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Obit: Eddie Fisher

B

bpatrick

Singer Eddie Fisher, a teen idol in the years just before Elvis,
has died of complications from hip surgery at age 82. Fisher
appeared on singer Jane Froman's CBS show as often as possible
when he was in the Army; from 1953-57 he starred in the NBC
music series "Coke Time," which aired Wednesdays and Fridays 7:30-
7:45 PM (news filled out the 7:45-8 PM slot, a practice NBC
did not abandon until 1957, the last network to do so), and
from 1957-59 he and George Gobel alternated as host and
guest star of an hour-long Tuesday-night show on NBC.

Fisher had several hit records, including "Anytime" and "Oh, My Pa-Pa,"
and it is said that teenage girls were paid to sit in the audience and
scream for him (that was also said about Frank Sinatra in the 1940s).
He is, however, probably better remembered for his various marriages:
to Debbie Reynolds (they're the parents of Carrie Fisher), Elizabeth Taylor
(before she fell for Richard Burton), and Connie Stevens, as well as a
couple of non-show biz women.
 
I was a teenager in the years immediately before Elvis and can tell you from first-hand experience that Fisher was definitely not a teen idol. We would have called his music our parent's music.
 
My aunt is 71, and we had a conversation about Eddie BEING "teen idol." Evidently Coca Cola thought so too, as they sponsored "Coke Time" on NBC-TV and lots of radio stations around the US.

Hits like "Dungaree Doll" and "I'm Walking Behind You (on your wedding Day") were not aimed at adults.
 
I'm referring to what the teens of the day considered Fisher, not what corporate America did.

Fisher was up there with Perry Como, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and company.
 
I'd put "Oh My Pa-Pa" right up there with "Disco Duck" and "Tiptoe Through The Tulips."
Married to all those FABULOUS women but unable to hold on to any of them......I bet there is a story there for sure.
 
Neil Rattigan said:
Plenty of stories. In fact, Eddie Fisher wrote TWO books!
Click to expand...

....and if one would read the comments about Fisher's death on some of those net news sites such as Yahoo, many had posted that Eddie Fisher was killed by President Obama's failed policies and that he had made a "pact" with that Denver Bronco football player who had recently killed himself. And of course some of those "people" said that Eddie Fisher's death was according to Westboro Baptist Church a sign from God that that rapture will take place in December 2012....blah blah blah..

Friday night I was at a coffee shop and noticed all these kids laughing. I asked one girl what was so funny only to get "..Eddie Fisher died and OMG so funny !!" They were reading the "comments" people were posting online after the news story on his death.

Kind of surprised Yahoo, MSN and the others haven't done something about such postings..other than just to delete them.
 
landtuna said:
IMHO Fisher couldn't hold a candle to Como, Martin, and especially Nat King Cole.

What is ironic is that the scandals that destroyed Eddie Fisher's career (along with his drug habit) wouldn't even raise an eyebrow in Hollywood today.
Click to expand...
 
I'd put "Oh My Pa-Pa" right up there with "Disco Duck" and "Tiptoe Through The Tulips."

That's because you don't know what you're talking about. Times were different. People had respect, sonny..
 
The Voice of Reason said:
IMHO Fisher couldn't hold a candle to Como, Martin, and especially Nat King Cole.
Click to expand...

No question, but I was comparing his contemporaries, not his talent.
 
Prais said:
I'd put "Oh My Pa-Pa" right up there with "Disco Duck" and "Tiptoe Through The Tulips."

That's because you don't know what you're talking about. Times were different. People had respect, sonny..
Click to expand...

I'm a baby-boomer who grew up primarily in the 1960s. No disrespect intended, but to me and my contemporaries, Eddie Fisher was that guy who had been married to Debbie Reynolds, had preceded Richard Burton as Liz Taylor's brief husband, and had been married "X" times since then. He was the male equivalent to Zsa Zsa Gabor - just a gossip footnote in the divorce sweepstakes.

By the mid 70s, he was a footnote as "Princess Lea's" (Carrie Fisher's) father. That's about it. Sad to say, but Eddie Fisher has been 'over' for about 50 years.
 
Lkeller said:
I'm a baby-boomer who grew up primarily in the 1960s. No disrespect intended, but to me and my contemporaries, Eddie Fisher was that guy who had been married to Debbie Reynolds, had preceded Richard Burton as Liz Taylor's brief husband, and had been married "X" times since then. He was the male equivalent to Zsa Zsa Gabor - just a gossip footnote in the divorce sweepstakes.

By the mid 70s, he was a footnote as "Princess Lea's" (Carrie Fisher's) father. That's about it. Sad to say, but Eddie Fisher has been 'over' for about 50 years.
Click to expand...

As a "pre-Boomer" who grew up primarily in the 50's I agree with your assessment of Fisher. To my generation he was a peripheral singer, if even that. Not even close to a teen idol and less relevant than virtually all other of our parents favorites. And after having seen and read some of daughter Carrie's comments about her father he meant even less to his family.
 
Mr. Tuna and Mr. Keller,
Wow. Please don't write my obituary. You GROSSLY underestimate his popularity. You sound like the Enquirer, highlighting the poop, instead
of all the facts.

A Sponsored nbc tv show, and national radio show, lots of hit records on RCA.

I'm NOT SURE what rock you were living under in the mid-50's ans he was probably the equivolant of Bobby Vinton or Connie Francis a few years later. MUCH bigger trhan Rick Dees or Tiny Tim.

O My Papa still plays on adult radio stations around Fathers Day. WHEN do they play YOUR hit records?
 
Prais said:
Mr. Tuna and Mr. Keller,
Wow. Please don't write my obituary. You GROSSLY underestimate his popularity. You sound like the Enquirer, highlighting the poop, instead
of all the facts.

A Sponsored nbc tv show, and national radio show, lots of hit records on RCA.

I'm NOT SURE what rock you were living under in the mid-50's ans he was probably the equivolant of Bobby Vinton or Connie Francis a few years later. MUCH bigger trhan Rick Dees or Tiny Tim.

O My Papa still plays on adult radio stations around Fathers Day. WHEN do they play YOUR hit records?
Click to expand...

As I prefaced, I didn't mean any disrespect to Eddie Fisher - I was just recounting what he meant to me and my contemporaries. He may have been a very talented singer, though he certainly didn't gain the all encompassing respect of singers like Sinatra and Crosby. I don't think you could even include him in the Perry Como, Andy Williams category - his fame fame as a singer didn't last that long.

FYI - I was not "living under a rock" in the mid 50s, I was in Kindergarten, first grade, etc. Obits often include over-generous hyperbole. Was Fisher a "teen idol?" I can't speak to that - only to what he had been by the early 60s - when he was only in his 40s.
 
Prais said:
Mr. Tuna and Mr. Keller,
Wow. Please don't write my obituary. You GROSSLY underestimate his popularity. You sound like the Enquirer, highlighting the poop, instead
of all the facts.

A Sponsored nbc tv show, and national radio show, lots of hit records on RCA.

I'm NOT SURE what rock you were living under in the mid-50's ans he was probably the equivolant of Bobby Vinton or Connie Francis a few years later. MUCH bigger trhan Rick Dees or Tiny Tim.

O My Papa still plays on adult radio stations around Fathers Day. WHEN do they play YOUR hit records?
Click to expand...

My only initial comment was that Fisher was not any sort of "teen idol" as had been suggested here. I didn't say he had a lack of talent, didn't say he was not popular and didn't comment on his personal life choices - and I didn't compare him to Rick Dees or Tiny Tim.

I definitely wasn't "living under a rock" in the 50's either but was paying a typical teen's attention to pop music - especially in the latter half of the 50's - and can say neither I nor any of the hundreds of other teens I knew paid any attention to Fisher or his music.
 
Prais said:
Mr. Tuna and Mr. Keller,
Wow. Please don't write my obituary. You GROSSLY underestimate his popularity. You sound like the Enquirer, highlighting the poop, instead
of all the facts.
Click to expand...

At the time, a famous photo ran in newspapers worldwide of Debbie Reynolds hanging diapers on a clothesline while Fisher was out screwing around with Elizabeth Taylor. That photo alone nearly killed Fisher's career with the Court of Public Opinion.

Fisher was a frequent target of Mad Magazine. More often than not, it was hilarious.

A Sponsored nbc tv show, and national radio show, lots of hit records on RCA.
Click to expand...

I did find an old Eddie Fisher 45 record at a Beverly Hills yard sale some time back. It had a Coca Cola ad on it, which makes me wonder why more corporations didn't advertise on record labels, but I digress.

Eddie Fisher was not a teen idol in his prime. He was the 50s equivelant (sp) of what we now call Adult Contemporary.

I'm NOT SURE what rock you were living under in the mid-50's ans he was probably the equivolant of Bobby Vinton or Connie Francis a few years later. MUCH bigger trhan Rick Dees or Tiny Tim.
Click to expand...

And after his scandalbroke his star value became about the same as Enron stock. KER-PLOP!

O My Papa still plays on adult radio stations around Fathers Day. WHEN do they play YOUR hit records?
Click to expand...

Oh, ouch! You really got them with that one! :p But then, this is from somebody who likes to remind the elderly that the grave is near by playing the Andrews Sisters on his nursing home "stations".
 
Prais said:
I'd put "Oh My Pa-Pa" right up there with "Disco Duck" and "Tiptoe Through The Tulips."

That's because you don't know what you're talking about. Times were different. People had respect, sonny..
Click to expand...
...provided they weren't named Stan Freberg ;-) ...
 
COKE was probably on the album cover because he had a TV show "Coke Time With Eddie Fisher." It's listed in the 1956 thread on here.
 
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