Edie Adams

The sultry singer who pitched Muriel cigars

Edie Adams

1927–2008

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Edie Adams, who has died of complications from pneumonia and cancer, was a voluptuous, classically trained singer best known to generations of TV viewers as the pitchwoman for a 10-cent cigar. In a series of commercials that began in the late 1950s and ran for 19 years, Adams posed as a cartoonish sex symbol in a slinky dress and high heels, caressing a giant Muriel cigar and asking men—with a come-hither wink and nod to Mae West’s famous line—“Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it sometime?” Sales of the brand increased more than tenfold.

Adams, born Elizabeth Edith Enke in Kingston, Pa., studied singing and piano at the Juilliard School in New York, said the Los Angeles Times. In 1951, she was signed as a featured singer for a Philadelphia-based TV show hosted by comedian Ernie Kovacs. She made her Broadway debut in 1953, in Leonard Bernstein’s musical comedy Wonderful Town, garnering rave reviews.

Celebrated for her comic, vocal, and physical gifts, said The New York Times, Adams was also known for her “wicked impersonation” of Marilyn Monroe. Those gifts led to her role as the busty Daisy Mae in another Broadway musical hit, Li’l Abner. Kovacs, whom she married in 1954, died in a car accident, leaving her with an enormous debt to the IRS. She paid it off through nightclub appearances and guest roles on TV shows such as Fantasy Island.