Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s

Gerald Weil Nachman was born in Oakland, California on January 13, 1938. He received an associate of arts degree from Merritt College and a bachelor of arts degree from San Jose State University. While still a student, he worked as a TV reviewer and humor columnist for the San Jose Mercury. He was a feature writer for the New York Post from 1964 to 1966, a columnist and film critic for the Oakland Tribune from 1967 to 1971, a feature writer and TV critic for the New York Daily News from 1972 to 1979, and a columnist and theater critic for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. He wrote several books including Playing House: From Marital Ecstasy to Despair and Back Again; Raised on Radio; Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s; Right Here on Our Stage Tonight!: Ed Sullivan's America; The Fragile Bachelor: Perilous Adventures in the Single Life; Out on a Whim: Some Very Close Brushes with Life; and Showstoppers! The Surprising Backstage Stories of Broadway's Most Remarkable Songs. The two anthologies of his humor pieces were entitled The Fragile Bachelor: Perilous Adventures in the Single Life and Out on a Whim: Some Very Close Brushes with Life. He died on April 14, 2018 at the age of 80.