Edward Haas

PVT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co B

ASN#12183921

Born 1923 in NY, Died 1994

Artist

County of residence at enlistment: New York County, NY

Other residence(s): Los Angeles, CA

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: public officials, n.e.c.

Notes: Formerly Co C

Source: 603rd Camouflage Engineer Roster provided by W. Anderson; Comment by Howard Holt; New York Area Leave List; 603rd Company C handwritten roster; photo from Ancestry®

Edward Haas was born on May 12, 1923 in the Bronx, the oldest of three children.

When he registered for the draft, on June 30, 1942, he was working in the interior decorating department at Macy's flagship store on Herald Square in New York City.

He enlisted in the Army on November 9, 1942.

Sometime after the war, he found work as a commercial artist and cartoonist. He was later befriended by a musician/writer named Norman Liebmann, who had started writing material for nightclub performers such as Red Buttons. The two men would relocate to Los Angeles, and would collaborate as writers throughout the 1960s.

In 1961-1962, they served as "story consultants" on eight episodes of Father of the Bride, and also wrote two episodes.

In 1964 they were working as contract writers at Universal when they were presented with an idea about a family of monsters. They wrote a pilot/presentation, "My Fair Munster," and it was only when they were introduced during filming to Chris Hayward and Allan Burns, writers for Jay Ward's cartoon factory on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, that they discovered there was controversy about who had come up with the idea. Hayward and Burns' former agent, now in charge of comedy development at Universal, had apparently passed along some of Hayward and Burns' ideas to Liebmann and Haas, without telling them the source. Stephen Cox interviewed Hayward and Burns for his book The Munsters: A Trip Down Mockingbird Lane. "They were as puzzled about it as we were," recalled Allan Burns. Hayward and Burns were eventually credited with the "format" and Liebmann and Haas with the "development." All four men got credit as "co-creators." Burns again: "They went into another direction with their pilot script than we had. . . . What Chris and I had proposed was a little more bizarre and a little more sophisticated."

Liebmann and Haas would go on to write six of the first nine episodes of The Munsters, which premiered in the fall of 1964. Liebman later said that he contributed several of the characters' names, derived from his own relatives. (Though it is interesting to note that Ed Haas's father was named Herman, which meant that the father/son names of Herman/Eddie, the names given to the Munsters characters, were from Ed's family.)

1964 was also the year that Ed Haas married Sharon Dolores Boyle. It was her second marriage, but she described Haas as the love of her life. Sharon brought a son, Kevin, to the marriage; Haas adopted him and Kevin took the last name of Haas.

Liebmann and Haas also wrote a number of other things together, including several episodes of Hazel and The Dick Van Dyke Show, and nine episodes of the Jerry Lewis Show. Their partnership dissolved in about 1969.

After that, Haas continued to work as a writer for some years—he is credited with work on scripts for Get Smart, All in the Family, and a number of comedy and entertainment specials.

After retiring from the entertainment industry, Haas went into real estate and property management. He became Director of Operations for Santa Monica Shores; together he and his wife managed this beachfront apartment complex that included many film and TV stars among its tenants.

Ed Haas died on July 20, 1994 of colon cancer.