Shari Lewis was bron Phyllis Hurwitz to Ann and Abraham
Hurwitz on January 17, 1934, in New York City. Her father was a founding
member of Yeshiva University in New York City.
Through the encouragement of both of her parents, Shari
began performing at the age of thirteen when her father taught her magic
acts with Jewis content. As a youth, she had lessons in acrobatics,
juggling, piano,violin and ventriloguism. She studied piano and violin
at New York's High School of Music and Art, dance at the American School
of Ballet, and acting with Sanford Meisner of the Neighborhood Playhouse.
She attended Columbia University for one year, then left college to
become a performer.
In 1952, Lewis and her puppetry won first prize on
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television show. In March 1956,
she and Lamb Chop appeared on Captain Kangaroo and by 1960 she
had her own television program.
After twenty-seven years' absence from American television,
the Public Broadcasting System approached her abotu reviving her television
show. Lamp Chop's Play-Along, seen on PBS stations and reproduced
in video, grew out of PBS interest and Lewis's discontent with commercial
television.
The video Lamp Chop's Special Chanukah was released
in 1996 and recieved the Parent's Choice award of the year.
Among her awards are twelve Emmy Awards, the Dor L'Dor
award of the B'nai B'rith (1996), three Houston Film Festival awards,
the Peabody Award (1960), the Silver Circle Award of the National Academy
of Television Arts and Sciences (1996), the Film Advisory Board Award
of Excellence (1996), two Charleston Film Festival Gold Awards (1995),
the Houston World Festival silver and bronze awards (1995), the New
York Film and Video Festival Silver Award (1995), the Monte Carlo Prize
for the World's Best Television Variety Show (1963), and the Kennedy
Center annual award for excellence (1983).
Shari Lewis died in 1998 of pneumonia while being treated
at Cedars-Sinai Hospital at the age of 65.