Sam Levenson
| Sam Levenson | |
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| Born | December 28, 1911 |
| Died | August 27, 1980 (aged 68) |
Sam Levenson (December 28, 1911 – August 27, 1980) was an American humorist, writer, teacher, television host and journalist.
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[edit] Personal life
Born Samuel Levenson, he grew up in a large Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1934. He married Esther Levine (1910-1996) and had two children.
[edit] Career
From 1949-1954, Levenson was a panelist on the CBS series This Is Show Business, along with playwright George S. Kaufman and Abe Burrows.[1]
In 1956, he hosted the game show Two for the Money, having replaced fellow humorist Herb Shriner. From 1959 to 1964, he hosted The Sam Levenson Show. Over a span of more than a decade, he appeared on Toast of the Town aka The Ed Sullivan Show twenty-one times, in addition to frequently serving as a substitute host on CBS's Arthur Godfrey Time. He was a guest host on The Price Is Right and was a panelist on many other television programs such as Password and What's My Line? Levenson also had a cameo in the film A Face in the Crowd. Levenson also appeared multiple times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson throughout the 1970s. Levenson wrote the well-known poem "Time Tested Beauty Tips" for his grandchild, which has become falsely attributed to Audrey Hepburn.[2]
Sam Levenson was originally a Spanish teacher at Samuel Tilden High School in Brooklyn. He was an author, he wrote Everything But Money (1966), the best-seller Sex and the Single Child (1969), In One Era And Out The Other (1973), and You Can Say That Again, Sam! (1975). Levenson appeared frequently in the "Borscht Belt" hotels of the Catskill Mountains.
The 150-seat Sam Levenson Recital Hall at Brooklyn College was named after him in 1988 in gratitude for his donations over the years to the Performing Arts Center. A glazed porcelain bust of him graces the hall's rear wall. The library of Franklin K. Lane High School, from which he graduated in 1930, is named for him and a large portrait painting of him hangs on the north wall of the library. During Lane High School's rededication ceremony in the fall of 1976, Levenson was an honored guest and gave a humorous speech about his days as a student.
Levenson died of a heart attack in Long Island College Hospital on August 27, 1980. He was 68. [3]
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sam Levenson |
[edit] References
- ^ Alex McNeil, Total Television, p. 832
- ^ Time Tested Beauty Tips -by Sam Levenson
- ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19800828&id=8GUvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wjQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1600,4242110
