Mel Tolkin was an American television comedy writer best known as head writer of the live sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows during the Golden Age of Television.
10 Facts About Mel Tolkin
1.
2.
Mel Tolkin's family moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1926, where Tolkin became known as Samuel.
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Mel Tolkin studied accounting after graduating from high school, and surreptitiously entered show business by composing songs and sketches for local revues and playing piano in jazz clubs.
4.
Mel Tolkin moved to New York City, New York, in 1946, and married Edith Leibovitch that year.
5.
Mel Tolkin continued writing on an acclaimed successor series, Caesar's Hour, which ran September 27,1954, through 1957.
6.
Mel Tolkin wrote the theme song for Your Show of Shows, "Stars Over Broadway".
7.
Mel Tolkin died of heart failure at age 94, at his home in Century City, California.
8.
Mel Tolkin was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
9.
Mel Tolkin wrote comedy for the standup comics and nightclub entertainers Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, and Danny Thomas, who later became stars.
10.
Rhine and Mel Tolkin shared a 1977 nomination in that category, for the All in the Family episode "Archie's Brief Encounter - Part II".