Customer Reviews

Fred Allen: His Life and Wit

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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.

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

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.