Fred Allen: His Life and Wit [Paperback]

Robert Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1991

The biography of the radio comic Fred Allen is a vision of comedy in the 20th century and of an individual remembered for his incisive wit and talent. Starting in vaudeville as the "World's Worst Juggler," graduating to the Broadway stage of variety shows and torch singers, Fred Allen became an American icon in the 1930s and 1940s. Drawing from Allen's scripts, journals, letters and books, Robert Taylor has recreated that humour. Robert Taylor is the author of "Saranac" and is art critic and senior book critic for the "Boston Globe".

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For two decades Fred Allen, "the man with the flat voice," was America's most brilliant radio humorist, and for a time his program was the most popular in the country. This appreciative biography, enlivened by hundreds of quotations from Allen's books, journals, letters, scrapbooks and scripts, follows the career of Boston-born John Florence Sullivan (1894-1956) from his early days as a vaudeville juggler to his subsequent appearances as a Broadway comedian, culminating in his 25 years of national prominence. Boston Globe art and book critic Taylor ( Saranac ) discusses Allen's meticulous working methods, his longstanding "feud" with Jack Benny, his happy marriage and working relationship with Portland Hoffa, Allen's wife of 27 years, and the characters he used to interview in Allen's Alley : Ajax Cassidy, Sen. Beauregard Claghorn, Titus Moody, Mrs. Pansy Nussbaum and Falstaff Openshaw. Allen's cleverness and wit, his preeminence as a master of pace and timing, acknowledged and proclaimed by the likes of James Thurber and Groucho Marx, are fully represented in this delightful, distinguished biography. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Unlike Jack Benny, his long-time contemporary, Fred Allen is perhaps almost forgotten today, except for those who grew up listening to the radio for an evening's entertainment. He was, nevertheless, one of the leading radio comedians of the 1930s and 1940s. This book covers Allen's roots in Boston, his days of vaudeville and Broadway revues, and his coast-to-coast success on radio. Television was his downfall, however, and nearly overnight his type of humor, shrewd and sardonic, became passe. This book is very much worth reading, but its excerpts from radio scripts really do little more than suggest what it was that made Allen so funny. Listening to tapes of Allen's actual broadcasts would give a better sense of his remarkable style.
- Steve Lewis, Central Connecticut State Univ., New Britain
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Intl Polygonics Ltd (January 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558820736
• ISBN-13: 978-1558820739
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,744,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful book, December 31, 2003

By 

Jerry McDaniel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fred Allen: His Life and Wit (Hardcover)

Fred Allen, who lived from 1894-1956, is best remembered for his feud with Jack Benny and a skit on his own radio program in the later years, "Allen's Alley", which featured four dwellers of various ethnic backgrounds responding to Allen's news of the day question. This book by Robert Taylor came along in 1989, 40 years after Fred's radio show ended. The book examines Fred's life from childhood on through vaudeville and radio...it also examines why Fred was a 'radio' comedian and not a TV comedian. his relationship with corporate america was strained to put it mildly. his ad-libs about network vice-presidents and censorship had him in constant trouble with network executives. his bitter relationship with NBC's censor is recounted: several of his shows would abruptly end in mid-sentence because the censor found something offensive. at times his satire was so biting that NBC would often demand re-writes. he wrote his own programs with a little help from writers that might sub-mit ideas. His entire radio era, 1932-1949, is examined and each program is given some print. "Town Hall Tonight" was his major program from 1934-1939 on NBC and on CBS it was "Texaco Star Theatre" from 1940-1944. Hypertension forced him off the air in 1944-1945. When he returned to radio in the fall of 1945 he debuted a new skit, "Allen's Alley", which featured announcer Kenny Delmar as 'Senator Claghorne'; later versions contained the other classic dweller's of Parker Fennelly as 'Titus Moody'; Minerva Pious as 'Mrs. Nussbaum'; and Peter Donald as 'Ajax Cassidy'. Alan Reed would later appear as 'Falstaff Openshaw'.Taylor also talks about why Fred's radio show ended in 1949. Much is made of Fred's hatred for TV but ironically from 1954-1956 Fred was a regular panelist on "What's My Line?". Fred's life with Portland Hoffa, his wife, is recounted from the day they met until that fateful day in 1956 when the police found Fred's body along the streets of New York. he had a heart attack while strolling through the street near Carnegie Hall.this book gives you the complete picture of Fred Allen, one of the most brilliant ad-libbers of his era and he in many ways was the David Letterman of the '30s and '40s with sarcastic, dry wit about the establishment. Letterman's frequent jokes about his own network (CBS) is a direct result of Fred Allen doing the same thing on NBC radio...only thing different is that Fred was the first to do it and suffered the most for it as does any trail-blazer.

3.0 out of 5 stars bo, September 23, 2010

By 

James Adams "bo" (memphis, tn) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fred Allen: His Life and Wit (Hardcover)

nice biography but i was led to believe this would spend more time on his
actual radio ( and tv) programs and the characters that he developed and
used on the shows.

there was actually very little on that.

was looking for more of a "behind the scenes" book

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A sleepy biography of Fred Allen, February 10, 2010

By 

Laurence B. Budd (Fort collins, colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fred Allen: His Life and Wit (Hardcover)

I'm a big Fred Allen fan, I played his shows on my radio show. This biography goes into great detail on his early life, his years of struggles in vaudeville, honing his writing skills. I could not finish it, there is way too much mundane detail. The writing style is very dry, no zip or zazz. The biography of Queen Victoria was racy in comparison. IT would be much better to buy a CD or MP3 of his shows.