Allan Sherman was the Larry David, the Adam Sandler, the Sacha Baron Cohen of the 1960s. He led Jewish humor and sensibilities out of ethnic enclaves and into the American mainstream with explosively funny parodies of classic songs that won him fans from Harpo Marx to President John F. Kennedy. In the 50th anniversary year of Sherman’s greatest hit, “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh,” journalist Mark Cohen‘s Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman celebrates Sherman’s legacy as a touchstone of postwar humor and a turning point in Jewish American cultural history. With exclusive access to Allan Sherman’s estate, Cohen has written the first full-length biography of one of America’s greatest comedians, a coarse voice singing off-key about seltzer, the garment industry, and why being a knight wasn’t really so great (aluminum pants), a hugely creative artist who sold three million albums in just twelve months, yet died in obscurity a decade later at the age of forty-nine. (Brandeis)
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