At the age of 18, Siegel was drafted into the Army soon after his contribution to Wilson's column. In early 1944, after concluding
Purple Heart, Bronze Star Medal, American Theater Ribbon, EAME Theater Ribbon with two Bronze Stars, Victory Medal, Combat Infantry Badge
, and a Good Conduct ribbon.
After the war ended, Siegel enrolled at the
American Legion Magazine
. Siegel graduated and returned to his family in New York in 1950.
In 1955, while on vacation in Nantucket, Siegel fell in love with Helen Hartman, an aide in the office of United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in New York. He proposed on their first date and they were married until Siegel's death.
Career
New York
In the late 1950s, Hugh Hefner would enter his life once again when Siegel found work as Eastern Promotion Manager for
Mad Magazine. He wrote nearly 300 articles for the latter, which appeared in more than 150 issues.[3] Siegel's output for Mad included nearly 80 movie and television parodies, including "The Oddfather," "Balmy and Clod" and "Flawrence of Arabia" as well as a dozen "primers," and several imaginary magazine parodies on topics ranging from medicine, to 1960s protesters, to "gun nuts." Siegel also wrote song parodies, including several of those in the Mad special issue which ultimately provoked a failed lawsuit by Irving Berlin
and other composers which established certain copyright law protections that endure to this day.
Laugh-In. He later broke contract to write for Carol Burnett with Stan Hart. The team spent three years with Burnett, during which they won two Emmys and were nominated for another. Siegel and Hart parted from the Burnett show in 1974, and Siegel helped launch That's My Mama
on ABC. He returned for the final season of Carol Burnett's show in 1977 and won a third Emmy.
In the early 1980s, Siegel was hired as part of a team of writers to pen a sequel of sorts to the hit LP record The First Family. Titled The First Family Rides Again and highlighting mimic Rich Little, the follow-up dealt with the life of Ronald Reagan.
During the 1990s, Siegel spent three years teaching comedy writing at
UCLA before turning to acting and joining the Screen Actors Guild. He did commercials for companies including IBM and Northwest Airlines and also performed in stage musicals in the Los Angeles area. At the age of 87, Siegel was still doing improvisational comedy, writing, and performing in sketches for shows at the Broad Theater in Santa Monica, California. He died on August 20, 2019, at the age of 93.[4]
