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The Fred Allen Show
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The Fred Allen Show
The Fred Allen Show was a long-running American radio comedy program starring comedian Fred Allen 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.
The most popular period of the program was the few years of sponsorship under The Texas 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 Beauregard Claghorn (announcer Kenny Delmar). Texaco ended its sponsorship of the program in 1944.
Some prominent guest stars on Allen's program over the years included Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles, Roy Rogers, Bela Lugosi, Ed Gardner, Norman Corwin and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy.
The first version of The Fred Allen Show premiered under the title of The Linit Bath Club Revue on the Columbia Broadcasting System Sunday night October 23, 1932. The show featured Allen, Portland Hoffa, Minerva Pious and Jack Smart. Ken Roberts was the announcer while the music was furnished by Louis Katzman's orchestra and CBS house organist Ann Leaf, the latter of which was not actually present but actually broadcast from a small radio studio at the Paramount Theatre in Times Square, about a mile away.
According to his official website, Fred Allen had trouble from the beginning of it all with the program's sponsor, Linit bath soaps and with the advertising agency that supervised production, apparently over the organ interludes that Allen would look on quite negatively in his memoirs. After only a single season and 26 weeks on the air, on April 16, 1933, Linit pulled the plug on the Revue.
After the failure and conflict brought on by Linit, in 1933 Allen made the move to NBC with The Salad Bowl Revue. The program premiered on NBC's Red Network on August 4 of that year. The program moved to a new night, Fridays. To avoid any unneeded conflict as he had with Linit, Allen took over all writing responsibilities of the show. Sponsorship changed over to Hellmann's Mayonnaise. Not popular enough with listeners, and suffering increased tension between Allen and Hellmann's, The Salad Bowl Revue concluded on December 1, 1933.
The same advertising agency that represented Hellmann's Mayonnaise also served as the representative for Bristol-Myers' Sal Hepatica laxative. So on January 3, 1934, The Sal Hepatica Revue was born. Edmund "Tiny" Ruffner from The Salad Bowl Revue rejoined Allen as announcer, as well as the Ferde Grofé Orchestra and actors Minerva Pious, Jack Smart and Allen's wife Portland Hoffa all rejoining Allen on Sal Hepatica.
The biggest change besides the title and the commercials was the move from Friday to Wednesday nights. In writing the show, Allen did begin to experiment with a community show theme. He began to gain a reputation for topical humor with news from the fictional town of Bedlamville. He peppered his "Town Hall bulletins" with fictional local characters such as Hodge White the Grocer and Pop Mullen the Lunch Wagon Man, who were all described, but never given voice.
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The Fred Allen Show
The Fred Allen Show was a long-running American radio comedy program starring comedian Fred Allen 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.
The most popular period of the program was the few years of sponsorship under The Texas 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 Beauregard Claghorn (announcer Kenny Delmar). Texaco ended its sponsorship of the program in 1944.
Some prominent guest stars on Allen's program over the years included Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles, Roy Rogers, Bela Lugosi, Ed Gardner, Norman Corwin and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy.
The first version of The Fred Allen Show premiered under the title of The Linit Bath Club Revue on the Columbia Broadcasting System Sunday night October 23, 1932. The show featured Allen, Portland Hoffa, Minerva Pious and Jack Smart. Ken Roberts was the announcer while the music was furnished by Louis Katzman's orchestra and CBS house organist Ann Leaf, the latter of which was not actually present but actually broadcast from a small radio studio at the Paramount Theatre in Times Square, about a mile away.
According to his official website, Fred Allen had trouble from the beginning of it all with the program's sponsor, Linit bath soaps and with the advertising agency that supervised production, apparently over the organ interludes that Allen would look on quite negatively in his memoirs. After only a single season and 26 weeks on the air, on April 16, 1933, Linit pulled the plug on the Revue.
After the failure and conflict brought on by Linit, in 1933 Allen made the move to NBC with The Salad Bowl Revue. The program premiered on NBC's Red Network on August 4 of that year. The program moved to a new night, Fridays. To avoid any unneeded conflict as he had with Linit, Allen took over all writing responsibilities of the show. Sponsorship changed over to Hellmann's Mayonnaise. Not popular enough with listeners, and suffering increased tension between Allen and Hellmann's, The Salad Bowl Revue concluded on December 1, 1933.
The same advertising agency that represented Hellmann's Mayonnaise also served as the representative for Bristol-Myers' Sal Hepatica laxative. So on January 3, 1934, The Sal Hepatica Revue was born. Edmund "Tiny" Ruffner from The Salad Bowl Revue rejoined Allen as announcer, as well as the Ferde Grofé Orchestra and actors Minerva Pious, Jack Smart and Allen's wife Portland Hoffa all rejoining Allen on Sal Hepatica.
The biggest change besides the title and the commercials was the move from Friday to Wednesday nights. In writing the show, Allen did begin to experiment with a community show theme. He began to gain a reputation for topical humor with news from the fictional town of Bedlamville. He peppered his "Town Hall bulletins" with fictional local characters such as Hodge White the Grocer and Pop Mullen the Lunch Wagon Man, who were all described, but never given voice.