HUM S90 - Allan Sherman: From the Shtetl to Suburbs Through Song

Course Description

Allan Sherman became one of the best-known parody songwriters who described the joys and heartaches of suburban life. Yet behind his funny exterior was a searching mind trying to make meaning of the world, when children of former shtetl dwellers and others aspired to the American dream, achieving split-level homes and a suburban lifestyle in the 1960s. Trace Sherman’s career and the arc of his work, as a student at the University of Illinois, as the wonder boy of advertising, his meteoric rise in creating recorded comedy as a genre, and how his “rags to riches” story led to an incredible “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” success. Taught by longtime Oakton Emeritus instructor and adjunct professor at The Theatre School at DePaul University, David Y. Chack.