When Saul Markowitz talks about the favorite year of his career, 1989 comes to mind. That was the year “The Odd Couple” brought star comedians Tim Conway and Tom Poston to Pittsburgh.
The touring comedy stopped at the Benedum Center, where they made a lasting impression on Mr. Markowitz, then the Benedum’s public relations director and now the owner of his own public relations firm, Markowitz Communications.
“It was like being in the Catskills for a week,” Mr. Markowitz, 56, said of hanging around with Mr. Conway and Mr. Poston. “It was nonstop — a full week of having the greatest time. And we kept in touch.”
Mr. Conway died Tuesday at age 85, and Mr. Markowitz was feeling his loss but remembering the man who went from being “a comedic idol of mine” to a pal and partner in put-downs.
Mr. Markowitz saw Mr. Conway in 2006, backstage after “Old Friends,” a Benedum Center show with Harvey Korman, Mr. Conway’s co-star on “The Carol Burnett Show.”
“I told him, ‘You look horrible.’ And he said, ‘Aw, Markowitz.’” The rest was unprintable.
In 1989, when they first met, Mr. Markowitz’s job included escorting Mr. Conway and Mr. Poston to a photo opp at the office of Mayor Sophie Masloff. Mr. Conway, ever the mischief-maker, “looked over at the mayor and pretended that she took his wallet,” Mr. Markowitz recalled. “She took it seriously, and it was hilarious.”
From there, they went to an interview with Doug Hoerth of WTAE, where Mr. Conway excused himself to go to the men’s room.
“He leaves for 15 minutes and comes back, and he had taken a whole roll of toilet paper and stuck it to his shoe. And with that, he did a whole Old Man routine from ‘The Carol Burnett Show,’ ” said Mr. Markowitz.
Mr. Poston, whose long television career included “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Mork & Mindy,” died in 2007. In “The Odd Couple,” he played Oscar, a slob of a sports writer who takes in neat-freak friend Felix (Mr. Conway). He and Mr. Conway became a theatrical road team with “The Odd Couple,” and both kept up a correspondence with the PR kid from Pittsburgh.
“After my dad [Morris] passed away in 1992, I told them. Mr. Poston called [Mr. Markowitz’s mother, Faye], and they gave her tickets to the show and took her out — and they spent a lot of time making fun of me. I loved it,” said Mr. Markowitz, who called Mr. Conway “the funniest, most sarcastic” man he ever knew.
To this day, Mr. Markowitz said, when someone asks him the favorite show he has ever worked on, his answer is, “Hands down, ‘The Odd Couple.’ I never had so much fun.”
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.
First Published: May 14, 2019, 8:05 p.m.