Gladys Shelley
| Gladys Shelley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Gladys Shaskan December 15, 1911 Lawrence, New York |
| Died | December 9, 2003 (aged 91) Manhattan, New York City |
| Education | Columbia University |
| Occupation | Songwriter, Singer |
| Known for | How Did He Look? |
| Spouse(s) | Irving Rosenthal |
Gladys Shelley (née Shaskan, December 15, 1911 - December 9, 2003) was an American lyricist and composer.
Gladys Shaskan was born in Lawrence, New York to George Fried and Fannie Shaskan. She began writing at an early age. Her first efforts were primarily poetry and before graduating from high school she had had several items of her light verse published by Walter Winchell and other newspaper columnists.
After high school, she moved to Manhattan, enrolling at Columbia University and working for a time as an actress and dancer. She began writing song lyrics in the late 1930s.
In 1940, Gladys Shelley and Abner Silver penned How Did He Look? which became her first hit and most frequently recorded song, originally done in 1941 by Joan Merrill. Her second song with Silver, There Shall Be No Night, had its title taken from a then-current anti-Nazi play, and was recorded by the orchestras of Duke Ellington, Bob Chester, and Dick Jurgens. Over the course of her career, she penned more than 300 songs with a variety of composers, including Morton Gould, Frank Black, and Fred Astaire. The Shelly-Astaire collaboration, Just Like Taking Candy From A Baby, was recorded by Fred Astaire. A 1946 musical entitled The Duchess Misbehaves, for which she wrote the book and lyrics, opened at the Adelphi Theater in Manhattan, but managed only three performances before closing.
The song "Oliver Twist", she co-wrote along with Rod McKuen, appeared on the same-named single issued on the Spiral label. It was sung by McKuend and in 1961 reached No. 76 on the Billboard pop chart.
Gladys Shelley married Irving Rosenthal, the owner of New Jersey's Palisades Amusement Park, and in 1965 she wrote the music and lyrics to a radio and television jingle called Come on Over which proved to be a catchy and effective promotions device. The jingle was used until the park closed in 1971, rhyming "Palisades Amusement Park" with "swings all day and after dark." Shelley also wrote the theme song for the Little Miss America pageant, which debuted at Palisades Park in 1961 as a children's version of Miss America for girls aged 5 to 10.
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