THE ERNIE KOVACS PHILE

From the author of No Commercial Potential (1980--about Frank Zappa), a shallow biography, revived from out-of-print limbo (and first published in 1975), of the pioneering TV comedian. In a new Afterword, Walley states that when he wrote this book ""the spirit of Ernie Kovacs was with me all the way, inspiring me and spreading cigar ashes all over my typewriter""--and evidently blowing smoke in Walley's eyes as well; while providing a serviceable outline of Kovacs' life--the early radio days in Philadelphia, the meteoric rise to fame after substituting for Jerry Lewis on national TV--Walley's flat portrait obscures much of the comedian's ""lunatic blackness,"" and probes only superficially Kovacs' personal life (though we do learn of his love for gambling). Although philic, then, this thin file won't please many Kovacs-philes, despite that title.