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Allan Sherman and His 15-Minutes of Memorable Fame
By Felice Prager
Even if a person doesn't remember who wrote the song, when you start
singing "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh," there is usually instant
recognition. Even some of our children know the song because it is
now included on silly children's song collections. The author of the
words to the song was Allan Sherman, and his life can best be
described as a roller coaster ride with a lot more heartache and
sadness than his funny songs revealed.
Born on November 30, 1924, Allan Copelon was abandoned by his father
Percy Capelon, a stock car racer, mechanic, and inventor. His father
offered to pay for his education, but when he received no help,
Allan Sherman decided to keep his mother's maiden name, Sherman, as
his own. His mother married four times and had numerous
relationships in between. With that much change in his life, Allan
Sherman went to 21 schools. He wrote the high school senior class
musical at Fairfax School that coincidentally starred Ricardo Montalban.
Sherman was originally employed at Mark Goodson - Bill Toddman
Productions. He was a producer and created the popular game show,
I've Got a Secret. That ran from 1952 until 1967. However, Sherman
was fired after a particularly unsuccessful episode of the show that
featured Tony Curtis on June 11, 1958, long before the show's demise.
His recording career started in the way several others of that era
began. Sherman had the good fortune of living in Van Nuys,
California, next door to Harpo Marx. Marx invited Sherman to perform
his song parodies at parties for his friends. After one such party,
comedian George Burns phoned a record executive and persuaded him to
sign Sherman to a recording contract. The result of this was the LP
called My Son, the Folk Singer. This was in 1962. The album was so
commercially successful that another followed called My Son, the
Celebrity. These first two albums were primarily rewritings of old
folk tunes with words Sherman put to them. Though his parody
material was written in collaboration with Lou Busch, it was Sherman
who performed them and gained success.
My Son, the Nut followed with the famous song, "Hello Muddah, Hello
Fadduh" and a less famous song called "Hail to Thee, Fat Person"
where Sherman jokingly blames his own obesity on the Marshall Plan
with "Hail to Thee, Fat Person. You kept us out of war!"
In 1965, he recorded My Name is Allan, a parody of the Barbra
Streisand album, My Name is Barbra.
During his brief period of success, Sherman's parodies were parodied
by Stanly Ralph Ross in an album called, My Son, the Copycat. This
album had a picture of Allan Sherman crossed out on the cover of the album.
At the peak of his popularity, in 1965, Sherman published an
autobiography called A Gift of Laughter. He also sang and
guest-hosted The Tonight Show, appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving
Parade, and narrated his own version of Prokofiev's Peter and the
Wolf. This was released as Peter and the Commissar and was performed
with Arthur Fiedler. The album also included a variation of "How Dry
I Am" with Sherman as the orchestra conductor and Arthur Fiedler
providing a solo performance of hiccups.
He was involved with the production of Bill Cosby's first three
albums. Cosby, then 25 years old, had performed for the first time
on The Tonight Show when Sherman was guest-host. Cosby later said
that Allan Sherman had little to do with his first three albums, but
his name was used to boost sales.
With time, Sherman's topics became less lighthearted, funny, and
more satirical. They also became less able to stand the test of time
since they were relevant only to that time and place. Though he
inspired future parodists such as "Weird Al" Yankovic and was said
to be John F. Kennedy's favorite comedian,
Sherman's career was short. After its peak in 1963, his popularity
waned. Some say it was due to the change in people after the Kennedy
assassination. After two commercial failures, Warner Brothers
dropped him from the label in 1966. He attempted several other
projects including a Broadway show, The Leaves are Falling, in 1969
that closed after four performances. He was the voice of the Dr.
Seuss' Cat in the Hat in an animated version in 1971. His last
project was Dr. Seuss on the Loose, which was released before his
death. He died ten days before his 49th birthday from emphysema.
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