Born On This Day: Satirist Fred Allen

Now, amazingly, the middle of the year is upon us and Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog realizes that May 31 and June 1 brought the world two blazing comedy greats, Fred Allen, born on this day in 1894, and the funniest blonde not named Marion Davies to ever hit the silver screen, Marilyn Monroe, born on June 1, 1926.



For a double dose of the former, we visited the Old Time Radio Catalog, as well as Old Time Radio Downloads, Old Time Radio Researchers and The Classic Old Time Radio Archives channels on YouTube. Also made sure to get our fill of the ever-dyspeptic Henry Morgan, the incomparable (and aforementioned) Ernie Kovacs, all-time favorites Bob & Ray and Stan Freberg!



The mindbogglingly witty Fred Allen, performer/satirist/writer supreme, personified comedy genius on radio.









Only always, this dyed-in-the-wool comedy aficionado marvels at how Fred and his pal Jack Benny consistently do with radio what Kovacs subsequently did with television.









These guys and their pals George Burns & Gracie Allen mastered the art of radio comedy as expertly as Jack's hero, Isaac Stern, rocked the Stradivarius. They even appeared in a couple of movies together (Love Thy Neighbor, It's In The Bag), thanks to their popularity on radio.



The only way Jack's radio show can be equalled is with the absurdist feature film, It's In The Bag (1945), starring Fred Allen, Jack Benny and a slew of hilarious character actors in a storyline that anticipates the Mel Brooks film The 12 Chairs made 25 years later.



After his Allen's Alley radio show went off the air in 1949, Fred made numerous appearances on television, most frequently on WHAT'S MY LINE, during the early days of the medium. While he was imaginative and funny on TV, radio comedy was Allen's strong suit.



Nonetheless, Fred Allen and Groucho Marx together on What's My Line is a comedy grand slam.



Had Fred, who passed at 61 on March 17, 1956, lived another decade, it is likely he would have left his distinctive satiric mark on television, possibly in the American version of That Was The Week That Was.

For acknowledgements, we tip our Max Linder top hat to radio, television and animation expert Don M. Yowp's Tralfaz website, which has featured numerous posts on Jack Benny and Fred Allen, as well as a superb 2007 article by Dennis Drabelle, The Short Reign Of Fred Allen from The American Scholar.