 For over seventeen years faithful listeners tuned their radios to The Fred Allen Show as he dominated the radio airwaves of the 1930s. He had a weekly radio audience of about 20 million and when he visited The Jack Benny Show to continue their long running comedy feud, together they garnered the largest audience in the history of radio! Fred Allen began his career the same year as Jack Benny, 1932. Allen hit it big with the program Town Hall Tonight in 1934, the same year Jack Benny rose in the ranks of radio with The Jell-O Program. Their friendly feud started in the mid-1930s and, in a testament of the times, people believed in this feud so much that a boxing match between the two was staged, and it was sold out. Benny and Allen made guest appearances in each other shows and movies, needling each other with lines like, "Benny was born ignorant, and he's been losing ground ever since." They appeared as themselves in the 1940 film Love Thy Neighbor, and Benny can be seen in Allen's neglected comedy film It's In The Bag (1945), along with William Bendix (Life of Riley), Robert Benchley, and Jerry Colonna, among others. Fred's female second banana was his wife, Portland Hoffa, whose role was to simply stroll on-air exclaiming: "Mister Allen! Mis...ter Allen!" and then launch into a routine with Fred, usually about her mother. Hoffa remained with Allen throughout his entire radio show. Unlike Jack Benny, who used wife Mary Livingstone as more or less his ego deflator, Fred used Portland's child-like unprofessional delivery to comedically prop his ego. After Town Hall Tonight, Allen moved to a self-named show, a rarity in those days of sponsor-billed shows. In 1940 he went to CBS and hosted Texaco Star Theatre. His famous Allen's Alley routine began in December 1944. Hypertension caused him to leave radio in early 1944, although he returned to NBC in late 1945 with the Allen's Alley routines that many remember. The Allen's Alley format went through many format changes, but generally consisted of Allen interviewing four people from different walks of life, all living in the same fictional alley. The roster went through many changes in the first couple of years, and early denizens included John Brown as the sarcastic John Doe, Jack Smart as Senator Bloat, Charlie Cantor as the dim-witted Socrates Mulligan, and perhaps best known of this group, Alan Reed as pompous poet Falstaff Openshaw. The most famous foursome, however, consisted of the following: Kenny Delmar as Southern politician Senator Claghorn, Parker Fennelly as the New England farmer Titus Moody, Minerva Pious as Jewish housewife Mrs. Nussbaum, and Peter Donald as the fast-talking Irishman Ajax Cassidy. Don't miss the comedic antics of Fred Allen. A great addition to any collection. * * SAVE EVEN MORE!! * * This show now comes bundled as part of our Complete Comedy Collection which includes scores of similarly themed Old Time Radio Shows for one low price!
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