Event Film and Video Screenings "An Evening with Changemaker Ernie Kovacs"

Date and Location

  • When: Friday, May 10, 2019

    7:30 pm - 9:00 pm EDT

  • Where: National Audio-Visual Conservation Center - Packard Campus Theater

    19053 Mount Pony Road, Culpeper, VA 22701-7551

Part of Changemakers

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

As part of the Library of Congress’ yearlong initiative exploring America’s Changemakers, the Packard Campus Theater presents an evening of highlights from the career of comic genius and television pioneer Ernie Kovacs (1919-1962). The outsized influence Kovac’s comedic aesthetic continues to have on generations of television producers and comedians makes him a changemaker, first class. More than just a funny man, Kovacs brilliantly exploited video’s editing and special effects techniques, creating a visual grammar to rival the work of filmmakers like D.W. Griffith and Sergei Eisenstein. It’s easy to see Kovacs’ influence on “Saturday Night Live,” “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and countless other TV shows and performers. His career was short - he died in a car crash at age 42 - but his impact remains enormous. Ernie Kovacs and his on-screen partner and wife Edie Adams first appeared on television together in 1951. From that time on, they were consistently on all four networks until Kovacs’ death in 1962. The Library acquired the Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams Collection in 2015 from Adams’ son Josh Mills, and on May 10 the Packard Campus Theater will commemorate the Kovacs centenary with a program hosted by Mills and Kovacs archivist Ben Model, who curated two “Ernie Kovacs Collection” DVD box sets (2011 and 2012), followed by a May 11 program celebrating Adams’ multifaceted talent.

For general Packard Campus Theater information, call (540) 827-1079 ext. 79994 or (202) 707-9994.

Event Resources

Multimedia