Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1993 TAG: 9304070241
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Orange County Register
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
EARLY TELEVISION PERFORMER PINKY LEE DIES
There was Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody. The Mouseketeers and Romper Room. There was Soupy Sales, Pee Wee Herman. And before all of them, there was Pinky Lee.In the lexicon of children's shows, the little man with the lisp and the funny checkered hat wasn't the best-known of the bunch. But to the millions of children who watched "The Pinky Lee Show" in the early 1950s, he was the best-loved.
Lee died in his sleep early Saturday in his Mission Viejo, Calif., condominium, apparently of heart failure.
Officially, he was 85. But in a 1991 interview, Lee coyly set his age at 67.
"I think that was his little joke," said his daughter, Patti Lee.
If so, it was just one of a lifetime of jokes that Lee sprinkled from stage to screens, both large and small, starting at the age of 7.
Lee sang beautifully until his voice changed, then turned a lifelong lisp and two strong legs into fast-moving, comic genius.
Children loved Lee even after his show went off the air in 1957. Just last week, his daughter said, Lee was reading fan mail. And everywhere he went, people stopped Lee to sing the words to his show's theme song: "Yoo hoo! It's me! My name is Pinky Lee!"
"Oh, the kids could sing that song like they could the national anthem," said "Buffalo" Bob Smith, the creator of Howdy Doody, whose show followed Lee's on NBC.
Born Pincus Leff in St. Paul, Minn., Lee got into show business as one of the singing "Winnipeg Kids."
The character of Pinky Lee was born when Lee began appearing onstage in a suit and small hat he found in the boys' department of a local store. One day, the hat was stolen, so he borrowed a checkered hat from a boy standing backstage with his mother.
The checkered hat and suit will be sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Patti Lee said.
On the air, Lee spent his days with Bloopy the Dog and Sousabelle, working for Mr. Grumpy, "the richest man in town."
"I was always pushed around," Lee once said of his character. "People would gyp me. The kids felt sorry for me and they took me to their hearts."
Private services will be held Thursday in Los Angeles.
Lee is survived by his wife, Bebe; son, Morgan, 57, of North Hollywood; and daughter Patti, 52, of Mission Viejo.