Shari Lewis

Children's television favorite Shari Lewis got her biggest break in 1957, when she debuted her puppet alter ego Lamb Chop on CBS' "Captain Kangaroo." Before that, the sprightly, energetic Lewis was the host of local children's programs in the New York area. Among these were "Facts 'n' Fun" on WNBT-TV (1953), "Shari and Her Friends" on WPIX-TV (1954) and 1957's "Shariland" on WRCA-TV. Red-haired pixieish Shari Lewis was born Shari Hurwitz in New York City to a magician father and musical mother. By the age of two, she was studying piano and pulling rabbits out of hats. Growing up in New York, Lewis attended the city's famed High School of Music and Art where she studied music theory and orchestration as well as piano and violin. She also attended New York's Columbia University, and studied dance at the School of American Ballet and acting with Sanford Meisner of the Neighborhood Playhouse. Lewis learned early on of her talent for ventriloquism and won on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" in 1952 which led to her many children's television projects. In 1960, she created "The Shari Lewis Show" (NBC), the first show to feature her most beloved puppets Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy. The show aired until 1963, when the increasing popularity of animated children's fare pushed it off the air.