Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life) - Hardcover

Cohen, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1611682568 ISBN 13: 9781611682564

Publisher: Brandeis University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Allan Sherman was the Larry David, the Adam Sandler, the Sacha Baron Cohen of 1963. He led Jewish humor and sensibilities out of ethnic enclaves and into the American mainstream with explosively funny parodies of classic songs that won Sherman extraordinary success and acclaim across the board, from Harpo Marx to President Kennedy. In Overweight Sensation, Mark Cohen argues persuasively for 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 biography of the manic, bacchanalian, and 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. Comprehensive, dramatic, stylish, and tragic, Overweight Sensation is destined to become the definitive Sherman biography.

About this title

Review:

"An interesting and engaging biography of a complicated man."--Women's Wear Daily

"Sherman has been rediscovered as often as he has been forgotten, but Cohen's book is exhaustively definitive, offering enough detail to satisfy even the most annoyingly punctilious comedy nerd." --Tablet

.".. lively and meticulously researched... "--Chicago Tribune

.".. lively and meticulously researched... " Chicago Tribune

.".. told with intimate details, an affectionate touch of humanity and lots of [Sherman's] parody lyrics in the well-researched book Overweight Sensation."-- The Hollywood Reporter

"Mark Cohen's masterful, critical biography, 'Overweight Sensation.'"--The Jewish Advocate

..". lively and meticulously researched... "--Chicago Tribune

..". told with intimate details, an affectionate touch of humanity and lots of [Sherman's] parody lyrics in the well-researched book Overweight Sensation."--The Hollywood Reporter

The Jewish Advocate"

Chicago Tribune"

About the Author:

MARK COHEN is a writer, editor, and journalist specializing in American Jewish culture. His previous books include Missing a Beat: The Rants and Regrets of Seymour Krim, and Last Century of a Sephardic Community. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1611682568
• ISBN 13: 9781611682564
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320