Eddie Carroll

The talented performer Eddie Carroll is known in the recording industry for his comedy albums as well as songwriting talents. Banjo pickers in particular may want to draw a bead on the man for one of his monologues entitled "I Hate Banjoes", part of a program released under the title of Eddie Carroll and the Kidney Stone Trio on Fraternity Row that occupies a comic territory somewhere between the beatnik humor of Allan Sherman and the hillbilly yucks of Lewis Grizzard. His songwriting, in contrast, would be unlikely to draw anyone's ire. Songs such as "How Is Julie?", a hit for the Lettermen, were perfect examples of the innocuous pop music of the '50s and early '60s. This was also the era when Carroll's career as a television actor began, to proceed with great regularity through the days evoked by mentioning such hit series as Gomer Pyle, Mary Tyler Moore, Fantasy Island and Frasier. Carroll has also appeared on stage, in movies and in his acclaimed one-man show entitled Jack Benny: Laughter In Bloom. He hails from the freezing outpost of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where he got his start performing in theater and working as a writer in radio and television. This work resulted in him becoming a United States citizen. He received a new talent scholarship from NBC, bringing him to Los Angeles just around the time Uncle Sam was also looking for him. He was drafted into the army where he wound up writing and producing shows for Armed Forces Radio and Television. When his acting career began to take off after the service, Carroll seemed driven to branch out into several other aspects of the entertainment business, producing comedy albums and writing songs. Perhaps the pinnacle of his achievements have been his impersonations of comedian Jack Benny and cartoon character...