Yesterday I posted an astoundingly cool video of Shari Lewis dancing up a storm on a 1964 TV variety show. It was a side of her I never knew, having grown up knowing her as a ventriloquist and nothing more. Here she is a few years earlier doing what we know her best for. So skillful is she at manipulating and throwing her voice that I honestly had doubts as to whether or not she was doing the voices of Lambchop and Charlie Horse live or if they pre-recorded them for purposes of this test. Her technique is flawless. This video was posted by Gregg Oppenheimer, son of ‘I Love Lucy’ co-creator Jess Oppenheimer. I’m going to reprint his lengthy and helpful explanation of what this clip is and how it came into being. Take it away, Gregg!

In 1958 Shari Lewis was a popular TV personality in NYC, but largely unknown to the rest of the nation. My father (Jess Oppenheimer, creator of “I Love Lucy”) flew Shari out to Hollywood to film a pilot for NBC. When she arrived, he and my mom took her to dinner at Chasen’s. Shari later told me that her biggest thrill was when Groucho Marx came over to their table and wiggled his eyebrows at her. That, she said, was the moment she KNEW she was in Hollywood. Shari came over to our house a couple of times that week, and I was instantly enchanted (as any 7-year old would be). She even managed to teach me how to make my own rabbit puppet out of a cloth table napkin (something I still do on occasion). The pilot, unfortunately, didn’t get picked up. But just two years later NBC relented and gave Shari her own network show (replacing Howdy Doody), and soon the whole country was as enchanted as I was. And 35 years later I was able to continue a family tradition when I introduced my 9-year old daughter to Shari at her home in Beverly Hills. Anyway, enjoy Shari Lewis’s never-broadcast 1958 screen test with Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse.