Max Shulman wrote popular novels, plays, and created the TV hit comedy Dobie Gillis

It is the birthday of humorist Max Shulman, who wrote several best-selling novels, Broadway productions, and screenplays but is best remembered for creating the character of the hapless teenager Dobie Gillis. The handsome young Gillis, who aspired to wealth, popularity, and the attention of girls, first appeared in Shulman's short stories in 1951 but also inspired a film, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1951). Shulman wrote about Dobie Gillis in I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf (1959) and wrote the scripts for a CBS sit-com The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963). Dwayne Hickman played Dobie Gillis on television. With Robert Paul Smith, Shulman wrote the script for the Broadway play The Tender Trap (1954). Shulman also wrote the libretto for the Broadway musical How Now, Dow Jones (1968). His books include (Barefoot Boy With Cheek (1943), The Zebra Derby (1946), Sleep Till Noon (1950), Rally Round The Flag, Boys! (1956), and Anyone Got a Match? (1964).