FRED ALLEN, aka, JOHN F. SULLIVAN
On October 2, 2011, I wrote the following:
I just
wanted to make a record of it before I forget that one of Dad's favorite
comedians was Fred Allen. Allen was
intelligent and had great timing. His voice was fun to listen to.
His face was terrifically expressive with so much irony
in his voice. I remember
Dad telling me with fondness and sadness, because Allen was no longer around
(1894-1956), that his favorite comedian was Fred Allen. And this after
years of listening and watching Bob Hope, Lucille Ball,
Carol Burnett, Jack Benny, and other greats. I personally enjoyed Steve
Allen, though Steve Allen was more of a variety show host. I enjoyed Don
Rickles, who was a bit crass and obnoxious, but in later years I've come to
appreciate that more.
On October 2, 2011, I wrote the following:
But Fred Allen, 1894-1956, had a terrific show, called ironically The Fred Allen Show.
radio historian John Dunning (in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio) wrote that Allen was radio's most admired comedian and most frequently censored. A master ad libber, Allen often tangled with his network's executives (and often barbed them on the air over the battles) while developing routines whose style and substance influenced fellow comic talents, including Groucho Marx, Stan Freberg, Henry Morgan and Johnny Carson; his avowed fans also included President Franklin D. Roosevelt and novelists William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Herman Wouk (who began his career writing for Allen).I did not know that about Allen that he was the most censored. That is cool. No wonder Dad enjoyed his humor.
The Fred Allen Radio Show ran for 17 years from 1932 to 1949. That is an incredible run. It was sponsored by five different sponsors through those years.
I find that incredible. If you've gotta true hankerin' for some samplings of his show, check out this terrific list.The Fred Allen Show was a popular and long-running American old-time radio comedy program starring comedian Fred Allen[1] and his wife Portland Hoffa. Over the course of the program's 17-year run, it was sponsored by Linit Bath Soaps, Hellmann's, Ipana, Sal Hepatica, Texaco and Tenderleaf Tea. The program ended in 1949 under the sponsorship of the Ford Motor Company.[2]The most popular period of the program was the few years of sponsorship under the Texaco Gas Company. During this time, the program was known as Texaco Star Theatre with Fred Allen. On the December 6, 1942 episode of the program, Allen premiered his first in a series of segments known as "Allen's Alley". The segments would have Allen strolling through an imaginary neighborhood, knocking on the "doors" of various neighbors, including average-American John Doe (played by John Brown), Mrs. Nussbaum (Minerva Pious), pompous poet Falstaff Openshaw (Alan Reed), Titus Moody (Parker Fennelly), and boisterous southern senator Beuregard Claghorn (announcer Kenny Delmar).[3] Texaco ended its sponsorship of the program in 1944.
The influence of his radio show is stunning. Check out these influences:
The hour-long show featured segments that would influence radio and, much later, television; news satires such as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In's "Laugh-In Looks at the News" and Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" were influenced by Town Hall Tonight's "The News Reel", later renamed "Town Hall News" (and in 1939–40, as a sop to his sponsor, "Ipana News"). The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson's "Mighty Carson Art Players" routines referenced Allen's Mighty Allen Art Players, in name and sometimes in routines. Allen and company also satirized popular musical comedies and films of the day, including and especially Oklahoma!. Allen also did semi-satirical interpretations of well-known lives—including his own.So there's that. Allen and Jack Benny had a running feud/comedy routine. Here is one segment of it. Wow, you don't find comedy like this anymore:
Allen: Why you fugitive
from a Ripley cartoon ... I'll knock you flatter than the first eight minutes
of this program.
Benny: You ought to do well in pictures, Mr. Allen, now
that Boris
Karloff is back in England.
Allen: Why, if I was a horse, a pony even, and found
out that any part of my tail was used in your violin bow, I'd hang my head in
my oatbag from then on.
Benny's side
of the feud included a tart interpretation of Allen's Town
Hall Tonight show, which Benny and company called "Clown Hall
Tonight." A signature element of the feud was that, whenever one guested
on the other's shows, the host was liable to hand the guest the best lines of
the night. (Both Benny and Allen revealed later that each man's writers
consulted with each other on routines involving the feud.)
They toned
the gag down after 1941, though they kept it going often enough as the years
continued, climaxing on Allen's May 26, 1946 show, in which a sketch called
"King for a Day," satirizing big-money game shows, featured Benny
pretending to be a contestant named Myron Proudfoot on Allen's new quiz show.
Allen: Tomorrow night, in your ermine
robe, you will be whisked by bicycle to Orange,
New Jersey, where you will be the judge in a chicken-cleaning
contest.
Benny
(rapturously): I'm KING for a Day!
[Allen
proceeds to have Benny's clothes pressed:]
Allen: And that's not all!
Benny: There's more?
Allen: Yes! On our stage, we have a Hoffman pressing
machine.
Benny: Now wait a minute! Wait a minute!
Allen: An expert operating the Hoffman pressing machine
will press your trousers in seconds.
Benny: NOW WAIT A MINUTE!!! (total audience
hysteria laughter, as Benny's pants are literally removed).
Allen: Quiet, King!
Benny: Come on, Allen, give me my pants!
Allen: Keep your shirt on, King.
Benny: You bet I'll keep my shirt on!
Allen: We're a little late, folks! Tune in next week---
Benny: Allen, this is a frame--- (starts laughing
himself) Where are my pants!
Allen: Benny, for 15 years I've been waiting to catch
you like this!
Benny: Allen, you haven't seen the end of me!
Allen: It won't be long now!
Benny: I want my pants!
If you think you'd like to learn more about Fred Allen, then check out these titles. It just struck me how tight radio and television producers work hard at continuity. John Charles Daly was the host of What's My Line, the television show that ran from 1950 to 1967. Jon Stewart's The Daily Show ran from 1999 to 2015. I know, I know. One is the name of the host, while the other is the name of the show. Still, odd coincidence, don't you think? No, not conspiracy, just a very convenient coincidence that certainly reveals something about continuity.
If you think you'd like to learn more about Fred Allen, then check out these titles. It just struck me how tight radio and television producers work hard at continuity. John Charles Daly was the host of What's My Line, the television show that ran from 1950 to 1967. Jon Stewart's The Daily Show ran from 1999 to 2015. I know, I know. One is the name of the host, while the other is the name of the show. Still, odd coincidence, don't you think? No, not conspiracy, just a very convenient coincidence that certainly reveals something about continuity.
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