Bennett Cerf

Bennett Alfred Cerf was an American publisher, one of the founders of American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show Whats My Line

Bennett was born on May 25, 1898 in Manhattan, New York to a Jewish family of Alsatian and German origin. Cerfs father Gustave Cerf was a lithographer his mother Frederika Wise was heiress to a tobaccodistribution fortune. She died when Bennett was fifteen shortly afterward, her brother Herbert moved into the Cerf household and became a strong literary and social influence on the teenager.

Source: Wikipedia