Andrew J. Lederer

at a comic book convention my artist friend invited me to and was greeted with the smell of sweat and hygienic inattentiveness, so i knew i was in the right place. (location was the hotel pennsylvania, famous from glen miller's "pennsylvania 6-5000", and, clearly, its elegance was still intact.)

such comicons feature all manner of minor celebs, so i excitedly met larry storch, who played agarn on "f-troop" and was a nightclub comic as far back as the '40s. he was terrific in "the aristocrats" and is a wonderful mimic who's supplied many cartoon voices over the years. (i'm particularly fond of the obscure warner bros. character, "cool cat".)

and -- speaking of mimics -- i also met "mally" lewis, daughter of the late puppeteer shari lewis, who has inherited the family sock, said sock decked out as that cute little bit of mutton-in-waiting, "lamb chop".

i wanted to know about something her mother did called "honey halfwitch", an obscure theatrical cartoon series (i see a theme developing), but she knew nothing about it, so i ended up having to tell her what it was.

and -- speaking of celebrity offspring -- i also met gary lewis (sans playboys), no relation to shari/mally but son of jerry lewis and famous for '60s pop hits like "this diamond ring". my friend showed him an album his grandfather -- jerry lewis' father -- recorded and he knew as much about it as mally lewis knew about her mother's cartoon series.

don't members of showbiz families talk to each other?

then again, i didn't know until recently that my father's childhood doctor was his great-uncle, so who am i to talk?