Maximilian Shulman (March 14, 1919 – August 28, 1988) was an American writer and humorist best known for his television and short story character
Dobie Gillis, as well as for best-selling novels.
Biography
Early life and career
Shulman was born in
St. Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...
, and raised in the city's Selby-Dale neighborhood. His father Abraham, a house painter, and his mother Bessie Karchmar were Jewish immigrants from Belarus.
As a student at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
, where he was classmate of
Thomas Heggen
Thomas Heggen (December 23, 1918 – May 19, 1949) was an American author best known for his 1946 novel '' Mister Roberts'' and its adaptations to stage and screen. Heggen became an Oklahoman in 1935, when in the depths of the Depression h ...
,
Thomas R. St. George and Norman Katkov, Shulman wrote a column for the
Minnesota Daily as well as pieces for ''
Ski-U-Mah'', the
college humor magazine. His writing humorously exaggerated campus culture. Shortly after Shulman graduated in 1942, an agent from Doubleday persuaded Shulman to send him some clips, which resulted in the campus satire ''
Barefoot Boy With Cheek'', a surprise 1943 bestseller.
Later career
Shulman's works include the novels ''Rally Round the Flag, Boys!'', which was
made into a film starring
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three ...
,
Joanne Woodward and
Joan Collins
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primeti ...
; ''The Feather Merchants''; ''The Zebra Derby''; ''Sleep till Noon''; and ''Potatoes are Cheaper''.
In 1954 he co-wrote (with
Robert Paul Smith
Robert Paul Smith (April 16, 1915 – January 30, 1977) was an American author, most famous for his classic evocation of childhood, '' Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing''.
Biography
Robert Paul Smith was born in Brooklyn, grew up i ...
) the
Broadway play
''The Tender Trap'' starring
Robert Preston but it wasn't a success; the work was later adapted into a
movie starring
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...
and
Debbie Reynolds
Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portra ...
. He wrote the libretto for the 1968 musical ''
How Now, Dow Jones'', which was nominated for a
Tony Award for Best Musical.
Shulman's collegiate character Dobie Gillis was the subject of a series of short stories compiled under the title ''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'', which became the basis for the 1953 movie ''
The Affairs of Dobie Gillis
''The Affairs of Dobie Gillis'' is a 1953 American comedy film, comedy musical film directed by Don Weis. The film is based on the short stories by Max Shulman collected as ''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'' (also the title of the The Many Loves ...
'', followed by a
CBS television series, ''
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'' (also known as simply ''Dobie Gillis'' or ''Max Shulman's Dobie Gillis'' in later seasons and in syndication) is an American sitcom starring Dwayne Hickman that aired on CBS from September 29, 1959, to June 5 ...
'' (1959–1963).
Shulman was a script writer for the series
and also wrote the lyrics for the series' theme song (music was composed by
Lionel Newman). The same year the series began, Shulman published another Dobie Gillis story collection, ''I Was a Teenage Dwarf'' (1959). After his initial success with Dobie Gillis in the early 1950s, Shulman syndicated a humor
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...
, "On Campus", to over 350
collegiate newspapers at one point.. He piloted another series for CBS for the 1961 season "Daddy-O", which showed behind-the-scenes of TV sitcom production. It was turned down by CBS.
A later novel, ''Anyone Got a Match?'', satirized both the television and tobacco industries (which was ironic as his "On Campus" column was sponsored by a cigarette company), as well as the
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
and
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...
. His last major project was ''
House Calls'', which began as a 1978 movie based on one of his stories, and starred
Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau (; born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director.
He is best known for his film roles in '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957), '' King Creole'' (1958) and as a coach of a ...
and
Glenda Jackson; it spun off the 1979–1982
television series of the same name, starring
Wayne Rogers and
Lynn Redgrave in the leads. Shulman was the head writer.
Shulman was one of the collaborators on a 1954 non-fiction television program ''Light's Diamond Jubilee'', timed to the 75th anniversary of the
invention
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
of the
light bulb
An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...
.
Family
Shulman married twice: he had four children from his first marriage with Carol S. Rees (21 December 1941 - 17 May 1963, her death) and one child from his second marriage with Mary Gordon Bryant (14 June 1964 - 28 August 1988, his death).
His daughter,
Martha Rose Shulman, is a
cookbook
A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.
Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food.
Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...
author.
Max Shulman died August 28, 1988, of
bone cancer at the age of 69
in Los Angeles, California.
Selected bibliography
*''Barefoot Boy With Cheek'' (1943)
*''The Feather Merchants'' (1944)
*''The Zebra Derby'' (1946)
*''Max Shulman's Large Economy Size'' (1948), includes ''Barefoot Boy with Cheek, The Feather Merchants, The Zebra Derby''
*''Sleep Till Noon'' (1950)
*''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'' (1951)
*''Max Shulman's Guided Tour of Campus Humor'' (1955)
*''Rally Round the Flag Boys!'' (1957)
*''Rally Round the Flag, Boys!'' (1958) — (
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
)
*''I Was a Teenage Dwarf'' (1959)
*''Anyone Got a Match?'' (1964)
*''Potatoes Are Cheaper'' (1971)
References
External links
*
*
Excerptfrom ''Rally Round the Flag, Boys!'', by Max Shulman
a short story.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shulman, Max
20th-century American novelists
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American humorists
1919 births
1988 deaths
University of Minnesota alumni
Place of birth missing
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male short story writers
American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Novelists from Minnesota
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American Jews