Mitchel Cohen
2006-02-04 20:52:25 UTC
The Passing and Passion of Grandpa Al Lewis, 1911-2006
by Mitchel Cohen
What a sad day ... and what an incredible, artistic and political life!
I first met Al Lewis in person in New Haven in
1971, at a demonstration in support of the jailed
Black Panthers. I remember it being a very raw
afternoon, and I kept staring at the man I'd
later introduce myself to, wondering at the
famous fellow standing all by himself unlike so
many actors and famous people, and then lost in the small crowd that turned up.
Later, I was to learn that Grandpa was rarely
alone in that way. Campaigning with him for Mayor
all over the City with other Green stalwarts like
Frank Carr, Craig Seeman, Michele Daneles, Afrime
Derti, Carl Lawrence, Pete Dolack and Robb Ross
-- the core of the Brooklyn Greens at that time
-- I was struck by the amount of adulation and
genuine affection that so many people had for Al,
especially (gulp!) cops. They all wanted Al to
sign autographs. I collected hundreds of
signatures to put Al on the ballot from cops
riding home on the Long Island Railroad and the
Staten Island ferry. It was amazing, the
transformation that came over people when Al
greeted them. He ended up getting just over the
50,000 votes we needed to put the Green Party onto the ballot in NY State.
Al was also incredibly scholarly, a voluminous
reader and one of his disappointments in the last
few years was his difficulty in being able to
read due to problems with his eyesight. But he
maintained his sabre-slashing anarchistic stance
when dealing with U.S. politicians and warmongers to the end.
Al and Karen were incredibly supportive to many
people, including me, personally, as a Green
Party candidate and as an organizer against
pesticides and genetic engineering. They
sponsored several events with the Roosevelt
Island Greens at which I was the featured
speaker, and contributed generously to the
NoSpray Coalition over the years as well as to my
campaign for Mayor on the Green Party line in
2001. I remember when Al was already sick, a
Reclaim the Streets party/demo had ended up on
Roosevelt Island. We marched past Al and Karen's
apartment, and I started the chant: "We love you
Grandpa, we miss you, get better!" and pretty
soon the hundreds of us took up the chant, lights
came on in the apartments, people looked out the
windows, and everyone waved, knowing whom we were
chanting about as we snaked by.
To say Al will be missed is, as is often the
case, a vast understatement. This crotchety,
funny, whip-smart, annoying, ribald, generous and
always dependable anti-racist activist was, in my
opinion, one of the great people of the century.
I loved him dearly, even or especially when we
argued, and so did many, many others.
A life well-lived? Hell, a life in REVOLT!
Grandpa Al Lewis -- Presenté !
--------------------------
'Grandpa Munster' Al Lewis Dies at 95
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch
of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball
scout, restaurateur and political candidate never
eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television
sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.
Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away
Friday night, said Bernard White, program
director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a
weekly radio program. White made the announcement
on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.
"To say that we will miss his generous,
cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.
Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit,
became a pop culture icon playing the irascible
father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling
Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He
was also one of the stars of another classic TV
comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on "Car 54, Where Are You?"
But Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far
beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at
Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved
notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar
to coaching greats like Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.
He operated a successful Greenwich Village
restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular
presence chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs.
Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a
ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate
against incumbent Gov. George Pataki. Lewis
campaigned against draconian drug laws and the
death penalty, while going to court in a losing
battle to have his name appear on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis."
He didn't defeat Pataki, but managed to collect more 52,000 votes.
Lewis was born Alexander Meister in upstate New
York before his family moved to Brooklyn, where
the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair
with basketball. He later became a vaudeville and
circus performer, but his career didn't take off until television did the same.
Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite
Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in "Car 54,
Where Are You?" a comedy about a Bronx police
precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later,
the duo appeared together in "The Munsters,"
taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
The series, about a family of clueless creatures
plunked down in middle America, was a success and
ran through 1966. It forever locked Lewis in as
the memorably twisted character; decades later,
strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of "Grandpa!"
Unlike some television stars, Lewis never
complained about getting typecast and made
appearances in character for decades.
"Why would I mind?" he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage."
Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant
and hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point
during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the
Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock
jock diving for the delay button by leading an
undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.
He also popped up in a number of movies,
including the acclaimed "They Shoot Horses, Don't
They?" and "Married to the Mob." Lewis reprised
his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of "Car
54," and appeared as a guest star on television
shows such as "Taxi," "Green Acres" and "Lost in Space."
But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an
angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to
an emergency bypass and the amputation of his
right leg below the knee and all the toes on his
left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma.
A year later, he was back offering his
recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD "Ramones Raw."
He is survived by his wife, Karen
Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.
by Mitchel Cohen
What a sad day ... and what an incredible, artistic and political life!
I first met Al Lewis in person in New Haven in
1971, at a demonstration in support of the jailed
Black Panthers. I remember it being a very raw
afternoon, and I kept staring at the man I'd
later introduce myself to, wondering at the
famous fellow standing all by himself unlike so
many actors and famous people, and then lost in the small crowd that turned up.
Later, I was to learn that Grandpa was rarely
alone in that way. Campaigning with him for Mayor
all over the City with other Green stalwarts like
Frank Carr, Craig Seeman, Michele Daneles, Afrime
Derti, Carl Lawrence, Pete Dolack and Robb Ross
-- the core of the Brooklyn Greens at that time
-- I was struck by the amount of adulation and
genuine affection that so many people had for Al,
especially (gulp!) cops. They all wanted Al to
sign autographs. I collected hundreds of
signatures to put Al on the ballot from cops
riding home on the Long Island Railroad and the
Staten Island ferry. It was amazing, the
transformation that came over people when Al
greeted them. He ended up getting just over the
50,000 votes we needed to put the Green Party onto the ballot in NY State.
Al was also incredibly scholarly, a voluminous
reader and one of his disappointments in the last
few years was his difficulty in being able to
read due to problems with his eyesight. But he
maintained his sabre-slashing anarchistic stance
when dealing with U.S. politicians and warmongers to the end.
Al and Karen were incredibly supportive to many
people, including me, personally, as a Green
Party candidate and as an organizer against
pesticides and genetic engineering. They
sponsored several events with the Roosevelt
Island Greens at which I was the featured
speaker, and contributed generously to the
NoSpray Coalition over the years as well as to my
campaign for Mayor on the Green Party line in
2001. I remember when Al was already sick, a
Reclaim the Streets party/demo had ended up on
Roosevelt Island. We marched past Al and Karen's
apartment, and I started the chant: "We love you
Grandpa, we miss you, get better!" and pretty
soon the hundreds of us took up the chant, lights
came on in the apartments, people looked out the
windows, and everyone waved, knowing whom we were
chanting about as we snaked by.
To say Al will be missed is, as is often the
case, a vast understatement. This crotchety,
funny, whip-smart, annoying, ribald, generous and
always dependable anti-racist activist was, in my
opinion, one of the great people of the century.
I loved him dearly, even or especially when we
argued, and so did many, many others.
A life well-lived? Hell, a life in REVOLT!
Grandpa Al Lewis -- Presenté !
--------------------------
'Grandpa Munster' Al Lewis Dies at 95
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch
of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball
scout, restaurateur and political candidate never
eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television
sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.
Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away
Friday night, said Bernard White, program
director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a
weekly radio program. White made the announcement
on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.
"To say that we will miss his generous,
cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.
Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit,
became a pop culture icon playing the irascible
father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling
Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He
was also one of the stars of another classic TV
comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on "Car 54, Where Are You?"
But Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far
beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at
Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved
notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar
to coaching greats like Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.
He operated a successful Greenwich Village
restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular
presence chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs.
Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a
ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate
against incumbent Gov. George Pataki. Lewis
campaigned against draconian drug laws and the
death penalty, while going to court in a losing
battle to have his name appear on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis."
He didn't defeat Pataki, but managed to collect more 52,000 votes.
Lewis was born Alexander Meister in upstate New
York before his family moved to Brooklyn, where
the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair
with basketball. He later became a vaudeville and
circus performer, but his career didn't take off until television did the same.
Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite
Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in "Car 54,
Where Are You?" a comedy about a Bronx police
precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later,
the duo appeared together in "The Munsters,"
taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
The series, about a family of clueless creatures
plunked down in middle America, was a success and
ran through 1966. It forever locked Lewis in as
the memorably twisted character; decades later,
strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of "Grandpa!"
Unlike some television stars, Lewis never
complained about getting typecast and made
appearances in character for decades.
"Why would I mind?" he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage."
Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant
and hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point
during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the
Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock
jock diving for the delay button by leading an
undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.
He also popped up in a number of movies,
including the acclaimed "They Shoot Horses, Don't
They?" and "Married to the Mob." Lewis reprised
his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of "Car
54," and appeared as a guest star on television
shows such as "Taxi," "Green Acres" and "Lost in Space."
But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an
angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to
an emergency bypass and the amputation of his
right leg below the knee and all the toes on his
left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma.
A year later, he was back offering his
recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD "Ramones Raw."
He is survived by his wife, Karen
Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.