Mel Tolkin, 94, the head writer for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows,” which defined the art of sketch comedy during television’s Golden Age, died of heart failure on Monday at his Century City, Calif., home, said his son, writer-director Michael Tolkin.
Mel Tolkin spent nearly a half-century in show business, beginning in the 1930s when he wrote revues and played piano in Montreal jazz clubs. He wrote comedy for Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye and Danny Thomas and in the 1970s was a writer and story editor for “All in the Family.” For Caesar, he contributed to the 1949 TV variety show “The Admiral Broadway Revue,” and wrote for “Your Show of Shows” in 1950-54, including its theme song, and for “Caesar’s Hour,” which ran from 1954-57.
Sketches from the shows, many pairing Caesar and Imogene Coca, became classics.
“I guess he was most proud of his professionalism,” his son said Tuesday. “Of course, he was very proud of his association with Caesar and his association with the birth of the Golden Age of television.”
Tolkin “was a tremendous asset,” Caesar, 85, told the Los Angeles Times. “He was a very talented man, and he worked really hard.”
As head writer on “Your Show of Shows,” Tolkin worked with the likes of Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart, whose later credits include “M*A*S*H” and “Tootsie.”
Caesar’s team worked in a pressure cooker atmosphere, creating material for the live, 90-minute show and trying to satisfy the notoriously difficult star.
Josephine Robinson McNair, 84, a former South Carolina first lady who often told friends she didn’t want to live without her husband, died only days after the former governor succumbed to brain cancer.
Josephine McNair had been sick for a long time and was in hospice care, said Bill Salisbury, Berkeley County chief deputy coroner. Former Gov. Robert McNair died Nov. 17; his wife died Sunday.
“She had to be with him after 63 years. It’s one of those incredible love stories,” said Claire Fort, a family friend who worked at the McNair Law Firm.
The McNairs married in May 1944, 11 days before he shipped out with the U.S. Navy for the Pacific. The couple eventually settled in Allendale, where he practiced law and got into politics.
Josephine McNair formed the Governor’s Mansion Committee in 1965 and led efforts to expand and renovate facilities.
