2101 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, United States
Fisher attended South Philadelphia High School
Gallery of Eddie Fisher
1798 W Hunting Park Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19140, United States
Fisher attended Simon Gratz High School
College/University
Career
Gallery of Eddie Fisher
1955
Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher attend a party in Los Angeles, California.
Gallery of Eddie Fisher
1957
Actress Elizabeth Taylor at an event with her husband film producer Mike Todd (left), and singer Eddie Fisher.
Gallery of Eddie Fisher
1979
301 W 113th St # 1, New York, NY 10026, United States
Todd Fisher and Eddie Fisher during Debbie Boone and Gabriel Ferrer Wedding Reception - at Wilshire Country Club in New York City, New York, United States.
301 W 113th St # 1, New York, NY 10026, United States
Todd Fisher and Eddie Fisher during Debbie Boone and Gabriel Ferrer Wedding Reception - at Wilshire Country Club in New York City, New York, United States.
(A candid, revealing account of the life and career of sin...)
A candid, revealing account of the life and career of singer Eddie Fisher documents his rise to fame, friendships, personal relationships and marriages, drug addiction and ruined career, and successful comeback.
Eddie Fisher was an American band and nightclub singer, actor, and writer. He was one of the most successful pop singers of the 1950s.
Background
Ethnicity:
Fisher's parents were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire.
Edwin Jack Fisher was born on August 10, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of poor Russian immigrants, Joseph Fisher, a vegetable and fruit vendor and Kate (Minicker) Fisher. His father worked first in a leather factory and later peddling fruits and vegetables from the back of his car. Fisher's family was extremely poor, moving frequently to avoid eviction and subsisting for a time on welfare payments. Nevertheless, despite his impoverished childhood, Fisher always believed that he was destined for stardom.
His father's surname was originally Tisch, but was changed to Fisher by the time of the 1940 census.
Education
Fisher attended Thomas Junior High School, South Philadelphia High School, and Simon Gratz High School.
Fisher began singing professionally as a 12-year-old in 1940, debuting on local Philadelphia radio station WFIL's program When I Grow Up. For the next several years, Fisher performed on local radio shows such as Magic Lady, Junior Music Hall and Teen Time, earning about $25 per week. As a teenager, he tied for the first place on the popular radio talent competition, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Already a local star, Fisher dropped out of high school during his senior year to pursue a full-time music career. Fisher says his parents accepted his decision because the money he earned through his singing helped lift the family out of poverty.
By 1950 Fisher had his first hit, "Thinking of You," and by 1951 he had his first million-seller, "Any Time," a song from the early 1920s. While in the U.S. Army Fisher was employed as part of a recruiting effort for the Korean War. By the time of his discharge in 1953, he had become one of America’s most popular recording artists. Fisher also was given his own fifteen-minute TV show called Coke Time (1953), sponsored by the Coca-Cola company. This show proved to be so popular that Coke then offered Eddie a $1 million contract to be their national spokesperson. A deal of that magnitude was almost unheard of at this time and helped push Fisher towards being one of the most popular singers by 1954.
In 1958 the scandal of the decade broke when stories of Eddie's affair with Elizabeth Taylor were made public. She had been widowed earlier that year when her husband Mike Todd, Eddie's best friend, died in a plane crash. The bad publicity that followed did a great deal of damage to Eddie's career, while it actually increased the amount of money Elizabeth was offered for films. He and Liz did the movie Butterfield 8 (1960), which actually earned Taylor an Academy Award, though it was received with mixed reviews. From there Liz went on to star in Cleopatra (1963), with Richard Burton, another scandal and divorce for Liz. With his TV show long gone and hit records a thing of the past, Eddie's career in the sixties consisted mainly of stage shows in Las Vegas, New York, and smaller venues as time went on.
Eddie Fisher also has written two autobiographies, the latest "Been There, Done That" published with great controversy.
Quotations:
"Everything that has happened in my life, the fame I've enjoyed, the fortunes I've earned, the marriages, the affairs, the scandals, even my drug addictions, everything I owe to the fact that when I opened my mouth this sound, this music, came out."
"I was bigger than the Beatles. Bigger than Elvis. Hotter than Sinatra."
Personality
Nicknamed "Sonny Boy," Fisher discovered his natural vocal talent at a very young age. He never once took a voice lesson. Fisher claims that this vocal gift was responsible for shaping the entire course of his life. Eddie Fisher entered his first children's talent show at the age of 4 and won the first prize - a large cake. After that, he said, that his mother entered him in every amateur contest she heard about and Eddie usually won.
In his memoirs, Fisher admitted to addictions to drugs and gambling which aggravated his career problems. Fisher also suffered from knee, back, hearing, and eyesight problems in his later years, the last of which were worsened by complications stemming from cataract removal surgery, and he rarely appeared in public. According to friends, he remained mentally vigorous and kept himself busy watching television and following news and politics, and singing his old songs while friend George Michalski played the piano. Michalski had worked on several occasions over the years to help Fisher get his name back on the music charts.
Quotes from others about the person
"The '60s passed Eddie by; he missed that entire era of music. I'd play a Beatles song like "Something" for him and he'd think I wrote it." - George Michalski
Connections
Fisher first married in 1955 to Debbie Reynolds. They soon had two children, Carrie and Todd Fisher, who would grow up to be actors just like parents. Their marriage broke up after Fisher's best friend, Mike Todd's death. He was the third husband of the much-married Elizabeth Taylor, who was herself a close friend to Reynolds. Fisher tried to console Todd's lovely widow, but perhaps he gave her a few too many friendly hugs, because soon Fisher and Taylor were embroiled in a love affair that would destroy his marriage and the friendship between Taylor and Reynolds.
Reynolds, though devastated by her husband's behavior with her best friend, was reluctant to get a divorce. She didn't believe in giving up on a marriage. But Fisher and Taylor were determined to marry, and, according to Reynolds, they guilted her into divorce, telling her they'd carry on the affair no matter what. Reynolds finally agreed, and in 1959 – three and a half hours after the divorce was finalized – Fisher wed Taylor.
As Fisher tells it, Taylor was the true love of his life. But, perhaps for Taylor, Fisher was more of a dear friend who was there when she needed a shoulder. At any rate, her romantic devotion to him didn't last long. She began an affair with her next husband, Richard Burton, while still married to Fisher, and she and Fisher divorced in 1964. It was a sad ending to a love triangle that devastated Reynolds and left Fisher's career in dire straits. Perhaps the only positive outcome of it was that many years later, Reynolds and Taylor buried the hatchet and renewed their friendship.
It's not too surprising that after losing Taylor, Fisher took a few years off before jumping into his next marriage. But jump he did, this time into a partnership with singer and actress Connie Stevens. The marriage didn't last long before it too ended in divorce, but did result in two children who would also one day become actors, Joely and Trisha Leigh Fisher. Terry Richard, Fisher's next wife, was less than half his age – 21 to his 47 – and a former beauty queen, having been crowned Miss Louisiana two years before their 1975 marriage. It would be his shortest marriage, dissolving into divorce after just six months.
In 1993, he married Betty Lin, a businesswoman. It was his longest-lasting marriage and the only one that didn't end in divorce, enduring until her death in 2001.