Editing Max Shulman

{{short description|American writer and humorist (1919–1988)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2008}}
{{Infobox writer
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| name             = Max Shulman
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| birth_name       = Maximilian Shulman
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1919|03|14}}
| birth_place      = [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1988|08|28|1919|03|14}}
| death_place      = [[Los Angeles]], California
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| occupation       = Writer and humorist
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| alma_mater       = [[University of Minnesota]]
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| notable_works    = [[Dobie Gillis]] character, in ''[[The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis]]'' and other works
| spouse           = Carol S. Rees (1941–1963, her death)<br>Mary Gordon Bryant (1964–1988, his death)
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| children         = 5, including [[Martha Rose Shulman]]
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'''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 [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul, Minnesota]], 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mnopedia.org/person/shulman-max-1919-1988| title=Max Shulman| author=Paul Nelson | website= www.mnopedia.org | access-date=June 20, 2020}}</ref>

As a student at the [[University of Minnesota]], where he was classmate of [[Thomas Heggen]], [[Thomas R. St. George]] and Norman Katkov,<ref>{{Cite journal|url= https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/52577 |title= Remember Minnesota's Writing Boom?| author=Jay Walljasper  |volume= 80-81| issue=7–8| pages= 18–22| journal= University of Minnesota Alumni Association Magazine |format= pdf| date= May–June 1981|hdl= 11299/52577| access-date= June 16, 2020}}</ref> Shulman wrote a column for the [[Minnesota Daily]] as well as pieces for ''[[Ski-U-Mah (magazine)|Ski-U-Mah]]'', the [[college humor magazine]]. His writing humorously exaggerated campus culture.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://umnalumni.org/UMAA-stories/History-Max-Shulman|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170514005925/http://umnalumni.org/UMAA-stories/History-Max-Shulman|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 14, 2017|title=Max Shulman. Dig It?|website=umnalumni.org|access-date=February 12, 2018}}</ref> 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. In 1947 Shulman adapted ''Barefoot Boy'' into a [[Barefoot Boy with Cheek|musical of the same name]].

===Later career===
Shulman's works include the novels ''Rally Round the Flag, Boys!'', which was [[Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!|made into a film]] starring [[Paul Newman]], [[Joanne Woodward]] and [[Joan Collins]]; ''The Feather Merchants''; ''The Zebra Derby''; ''Sleep till Noon''; and ''Potatoes Are Cheaper''.

In 1954 he co-wrote (with [[Robert Paul Smith]]) the [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] play [[The Tender Trap (play)|''The Tender Trap'']] starring [[Robert Preston (actor)|Robert Preston]] but it wasn't a success;<ref>{{Cite book|title=American theatre: a chronicle of comedy and drama, 1930-1969 |author=Gerald Bordman|year=1996|page=324 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19509079-9 }}</ref> the work was later adapted into a [[The Tender Trap (film)|movie]] starring [[Frank Sinatra]] and [[Debbie Reynolds]]. 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]]'', followed by a [[CBS]] television series, ''[[The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis]]'' (1959–1963).<ref name="EB1989YB">{{Citation|title=1989 Britannica Book of the Year|year=1989|page=[https://archive.org/details/1989britannicabo00daum/page/109 109]|contribution=People of 1988: Obituaries|place=Chicago|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|isbn=0-85229-504-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/1989britannicabo00daum/page/109}}</ref>  Shulman was a script writer for the series<ref name="EB1989YB" /> 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 [[columnist|column]], "On Campus", to over 350 [[student newspaper|collegiate newspaper]]s at one point.{{Citation needed|date=January 2008}}.  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.<ref>{{cite web|first=Martin|last=Schneider |url=http://dangerousminds.net/comments/daddy_o_the_incredible_failed_tv_pilot |title='Daddy-O,' The Incredible Failed TV Pilot That Broke the Fourth Wall 25 Years Before Garry Shandling |date=March 4, 2015|website=dangerousminds.net}}</ref> Mr. Shulman wrote a TV movie for CBS, ''Help Wanted: MALE'', that got a 47 share of the audience and was the second highest rated movie-of-the-week of the year.

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 [[Southern United States|South]] and [[college football]].  His last major project was ''[[House Calls (1978 film)|House Calls]]'', which began as a 1978 movie based on one of his stories, and starred [[Walter Matthau]] and [[Glenda Jackson]]; it spun off the 1979–1982 [[House Calls (TV series)|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]] of the [[Incandescent light bulb|light bulb]].

===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).{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

His daughter, [[Martha Rose Shulman]], is a [[cookbook]] author.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=2019-01-06 |title=Martha Shulman, Robert Israel |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/fashion/weddings/martha-shulman-robert-israel.html |access-date=2023-06-05 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Max Shulman died August 28, 1988, of [[bone cancer]] at the age of 69<ref>{{cite web | last = Barron | first = James | authorlink = James Barron (journalist) | title = Obituaries |work=Max Shulman, Humorist, Is Dead; Chronicler of Postwar Life Was 69  | date = August 29, 1988 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/29/obituaries/max-shulman-humorist-is-dead-chronicler-of-postwar-life-was-69.html | accessdate = April 23, 2012}}</ref> in Los Angeles, California.<ref name="EB1989YB" />

==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) &mdash; ([[Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!|film]])
*''I Was a Teenage Dwarf'' (1959)
*''Anyone Got a Match?'' (1964) 
*''Potatoes Are Cheaper'' (1971)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IBDB name}}
*{{IMDb name|795738|Max Shulman}}
*[http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/009904.html Excerpt] from ''Rally Round the Flag, Boys!'', by Max Shulman
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110413074117/http://www1.asknlearn.com/ri_Ilearning/English/631/elang-ilearning/page3a.htm "Love Is a Fallacy"], a short story.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shulman, Max}}
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:American humorists]]
[[Category:1919 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:University of Minnesota alumni]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:American male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Jewish American short story writers]]
[[Category:Jewish American novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish humorists]]
[[Category:Jewish American columnists]]
[[Category:American humorous columnists]]
[[Category:Novelists from Minnesota]]
[[Category:American satirists]]
[[Category:American satirical novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota]]
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]