5 things you didn't know about Fred Allen

Start in the in the mid 1910's Fred Allen spent over four decades entertaining us in Vaudeville, radio, television and movies. For eighteen of those years he had one of the most popular shows on radio. During its run his radio show went through several transformations that introduced routines that are still influencing comedians today. His did news segments that were forerunners to shows like “Laugh-In” and “Saturday Night Live” among others. His “Allen's Alley” segments have influenced several comedians such as Jay Leno and David Letterman.

He was raised by his Aunt

When Fred Allen, real name John Florence Sullivan, was just three-years-old his mother died from pneumonia. His father, James, took John and his infant brother, Robert, to their aunt Lizzie. After years living with aunt Lizzie John's father remarried. Robert moved out of their aunt's house with their father and his new wife but John opted to stay with aunt Lizzie.

He worked in a library

When Fred Allen was14-years-old he started work as a runner at the Boston Public Library. His main duties were retrieving books for customers and restocking shelves. His work there allowed him plenty of time to read and one of the books that he would study was the history of comedy.

He had an ongoing pretend feud with Jack Benny

Whose idea thee feud was isn't known but for most of the time that Fred Allen was on the air he had a feud going with fellow radio show host jack Benny. In reality the two were actually good friends, would do guest appearance on each others shows and appeared in a couple of movies together.

He wrote two memories

In his later years Mr. Allen wrote two memories about his life and career. The first of the two of these books was is 1954 autobiography, “Treadmill to Oblivion” about his radio, movie and television years. His second book, “Much Ado about me”, was about his childhood and start in Vaudeville. Sadly, while he was write the last chapter he suffer a heart-attack and died before it was complete. The book was publish posthumously with it still incomplete.

He was married for 30 years

Fred Allen meet Portland Hoffa in the early 1920's when they were both working on the same radio show. After the shows short run the two of them went on separate paths. 5 years after parting ways fate would have it that take two found each other again and married in 1927. The two remained a couple and worked together quite often until Fred Allen's death in 1956.