Kookie's Comb

The most famous head of hair in the nation last week belonged neither to Senator John Kennedy nor to Pianist Artur Rubinstein, but to a 25-year-old television actor named Edward Byrnes, who in three short weeks has become the hottest new property on records. The source of Byrnes's top-of-the-head fame is a peculiarly wolfish ditty called Kookie, Kookie (Warner Bros.) in which Byrnes sings scarcely a note. His contribution is a series of jive lingo replies to a marshmallow-voiced girl who implores him over and over again: "Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb!" Sample answer:

Now you're on my wave length And I'm readin' you just fine Don't cut out of here 'Till we get on Cloud Nine . . . B-a-aby, you're the ginchiest!

The inspiration for Kookie, Kookie comes from the character of the same name created by Manhattan-born Actor Byrnes on the TV series 77 Sunset Strip. In the show, Byrnes plays a parking-lot attendant who continually combs his hair as an antidote to thought. Warner Bros, noticed how teen-age televiewers dug Kookie, so it signed Byrnes to cut a disk and set a comb manufacturer to turning out "Kookie Kombs" by the thousands. When a Los Angeles disk jockey casually asked his listeners "Should Kookie cut his hair?" he promptly got 5,000 replies (100-to-1 against cutting). Warners is now planning to market Kookie billfolds and perhaps belts, and Actor Byrnes is breathless with the wonder of it all. "My ambitions are so great that I can't discuss them," says he. "I just stand in awe of them."

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