Norm Crosby, the deadpan mangler of the English language who thrived in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s as a television, nightclub and casino comedian, has died. He was 93.
Crosby’s daughter-in-law, Maggie Crosby, told the New York Times that the comic died Saturday of heart failure in Los Angeles.
Early in his career, Crosby realized he needed a gimmick to differentiate himself from the burgeoning generation of comedians who were achieving fame on the many network TV variety shows.
“I was looking around for fresh ideas, and I kept hearing people misuse words,” he told an interviewer in 1989. “So I started to use it in my act.”
Crosby’s first steady work as a comic came at Blinstrub’s in his native Boston, which led to an engagement in the early 1960s at the prestigious Latin Quarter in New York.
Walter Winchell, in his widely read newspaper column, gave the comedian a rave, and offers from Johnny Carson and other TV shows and club dates poured in. Crosby became a favorite at the major Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos, and he played theaters, including many times at London’s Palladium, and concert halls. He also was a regular guest on Dean Martin’s celebrity roasts.
In 1978-80, he starred in a syndicated TV show, “Norm Crosby’s Comedy Shop.” For many years he served as co-host with Jerry Lewis on the Labor Day weekend telethon for muscular dystrophy.
As a public performer, Crosby thrived despite having poor hearing. During World War II, he served aboard a Coast Guard submarine chaser, and concussion from depth charges damaged his ears. He wore a hearing aid onstage.
“I was never shy about my hearing loss, probably because I got it from military service,” he explained in a 1993 interview. “I got thousands of letters from people who had said they would never get a hearing aid but had changed their minds after they saw me being open about it.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: LA Times