Allan Sherman

Allan Sherman (born Allan Copelon or Allan Gerald Copelon; November 30, 1924 – November 20, 1973) was an American musician, comedian, and television producer who became known as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer (1962), became the fastest-selling record album up to that time. His biggest hit was "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", a comic song in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours.

Sherman was born on November 30, 1924, in Chicago, to Percy Copelon and Rose Sherman. Percy was an auto mechanic and race car driver from Birmingham, Alabama who suffered from obesity (he weighed over 350 pounds) and died while attempting a 100-day diet. Sherman's family was Jewish. His parents divorced when he was seven, and he adopted his mother's maiden name. Because his parents frequently moved to new residences, he attended 21 public schools in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Miami. For his High School years, he attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles where he graduated in 1941. He later attended the University of Illinois, where he earned mostly "C" grades and contributed a humor column to The Daily Illini, the college newspaper. He was expelled for breaking into the Sigma Delta Tau sorority house with his girlfriend and future wife, Dolores "Dee" Chackes.

Sherman devised a game show with comedy writer Howard Merrill, which he intended to call I Know a Secret. Television producer Mark Goodson adapted Sherman's idea into I've Got a Secret, which ran on CBS from 1952 to 1967. Rather than pay him for the concept, Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions made Sherman the show's producer; Merrill was paid a royalty and withdrew from the project. "You couldn't help but be fond of Allan, as long as you didn't have to work with him," recalled Goodson-Todman executive Gil Fates. "Notice I said with him. He was always kind and understanding to those who worked for him." Sherman clashed with anyone who disagreed with his ideas or tried to restrain his creativity. As producer of I've Got a Secret, which was broadcast live, he showed a fondness for large-scale stunts that teetered on the brink of disaster. He once released 100 rabbits onstage as an Easter surprise for the Madison Square Boys Club, whose members were seated in the studio. The boys were invited to come up onstage to collect their prize. Although the resultant melee made a good story, it did not necessarily make for good television. Fates saw that host Garry Moore, "who was out on stage trying to protect the bunnies as best he could, realized that the spot was beyond salvage. Most of the kids gave back the rabbits".

In his autobiography A Gift of Laughter, Sherman writes that he was fired from I've Got a Secret in 1958, the night when guest star Tony Curtis demonstrated childhood street games. First, Curtis had never heard of the games that Sherman wanted to stage, resulting in awkward reenactments. Then, according to Sherman, Henry Morgan was left short of scripted material by seven minutes, and Morgan filled the time by berating Sherman on air. However, the episode in question does not run short. Morgan ends it abruptly and says that they have run out of time. "The spot was not only a fiasco but also a catastrophe," recalled Fates. "That show was Goodson's last straw and Allan's last I've Got a Secret. Within hours, the reaction from the network and the sponsors was in, and Allan was out." Sherman was replaced by associate producer Chester Feldman.

Sherman also produced a short-lived 1954 game show What's Going On?, which was technologically ambitious, with studio guests interacting with multiple live cameras in remote locations. In 1961, he produced a daytime game show for Al Singer Productions called Your Surprise Package, which aired on CBS with host George Fenneman.

In 1951, Sherman recorded a 78-rpm single with veteran singer Sylvia Froos that contains "A Satchel and a Seck", parodying "A Bushel and a Peck" from Guys and Dolls, coupled with "Jake's Song", parodying "Sam's Song", a contemporary hit for Bing Crosby and his son Gary. The single sold poorly and when Sherman wrote his autobiography, he did not mention it. Later, he found that the song parodies he performed to amuse his friends and family were taking on a life of their own. Sherman lived in the Brentwood section of West Los Angeles next door to Harpo Marx, who invited him to perform his song parodies at parties attended by Marx's show-biz friends. After one party, George Burns phoned an executive at Warner Bros. Records and persuaded him to sign Sherman to a contract. The result was an LP of these parodies, My Son, the Folk Singer, released in 1962. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The album was very successful and was quickly followed by My Son, the Celebrity.

Capitalizing on his success, in 1962 Jubilee Records re-released Sherman's 1951 single on the album More Folk Songs by Allan Sherman and His Friends, which compiled material by various Borscht Belt comedians such as Sylvia Froos, Fyvush Finkel and Lee Tully.

Sherman's first two LPs were mainly reworkings of public domain folk songs to infuse them with Jewish humor. His first minor hit was "Sarah Jackman" (pronounced "Jockman"), a takeoff of "Frère Jacques" in which he and a woman (Christine Nelson) exchange family gossip. The popularity of "Sarah Jackman" (as well as the album My Son, the Folk Singer) was enhanced after President John F. Kennedy was overheard singing the song in the lobby of the Carlyle hotel. By his peak with My Son, the Nut in 1963, however, Sherman had broadened both his subject matter and his choice of parody material and begun to appeal to a larger audience.