Allan Sherman
Although probably best known to modern audiences as the singer of "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter From Camp Granada)", Allan Sherman was a prodigious talent who started working in the entertainment industry in the late 1940s and kept going strong until his death from emphysema in 1973.
In the course of his career, Sherman turned his hand to screenwriting, creating, producing and even acting (including a turn as the voice of The Cat in the Hat in the 1971 TV adaptation of the famous Dr. Seuss book).
With Albert Hague he cowrote the 1969 Broadway musical The Fig Leaves Are Falling, which is notable for two things: the Broadway debut of David Cassidy (later of The Partridge Family), and closing after only four performances. He hosted The Tonight Show on several occasions, including the night Bill Cosby made his first appearance on the show; he would later be credited as co-producer on Cosby's first three albums for Warner Bros. Records.
He was also the author of several books, including the infamous comic novel The Rape of the A*P*E (American Puritan Ethic). He made his greatest impact on TV as creator of I've Got a Secret and as the producer of The Jackie Gleason Show, but it was his numerous albums of song parodies and original comic music (starting with My Son, The Folk Singer in 1963) that made him a household name in the 1960s.
A fair selection of his work can be found with a simple YouTube search.
- My Son, the Folk Singer (1962)
- My Son, the Celebrity (1963)
- My Son, the Nut (1963)
- Allan in Wonderland (1964)
- Peter and the Commissar (1964)
- For Swingin' Livers Only! (1964)
- My Name Is Allan (1965)
- Allan Sherman: Live!!! (Hoping You Are the Same) (1966)
- Togetherness (1967)