Here's a clip of Allan Sherman I'd never seen before singing a song from one of his albums. It's supposed to be from an Australian TV show in 1966 and the year seems about right given that Sherman was then going through a stage of not wanting the world to view him as a short, fat guy with glasses. He lost weight, let his hair grow and ditched the glasses plus his wife of many years.
Mr. Sherman had an amazing roller coaster of a life. In 1961, he was an oft-unemployed producer of TV game shows who couldn't pay the rent on his Bel-Air mansion. In 1962 with the release of his record, My Son, the Folk Singer, he was the hottest act in show business. By 1965, his stardom had cooled dramatically. His recording career was over by 1967 when his label dropped him. In 1969, a Broadway show he wrote closed after four performances. In 1973, a book he authored about the sexual revolution failed and later that year, he died at the age of 48. Hard to think of anyone else who went up so quickly and down so suddenly.
When he was on the rise, he was a wonderful, funny performer. Here he is around the time he was just into his runaway descent…
