Description
The Sheldon Keller Collection, 1939, 1960-2004 consists of scripts from television, variety specials, and films, as well as
correspondence and other materials related to Sheldon Keller's writing career. Several scripts feature sketches, jokes and
speeches that Keller wrote for entertainers such as Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Sophia Loren. Various items are collaborations
with other writers, including Larry Gelbart and Howard Albrecht.
Background
Sheldon Bernard Keller, who was always called Shelly, was born in Chicago on Aug. 20, 1923. His parents, immigrants from Poland,
had built a successful business in Chicago making and selling corsets.
Attending the University of Illinois, Keller teamed up with a fraternity brother, Allan Sherman, to put on comic shows. Sherman,
who went on to create the game show “I’ve Got a Secret,” also become known for his albums of Yiddish-inflected song parodies.
World War II interrupted Keller’s studies. Stationed in the Pacific with the Army Signal Corps, he helped entertain the troops
with an Army buddy, Carl Reiner.
At the war’s end, Keller married his wife, Bernice Berkowitz, known as “Bitsy” (whom he later divorced), and had two children,
Casey and Jamie. Keller went dutifully into the family business after the war, but soon realized that a life in corsets was
not for him. Borrowing $500 from his in-laws, he moved to New York to try his hand at television.
He found success in 1955 when he joined the renowned writing staff that worked on Sid Caesar's television show, a spinoff
of the popular program, Your Show of Shows. On Caesar's Hour, the hour long show that ran on NBC from 1954 to 1957, Keller
was among a group of writers whose ranks at various times included Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Aaron Ruben, Michael Stewart,
Gary Belkin, Mel Tolkin, Selma Diamond and Danny and Neil Simon. Keller shared three Emmy nominations for best comedy writing
during his time on Caesar’s Hour.
In the 1960s, Keller was head writer on The Danny Kaye Show. He also was a writer on the 1965 TV special, Frank Sinatra: A
Man and His Music and specials starring Sophia Loren and Carol Channing. For the 1966 special, An Evening With Carol Channing,
Keller shared an Emmy for outstanding writing achievement in variety.
In addition to writing episodes of TV series such as Make Room for Daddy, The Dick Van Dyke Show and M.A.S.H., Keller co-wrote
the 1968 comedy film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell and was a writer on the 1973 action movie Cleopatra Jones. Teamed with Gelbart,
he co-wrote Movie, Movie, a 1978 satire of the old Hollywood double bills, which earned them the Writers Guild of America
award for best comedy written directly for the screen.
As a producer, his credits included The Jonathan Winters Show in the late '60s, three years of Bob Hope TV specials and House
Calls, the 1979-82 CBS sitcom.
In the late 1980s and afterward Keller, with Howard Albrecht and other writers, published newsletters of jokes, among them
“Funny Stuff From the Gags Gang.” Geared toward radio D.J.s, the newsletters were also read by toastmasters, politicians and
anyone else who might need a joke at a moment’s notice.
Keller was also a musician. In 1976, Keller, who played guitar and bass, joined banjo-playing actor George Segal and trombone-playing
actor Conrad Janis in performing on Dinah Shore's TV talk show to promote the Segal and Goldie Hawn movie, The Duchess and
the Dirtwater Fox, in which Janis also had a major role. Keller, Segal, and Janis began meeting in Keller's Nichols Canyon
home for Tuesday evening jam sessions, forming a group that Keller dubbed “Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band.” Amateur and
professional musicians would show up, including actors Jack Lemmon on piano and Hal Linden on clarinet. An appearance on The
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson led to the band's performing at Carnegie Hall as the opening act for Steve Lawrence and
Eydie Gorme. Over the years, the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band performed its Dixieland and swing music at hundreds of jazz
festivals, as well as on talk shows, two PBS specials and in the 1986 movie, Nothing in Common.
On September 1, 2008, Keller died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Valencia, northwest of Los Angeles.
He is survived by his son Casey Keller, also a screenwriter, and a daughter, Jamie Keller.