November 9 - Ed Wynn

On this day, in 1886, Isaiah Edwin Leopold was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Isaiah attended high school only until the age of 15. He then ran away from home, found work as a hat salesman (the job his father held) and eventually found his way into show business. To spare his family the embarrassment of having a comedian in the family, he morphed his middle name into the stage name Ed Wynn.

Ed started out on the Vaudeville circuit in 1903. By the mid Teens, he was starring in the annual Broadway revues, the Ziegfeld Follies, working alongside the likes of W.C. Fields. Ed would appear in several other shows on Broadway, including ones he wrote and directed like 1921's The Perfect Fool.

In the early Thirties, Ed, like many other vaudevillians, made the transition to radio. He was the host of Texaco's The Fire Chief and would even play the role in two movies, Follow the Leader and The Chief. Ed even started his own radio network, the Amalgamated Broadcasting Network, but it went belly up after just a few weeks. The effects on his marriage, his finances and his mental health were all devastating. Ed continued appearing on Broadway and in movies throughout the rest of the Thirties and most of the Forties.

In 1949, Ed made the leap to the small screen, although technically his first appearance was as part of an experimental broadcast in 1936. As the host of one of the first variety shows on television he welcomed comedians such as Lucille Ball, Buster Keaton and the Three Stooges. From 1950-52, Ed also hosted Four Star Revue on a rotational basis with Danny Thomas, Jack Carson and Jimmy Durante. He even got his own show, The Ed Wynn Show, though it only lasted one season.

It was around this time that Ed's son, Keenan (who was also an actor), encouraged him to branch out into more dramatic roles. The two would appear together a number of times over the years. The first time was 1956's Requiem for a Heavyweight. Ed was terrified to do a straight acting gig but shined for the actual performance. The second time was the same year in the movie The Great Man. The final time was, oddly enough, in a 1960 piece about the making of the 1956 Requiem. Ed had established himself so well as a serious actor, he appeared in 1959's Diary of Anne Frank and nabbed an Oscar nomination. One of my favorite television appearance's of Ed's around this time was for The Twilight Zone in an episode that Rod Serling wrote specifically for him, "One for the Angels."

Ed joined the Disney family in 1951 as the Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland. Full of wonderfully quotable lines ("Mustard? Don't let's be silly."), Ed's Hatter is a delightful island of fun in a totally surreal film. Ten years later, he would become the Toymaker opposite Annette Funicello in Babes in Toyland. My favorite Disney role of Ed's, though, has to be Uncle Albert in 1964's Mary Poppins. As a child I couldn't help but wish that a fit of laughter would make me flit around the ceiling. Ed would also appear in That Darn Cat!, The Absent Minded Professor (another production with his son Keenan), Son of Flubber and, his final film appearance, The Gnome-mobile, which was released posthumously.

Ed passed away on June 19, 1966 at the age of 79 from throat cancer. Reportedly, Walt Disney, who once referred to Ed as "our good luck charm," was one of his pall bearers. He was made an official Disney Legend in 2013.