Shari Lewis’s Unseen 1958 NBC Screen Test

In 1958, when Shari Lewis was a popular local kids’ daytime TV personality in NYC but largely unknown to the rest of the nation, my father flew her out to Hollywood to film a pilot for NBC. When she arrived, my parents took her to dinner at Chasen’s. Shari later told me that her biggest thrill was when Groucho Marx came over to their table and wiggled his eyebrows at her. That, she said, was the moment she KNEW she was in Hollywood. Shari came over to our house a couple of times that week, and I was instantly enchanted (as any 7-year old would be). She even managed to teach me how to make my own rabbit puppet out of a cloth table napkin (something I still do on occasion). The pilot, unfortunately, didn’t get picked up. But just two years later NBC relented and gave Shari her own network show (replacing Howdy Doody), and soon the whole country was as enchanted as I was. And 35 years later I was able to continue a family tradition when I introduced my 9-year old daughter to Shari at her home in Beverly Hills. Anyway, enjoy Shari Lewis’s never-broadcast 1958 screen test with Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse.