Editing Ernie Kovacs (section)

==The Music Man==
Kovacs was also known for his eclectic musical taste. His main theme song was named "Oriental Blues" by Jack Newton.<ref>{{cite book|title=Oriental Blues|author=Newton, Jack|publisher=WorldCat|oclc = 62472943}}</ref> The rendition most often heard was a piano-driven trio version, but, for his primetime show during 1956, music director Harry Sosnik presented a full-blown big-band version. The German song "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" from ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'' (anglicized to "[[Mack the Knife]]"), frequently underscored his blackout routines.{{sfn|Spigel|2009|p=196}}

Kovacs was introduced to harpist-songwriter [[Robert Maxwell (songwriter)|Robert Maxwell]]'s recent instrumental "Solfeggio" in 1954 by Barry Shear, his director at DuMont Television Network.<ref name=Moderation>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzXtobwmRZAC&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA46|title=Ernie Kovacs & Early TV Comedy: Nothing in Moderation|editor-last=Horton|editor-first=Andrew|year=2010|publisher=University of Texas|access-date=June 23, 2014|isbn=9780292779624|pages=46–49}}</ref> In the 1982 TV special ''Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius'', [[Edie Adams]] recalled that when Kovacs first heard "Solfeggio", he immediately knew how he wanted to use it. He conceived of three music-box-like apes in costume, who moved in time to the tune, and christened them The Nairobi Trio.<ref name=genius>{{cite AV media|
title=Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius|date=November 17, 1982|publisher=JSC Productions|type=TV program}}</ref> Maxwell's 1953 record of "Solfeggio" became so identified with the ape act that the record was re-released in 1957 as "Song of the Nairobi Trio."

[[File:Ernie Kovacs 1961.JPG|left|thumb|150px|Kovacs in 1961]]
Kovacs matched an unusual treatment of "[[Sentimental Journey (song)|Sentimental Journey]]", by Mexican bandleader [[Juan García Esquivel]], to video of an empty office in which various items (pencil sharpeners, water coolers, wall clocks) come to life in rhythm with the music; it was a variation on several famous animations of a decade earlier.<ref name="Series"/>{{sfn|Greene|2007|p=64}} The original three-minute presentation was outlined by Kovacs in a four-page, single-spaced memo to his staff. The perfectionist Kovacs describes in minute detail what had to be done and how to do it. The memo ends with this: "I don't know how the hell you're going to get this done by Sunday – but 'rots of ruck." (signed) "Ernie (with love)".{{sfn|Spigel|2009|p=194}} Kovacs also made careful use of the shrill singer [[Leona Anderson]]—who had somewhat less than a classical voice, by some estimations—in comic vignettes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.spaceagepop.com/andersonl.htm|title=Leona Anderson|work=Space Age Pop|access-date=August 12, 2010}}</ref>

Kovacs used classical music as background for silent skits or abstract visual routines, including "Concerto for Orchestra", by [[Béla Bartók]]; music from the opera "[[The Love of Three Oranges]]", by [[Sergei Prokofiev]]; the finale of [[Igor Stravinsky]]'s suite "[[The Firebird]]"; and [[Richard Strauss]]' "[[Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche|Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks]]"; and, from George Gershwin, "Rialto Ripples"—the theme to his shows—as well as parts of Gershwin's "Concerto in F". He may have been known best for using [[Joseph Haydn]]'s "String Quartet, Opus 3, Number 5" (the "Serenade," actually composed by [[Roman Hoffstetter]]) for a series of 1960–61 commercials he created and videotaped for his sponsor, [[Dutch Masters (cigar)|Dutch Masters]].{{sfn|Spigel|2009|p=203}}

For the show of May 22, 1959, ''Kovacs on Music'', Kovacs began by saying, "I have never really understood classical music, so I would like to take this opportunity to explain it to others." He presented a gorilla version of ''Swan Lake'' which differed from the usual performance only in the persona of the dancers, along with giant paper clips moving to music and other sketches.<ref name="Clowns"/><ref name="Theory">{{Cite book|editor-last=Shepherdson|editor-first=K. J.|title=Film Theory:Crit Concepts V4|pages=440|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zyRIlJTkuQ4C&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA178|isbn=0-415-25975-4|access-date=July 17, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Seriously"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aUEwAAAAIBAJ&pg=6923,4789708&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs Music Show Tops TV Tonight|author=Pearson, Howard|date=May 22, 1959|newspaper=Deseret News|access-date=July 17, 2010}}</ref>

He also served as host on a [[jazz]] album to benefit the [[American Cancer Society]] in 1957, ''Listening to Jazz with Ernie Kovacs''. It was a 15-minute recording featuring some of the celebrities of the art, including pianist [[Jimmy Yancey]] and old original New Orleans Jazz Trumpeter [[Bunk Johnson]], soprano saxophonist [[Sidney Bechet]], guitarist [[Django Reinhardt]], composer/pianist/bandleader [[Duke Ellington]] and longtime Ellington trumpeter [[Cootie Williams]]. Both the [[Library of Congress]] and the [[National Library of Canada]] have copies of this recording in their collections.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lccn.loc.gov/99389548|title=Listening to Jazz|year=1957|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=March 21, 2012}}</ref>