Henny Youngman - Personal Life

Personal Life

Youngman's wife, Sadie Cohen, was often the butt of his jokes ("My wife said to me, 'For our anniversary I want to go somewhere I've never been before.' I said, 'Try the kitchen!'", or "my wife's cooking is fit for a king. (gesturing as if feeding an invisible dog) Here King, here King!" Also, "Last night my wife said the weather outside was fit for neither man nor beast, so we both stayed home.") but in reality the two were very close, with Sadie often accompanying her husband on his tours. Youngman remained married for over sixty years until his wife's death in 1987, after a prolonged illness. While she was ill, Henny had an ICU built in their bedroom, so she could be taken care of at home, rather than in the hospital (Sadie was terrified of hospitals).

Henny explained the origin of his classic line "Take my wife, please" as a misinterpretation: in the mid-1930s he took his wife to a show and asked the usher to escort his wife to a seat. But his request was taken as a joke, and Youngman used the line countless times ever after.

Youngman had two children, son Gary and daughter Marilyn. Gary started his career screenwriting and directing, and thereafter continued to work in the film industry in various capacities. Gary is best known for his 1976 film Rush-It!, which introduced the filmgoing public to a number of soon to be very famous actors and actresses (John Heard, Jill Eikenberry, Tom Berenger, others). After Rush-It's lukewarm reception, Gary removed himself from the public eye—he then lived a quiet life in California.

Henny had a grandson of note: Lawrence Michael Kelly. Kelly spent much of his youth with Henny on the road following the death of Larry's father at an early age. While Kelly tried for many years to follow in his grandfather's footsteps he never managed to attain a following. Kelly struggled with a severe weight problem for his entire life regularly fluctuating between 250 to over 500 pounds. Despite not achieving fame for himself, he was a very astute judge of talent in others, and through his connections in Henny's world, Kelly was able to help promote the early careers of Sam Kinison, Louie Anderson, Roseanne Barr, and several other notable personalities. Larry's numerous and ever changing enterprises included the running of one of the first computer bulletin boards in the world ("Modem Over Manhattan", a/k/a "M*O*M"), as well as obtaining Henny's partnership with the nascent "Dial-A-Joke" telephone service. Kelly's last venture was a small banana bread business in Woodstock called "Top Banana". From 1992 until his death, Kelly co-hosted a local public-access television show called The Village Green, with then future Woodstock councilman Gordon Wemp. The cause of Kelly's death remains unknown today.

With the exception of a week following his wife's death, and the month he was in his final hospital stay, Henny was renowned for having worked almost every day for over 70 years without vacations or other breaks.