Allan Sherman.

Born Allan Copelon on November 30, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, Sherman was of Jewish descent. His father Percy Copelon and mother Rose Sherman raised him; he later adopted his mother’s maiden name as his stage surname. He attended Fairfax High School and then the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied alongside future comedian Arte Johnson. Sherman was expelled from the university after breaking into a campus sorority house, a prank that derailed his formal education but launched his path toward comedy.

Sherman began his career as a comedy writer for Joe E. Lewis and Jackie Gleason. In the 1950s, he created and produced the long-running game show I’ve Got a Secret 1952–1976 and the notoriously short-lived Jackie Gleason fiasco You’re in the Picture, which lasted only one week. In 1951 he recorded two parodies for Jubilee Records—Jake’s Song and A Satchel and a Seck—but they went nowhere until re-released in 1962 after his later success.

Sherman’s breakthrough came in 1962 with the album My Son, the Folksinger, a collection of folk-song parodies. The following year he scored a top-ten hit with Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh A Letter from Camp, a parody of Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours set to lyrics about a miserable summer camp experience. The single reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over a million copies. He continued with albums like Allan in Wonderland 1964 and hosted an episode of The Tonight Show where he introduced a 25-year-old Bill Cosby to his first national audience. Sherman also co-wrote and co-produced Cosby’s early albums on Warner Bros. Records, though Cosby later said Sherman’s role was minimal.

He co-wrote his first and only Broadway musical, The Fig Leaves Are Falling 1969, with composer Albert Hague. The show was directed by George Abbott and starred Barry Nelson, Dorothy Loudon, and a pre-Partridge Family David Cassidy in his Broadway debut. It ran exactly four performances. Sherman also provided the voice of the Cat in the Hat in the 1971 animated special The Cat in the Hat and its sequel Dr. Seuss on the Loose 1973. He authored two books: the autobiography A Gift of Laughter 1964 and The Rape of the APE American Puritan Ethic 1973, a comic history of the sexual revolution published months before his death.

Sherman married Dee Chackes on June 15, 1945; they divorced in 1966. The couple had a son, Robert. In 1973 Sherman died suddenly of emphysema on November 20, only ten days before his 49th birthday, while entertaining friends at the piano. He was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Allan Sherman’s 1963 parody Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh became a top-ten hit. His TV creation I’ve Got a Secret ran from 1952 to 1976. President John F. Kennedy was a fan, frequently singing Sherman’s parodies. Decades later, his parodies still appear in pop culture references.