Editor’s note: Despite last week’s column’s promise to deliver all the celebrity news our
readers would ever need to read, as you will see, we had to publish this story.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The body of actress and comedienne Shari Lewis has been
exhumed, the Los Angeles Medical Examiner announced today, initiating a new
investigation into of the circumstances surrounding to her death in 1998. The death
which had originally been investigated as a suicide but ruled “death by natural causes”
is being reopened as a probable homicide.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office denied that this move bore any
relation to the posthumous publication this week of Ms. Lewis’s autobiography, entitled
“Socks, Lies and Videotape.” The book details the rocky relationship between Ms.
Lewis and her protégé, co-performer and longtime companion, Lamb Chop.
Observers have long noted that the witty on-air banter between Lewis and Lamb Chop
became increasingly acrid over the years, paralleling the increasing warmth of
relationship among Lewis, Hush Puppy and Charlie Horse.
According to his close associate Oscar, Lamb Chop always resented the “cute” Lamb
Chop name, as well as getting second billing to Lewis. “They treat us like their little
marionettes,” said Oscar. “And who do you think wrote our best stuff? Henson?
Lewis? Right.” Adding, “Neither one of them could improv their way out of bag
puppet. Just one time, I’d like to Punch and Judy them.”
The interview with Oscar terminated quickly when the topic of Henson’s untimely death
was raised.
In her autobiography Lewis reveals that in late 1996 she began to develop an allergy to
wool “which put a barrier between Lamb Chop and me.” Lewis also said that Lamb
Chop often complained of “being used.” She quotes him as saying to her, “How would
you like to try to perform comedy with someone’s hand stuck up your . . .” just before
throwing himself onto the middle of the bedroom floor in tears.
“Toward the end,” Lewis wrote, “our friendship was just an act.”
Attorney Levi Cohen, of the law firm of Cohen, Kohein, Cohn, Cahn, Cone, Kohn, Kahn
and possibly Katz, which represents the Lewis family, said that regardless of how the
investigation turns out, he is sure his firm will make lots of money.
Buzz Berkeley, of E. F. Mutton and Associates, the public relations firm representing the
artist formerly known as Lamb Chop, said that “Chopper had moved on in his life” and
that “this travesty would do nothing but unravel old wounds.”
Chopper, who was a “sock of interest” in the original investigation into Ms. Lewis’s
death, parlayed that notoriety into a new career as part of the controversial rap duo
Chops and the Ice Kween. According to figures from Amazon.com, sales of the latest
C/IK CD, “Bust Yer Chops,” spiked immediately following the exhumation
announcement.
LAPD investigators said technology unavailable in 1998 may bring to light new
information regarding the death of Lewis. “For example,” said Detective Kram
Manfuhr, “the previously unexplained rash on Lewis’s neck may have been caused by
contact dermatitis.” Manfuhr was quick to note that while the investigation was “not
focusing” on any one individual, “Mr. Chop was the only one in the room at the time of
Ms. Lewis’s death.”
Gary D. Gaddy has been a fan of Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop for decades, beginning
perhaps as early as one of their first guest appearances on Captain Kangaroo, but was
certainly a regular viewer of the Shari Lewis Show.
A version of this story was published in the Chapel Hill Herald on Friday February 18,
2011.
Copyright 2011 Gary D. Gaddy
garygaddy.com 