llan Sherman

 llan Sherman, born Allan Copelon (November 30, 1924 – November 20, 1973)

He was a comedy writer, television producer, singer and actor who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. Sherman devised a game show he intended to call I Know a Secret. Television producer Mark Goodson used Sherman's idea and turned it into I've Got a Secret, which ran on CBS from 1952 to 1967. Rather than paying him for the concept, Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions made Sherman the show's producer. The relationship between Goodson, Todman and Sherman became strained when he proposed that Tony Curtis teach the panel how to play some games he had played as a child growing up in New York City. However, Curtis had never actually played any of the games that Sherman had brought the props for. The props for Sherman's concept failed and the spot, which aired June 11, 1958, was a disaster and Sherman was removed as producer. Despite this, Goodson and Todman invited Sherman back several times as a guest on their shows in later years after he achieved celebrity status following the release of his albums. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer (1962), became the fastest-selling record album up to that time. His biggest hit single was "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", a comic novelty in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours. Sherman's career success was short-lived: after peaking in 1963, his popularity declined rather quickly. Beginning in 1964, Sherman was among many American acts whose sales were affected badly by the British Invasion (which, in fair measure, Sherman skewered in the song "Pop Hates the Beatles", a spoof of "Pop! Goes the Weasel"). In 1971, Sherman was the voice of Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat for the animated television special. He reprised the role for Dr. Seuss on the Loose, his last project before his death. In his final years, Sherman's alcoholism and weight gain caused severe deterioration of his health; he later developed diabetes and struggled with lung disease. He was married from 1945, until he and his wife divorced in 1966, they had 2 children. He died of emphysema at his home in West Hollywood at age 48, and is interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.