Fred Allen's Town Hall Tonight was the longest-running
hour-long comedy-based show in classic radio history. In 1940, Allen
moved back to CBS with a new sponsor and show name, Texaco Star
Theater. By 1942, he shortened the show to half an hour — under
network and sponsor edict, not his own. He also chafed under being
forced to give up a Town Hall Tonight signature, using barely-known
and amateur guests effectively, in favor of booking more recognizable
guests, though he liked many of those.
He took over a year off due to hypertension and returned in 1944
with The Fred Allen Show on NBC. Blue Bonnet Margarine, Tenderleaf
Tea and Ford Motor Company were the sponsors for the rest of the
show's life. Texaco revived Texaco Star Theater in 1948 on radio,
and more successfully on television, making an American icon out
of star Milton Berle).
Allen again made a few changes. One was adding the singing DeMarco
Sisters, to whom he'd been tipped by arranger-composer Gordon Jenkins.
"We did four years with Mr. Allen and got one thousand dollars a
week," Gloria DeMarco remembered. "Sunday night was the best night
on radio." Sunday night with Fred Allen seemed incomplete on any
night listeners didn't hear the DeMarco Sisters — whose breezy,
harmonious style became as familiar as their cheerfully sung "Mr.
Al-len, Mr. Alll-llennnn" in the show's opening theme. During the
theme's brief pause, Allen would say something like, "It isn't the
mayor of Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga, kiddies." That device became
a signature for three of the four years.
The other change, born in the Texaco days and evolved from his
earlier news spoofs, proved his most enduring, premiering December
13, 1942. "Allen's Alley" followed a brief Allen monologue and comic
segment with Portland Hoffa ("Misssss-ter Allll-llennnn!"), usually
involving gags about her family which she instigated. Then, a brief
music interlude would symbolize the two making their way to the
fictitious alley, always launched by a quick exchange that began
with Hoffa asking Allen what he would ask the Alley denizens that
week. After she implored him "Shall we go?", Allen would reply with
cracks like "As the two drumsticks said when they spotted the tympani,
'let's beat it!'"; or, "As one strapless gown said to the other
strapless gown, 'What's holding us up?'"
A small host of stereotypical characters greeted Allen and Hoffa
down the Alley, discussing Allen's question of the week, usually
drawing on news items or popular happenings around town, whether
gas rationing, traffic congestion, the Pulitzer Prizes, postwar
holiday travel, or the annual Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey
Circus visit.
The Alley went through a few changes in the first installments.
Early denizens included sarcastic John Doe (John Brown), self-possessed
Senator Bloat (Jack Smart), dimwit Socrates Mulligan (Charlie Cantor),
and pompous poet Falstaff Openshaw (Alan Reed). But soon the Alley's
four best-remembered regulars moved in and rarely disappeared: announcer
Kenny Delmar as bellowing ("Some— Ah say, somebody's knockin' at
mah doah!") Senator Beauregard Claghorn (the model for cartoon character
Foghorn Leghorn), Parker Fennelly as stoic New England farmer, Titus
Moody, Minerva Pious as the Jewish housewife, Pansy Nussbaum, and
Peter Donald as fast-talking Irishman, Ajax Cassidy.
This collection of Fred Allen Greats includes 79 different
shows and appearances for a total of 34 hours of listening enjoyment.
This product is a DVD collection of Old Time Radio mp3s. It is
designed to be played on your computer DVD drive with standard mp3
software - like Windows media player or its equivalent on Macintosh
computers. The mp3 files on the DVDs can be copied onto CDs for
play in your car stereo, home entertainment center, etc so you can
take your favorite shows with you anywhere you go.
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