Lamb Chop still a big hit

With yet another newspaper interview about to begin, Mallory Lewis casually reached into a cloth purse and, with no fanfare at all, pulled out the pop-culture icon.

Within moments, everyone's favorite sock puppet, Lamb Chop, came to life, none the worse for wear and looking as fit as ever, despite a career that dates back to the 1950s.

The character, made famous on television by children's entertainer and ventriloquist Shari Lewis, is appearing this week at the Pasco County Fair, with three shows a day through Saturday.

Lewis died in 1998, but for more than a decade her daughter, Mallory, has kept the family legacy alive with appearances at fairs and other venues, entertaining children discovering the puppet for the first time and adults whose childhood memories come flooding back.

"Everybody loves me because I'm really sweet," Lamb Chop said.

Or, that is, Mallory Lewis said, through Lamb Chop. Lewis segues easily between her own persona and the character, who is still viewed with affection by adults in their 50s and 60s who remember watching Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop on their black-and-white televisions.

"Lamb Chop is a very pure character," Lewis said. "She represents a time in everyone's life when they were innocent."

One of those people with a decades-old fondness for the puppet is Beverly Lindsey, 63, of Lakeland, who watched Lamb Chop on TV in the late 1950s.

"I have very vivid memories - good ones," Lindsey said.

The chance to see Shari Lewis' daughter performing with the ageless puppet was the main reason Lindsey came to the Pasco County Fair on Monday.

Making the trip with her were her daughter, Jessica Giles, 34, who also watched Lamb Chop on TV as a child, and her grandson, Jackson Giles, 4, who represented the third generation of the family to experience Lamb Chop's charms.

During her 20-minute show, Lewis sings and exchanges quips with Lamb Chop and Hush Puppy, another puppet from her mother's TV performances. She invites children onstage to join her in a dance.

The stage show hearkens to the old days when all television needed to captivate children was a woman with a couple of sock puppets. Lewis knows that in this age of special-effects wizardry things have changed, but she doesn't think they have changed that much.

"Children are still children," she said.

They like puppets. They like singing. They like jokes. They like silliness. That's the Shari Lewis/Lamb Chop formula in a nutshell.

Lindsey, who would have been among the first children entranced by Shari Lewis, declared her outing to the fair worthwhile.

"She's adorable," Lindsey said. "I'm so glad I can say I have seen Shari."

She quickly corrected herself.

"Mallory."

Mallory Lewis likely would forgive that slip. She's used to it. Sometimes people think she is her mother and compliment her on how good she looks for her age.

Lamb Chop looks good for her age, too, though she's not the original. That one is kept at home, Lewis said. But the puppet that appeared onstage Monday is one her mother actually used, she said.

Lewis keeps secret just how many Lamb Chops exist.

The little hand puppet nearly didn't get included in Shari Lewis' ventriloquism act. Someone gave the puppet to her father, who in turn gave it to her when she was 16. With teenage disdain, she tossed it beneath her bed.

Shari Lewis gained her initial fame in 1952 when she placed first on the TV show "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts." She began hosting children's TV shows on local stations in New York, often performing with two ventriloquist dummies.

One day, Lewis received a call from someone with the Captain Kangaroo show about possibly appearing on that show. The show liked her, but not her dummies. Did she have anything else?

Lewis remembered the lamb puppet lying in a no-doubt forlorn lump under the bed. Why sure, she had something else. She had this lamb character called - Mallory Lewis pauses here when she tells this story to emphasize her mother's mind racing to come up with a name - called Lamb Chop.

In that moment, destiny was set.

Soon after Shari Lewis died in 1998, Mallory Lewis found herself attending a string of events to accept posthumous awards for her mother. Her then-husband pointed out that she couldn't exactly make a living doing that.

So Lewis began to contemplate bringing Lamb Chop back to life. She determined she could do the voice and the ventriloquism.

Finally, at one of those accept-a-posthumous-award events, she brought the puppet along for a trial run, keeping Lamb Chop safely out of sight in case she chickened out at the last moment.

She didn't. Lamb Chop popped up, said a few words and captivated the audience.

Just like in the old days.

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