and care to those in the motion picture and television industries with limited or no resources, and contributed their time and resources to benefit the facilities and the residents. In the 1980s, the Chamber of Commerce in Canoga Park, California selected Berman to be one of the celebrities to serve a term as honorary mayor of Canoga Park. Allegation of plagiarism In a 2012 podcast interview with Marc Maron, Berman alleged that comedian Bob Newhart plagiarized his improvisational telephone routine style, describing its genesis and saying it was a "very special technique that couldn't really be imitated. It could be stolen. And it was." "I was coming to work at night and a guy stopped his car, passed me by, and said 'Hey, Shelley! There's a guy [who] stole your act!'" When asked by Maron if it was done maliciously, Berman replied, "Maliciously? He wouldn't do it maliciously. Nobody does that. But he did it to make a living. And he became a star." When asked in interviews about the telephone issue, Newhart said: Shelley Berman did it before I did it. Mike (Nichols) and Elaine (May) did a version of it. There was a thing called 'Cohen on the Telephone,' which was a very, very early recording by Edison [Records] of a guy on the phone....George Jessel had a radio show...At the end, he would call up his mother and tell her how the show had gone. As a kid growing up, I remember listening to him and he would call his mother up and say, 'Mama, this is Georgie'" – he paused, skillfully – "'from the money.'" Death Berman died from Alzheimer's disease-related complications at his home in Bell Canyon, California, in the early morning of September 1, 2017. He was 92 years old. His archive was donated to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. Comedian Steve Martin praised Berman on Twitter, thanking him for "changing modern stand-up [comedy]". Marc Maron also tweeted "Shelley Berman has hung up the phone. RIP. The guy who inspired me to sit. Great comic." Works Film Television Theatre DiscographyInside Shelley Berman (1959) Outside Shelley Berman (1959)The Edge of Shelley Berman (1960)A Personal Appearance (1961)New Sides (1963)The Sex Life of The Primate (And Other Bits of Gossip) (1964)Let Me Tell You a Funny Story (1965)Live Again! Recorded at the Improv (1995)To Laughter with Questions (2013)When Jews Were Funny (2013) BibliographyCleans and