 2010}}

Although Adams identified as a Democrat, she campaigned for Republican Dwight Eisenhower's re-election during the 1956 presidential election,.Motion Picture Magazine, Issue 549, November 1956, Brewster Publications, Inc., Page. 27 as well as for other liberal Republicans such as Jacob Javits and later Nelson Rockefeller.

Adams was an early advocate of civil rights, frequently lending her support to the movement at celebrity events {{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HkADWiQISU |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/0HkADWiQISU| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=S6 E4: Monomania L.A.|date=March 18, 2015 |publisher=YouTube|access-date=5 August 2019}}{{cbignore}} and on her own television show during the early sixties. She insisted that her duet with Sammy Davis Jr. on her variety show Here's Edie be staged so that they were seated next to each other – as equals. Prior to that, entertainers of different races and sexes were unable to perform next to one another, so that one had to be in front of or behind the other.

There is a street named after Adams in San Antonio, Texas.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Merrisa |date=September 30, 2014 |title=San Antonio street names and groupings |url=https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/slideshow/San-Antonio-street-names-and-groupings-94695.php |website=mysanantonio.com}}

File:Edie Adams Grave.JPG

Adams died in Los Angeles, California, on October 15, 2008, at age 81, from cancer and pneumonia. She was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, alongside her first husband Ernie and between her daughter, Mia, and her stepdaughter, Kippie.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&q=jo+stafford&pg=PA229|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. (2 volume set)|last1=Wilson|first1=Scott|publisher=McFarland|year=2016|page=8|isbn=978-1-4766-2599-7|access-date=January 25, 2017}} After her death an article in The New York Times said that her work "both embodied and winked at the stereotypes of fetching chanteuse and sexpot blonde".{{Cite web|first=Bruce|last=Weber|title=Edie Adams, Actress and Singer (and Flirt With a Cigar), Dies at 81|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/movies/16adams.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 16, 2008|access-date=October 16, 2008|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120905214046/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/movies/16adams.html?_r=1|archive-date=September 5, 2012|url-status=dead}}

Adams archived her husband's television work, which she described during a 1999 videotaped interview with the Archive of American Television.[http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/edie-adams Edie Adams Interview|Archive of American Television]. Retrieved February 15, 2011. She later testified on the status of the archive of the short-lived DuMont Television Network, where both she and husband Kovacs worked during the early 1950s. Adams said that so little value was given to the film archive that the entire collection was loaded into three trucks and dumped into Upper New York Bay.{{Cite web|last=Adams|first=Edie|title=Television/Video Preservation Study: Los Angeles Public Hearing|work=National Film Preservation Board| publisher=Library of Congress|date=March 1996|url=https://www.loc.gov/film/pdfs/tvadams.pdf|access-date=September 24, 2007}} (PDF)

Upon discovering that her husband's work was disappearing through being discarded and re-use of the tapes, Adams initially used the proceeds of his insurance policy and her own earnings to purchase the rights to as much footage as possible.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rZkiAAAAIBAJ&pg=2689,7886996&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Arranges Ernie Kovacs' Special|author=Thomas, Bob|date=March 27, 1968|newspaper=Sumter Daily Item|access-date=July 16, 2010}}

Since 2008, Edie Adams' son Joshua Mills has run Ediad Productions, Inc., which controls the rights to all the Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams TV shows and recordings.{{cite web | url=https://silentfilmmusic.com/ernie-kovacs/ | title=Ernie Kovacs }}{{cite web | url=https://www.erniekovacs.com/contact.php | title=Ernie Kovacs - Contact }}{{cite web | url=https://sfsketchfest2020.sched.com/artist/josh_mills.20b604hf | title=Josh Mills's schedule for SF Sketchfest 2020 }} Ben Model is the archivist for the Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams television collections.{{cite web | url=https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2019/05/ernie-kovacs-and-edie-adams-a-vision-of-early-television-as-more-than-ephemeral-entertainment/ | title=Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams: A Vision of Early TV as More Than Ephemeral Entertainment | Now See Hear! | date=May 6, 2019 }}

In 2015, the Library of Congress acquired a collection of more than 1,200 kinescopes, videotapes and home movies featuring Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams, from Joshua Mills, Edie Adams' son and the president of Ediad Productions.{{cite web | url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/ernie-kovacs-edie-adams-archives-845310/ | title=Ernie Kovacs, Edie Adams Archives Acquired by Library of Congress | website=The Hollywood Reporter | date=December 3, 2015 }}{{cite web | url=https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/library-of-congress-ernie-kovacs-collection-1201652642/ | title=Library of Congress Acquires Ernie Kovacs-Edie Adams Collection | date=December 3, 2015 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_8m-uVTlKU | title=JOSHUA MILLS; 'Ernie in Kovacsland;' Co-Curator, Runs estates of Ernie Kovacs original TV genius & | website=YouTube | date=August 9, 2023 }}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|title=Sing a Pretty Song...|author-last=Adams|author-first=Edie|author2-last=Windeler|author2-first=Robert|publisher=William Morrow and Co.|location=New York|date=1990|isbn=0688073417}}

{{Commons category|Edie Adams}}

• [http://www.edieadams.com The official Edie Adams website]
• {{IMDb name|10944}}
• {{IBDB name}}

{{TonyAward MusicalFeaturedActress}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Edie}}

Category:1927 births

Category:2008 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from Pennsylvania

Category:Actresses from Tenafly, New Jersey

Category:American cosmetics businesspeople

Category:American musical theatre actresses

Category:American Presbyterians

Category:American television actresses

Category:American women comedians

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Category:Businesspeople from Pennsylvania

Category:Deaths from cancer in California

Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni

Category:Deaths from pneumonia in California

Category:Donaldson Award winners

Category:Juilliard School alumni

Category:People from Kingston, Pennsylvania

Category:People from Grove City, Pennsylvania

Category:Tenafly High School alumni

Category:Theatre World Award winners

Category:Tony Award winners

Category:Traphagen School of Fashion alumni

Category:Pennsylvania Republicans

Category:New Jersey Republicans

Category:California Republicans

Category:20th-century American comedians

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:20th-century American women singers

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

Category:20th-century American businesswomen

Category:American film actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:Comedians from Pennsylvania

Category:Comedians from Bergen County, New Jersey

Category:Businesspeople from Bergen County, New Jersey