Gracie Allen

Allen was born in San Francisco, California, to George Allen and Margaret Theresa ("Molly") Allen (née Darragh; later Mrs. Edward Pidgeon), who were both of Irish Catholic descent. She made her first appearance on stage at age three, and was given her first role on the radio by Eddie Cantor.[7]^: 94–95 She graduated from Star of the Sea Convent School in 1914, and during that time became a talented dancer.[2]

She soon began performing Irish folk dances with her three sisters, who were billed as "The Four Colleens".[7]^: 28 In 1909, Allen joined her sister, Bessie, as a vaudeville performer. At a performance in 1922, Allen met George Burns, and the two formed a comedy act. They were married on January 7, 1926, onstage at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland by a justice of the peace.[8][9]

Allen was born with heterochromia, giving her two different color eyes; one blue and one green.[10]

Burns and Allen on the vaudeville circuit in 1924

The Burns and Allen act began with Allen as the straight man, setting up Burns to deliver the punchlines and receive the laughs. In his book Gracie: A Love Story, Burns explained that he had noticed that Allen's straight lines were bringing more laughs than did his punchlines, so he cannily flipped the act, making himself the straight man so that Allen would elicit the laughter. Audiences immediately fell in love with Allen's character, which combined the traits of naivete, zaniness and innocence. The reformulated team, focusing on Allen, toured the country, eventually headlining in major vaudeville houses. Many of their famous routines were preserved in one- and two-reel short films, including Lambchops (1929), made while the couple was still performing on the stage.

Burns attributed all of the couple's early success to Allen, ignoring his own brilliance as a straight man. He summarized their act by saying: "All I had to do was say, 'Gracie, how's your brother?' and she talked for 38 years. And sometimes I didn't even have to remember to say 'Gracie, how's your brother?'"

In the early 1930s, like many stars of the era, Burns and Allen graduated to radio. The show was originally a continuation of the flirtation act from their vaudeville and short-film routines. In 1935, famed composer and arranger Ferde Grofe joined them as musical director. Burns realized that they were too old for that type of material[7]^: 165 and changed the show's format in the fall of 1941 into the situation comedy for which they are best remembered: a working showbusiness married couple negotiating ordinary problems caused by Gracie's "illogical logic", usually with the help of neighbors Harry and Blanche Morton and their announcer Bill Goodwin (later replaced by Harry von Zell during the run of their television series).

Burns and Allen in 1952

Burns and Allen frequently used running gags as publicity stunts. During 1932–33, they pulled off one of the most successful in the business: a year-long search for Allen's supposedly missing brother.[7]^{: 100–105} They would make unannounced cameo appearances on other shows, asking if anyone had seen Allen's brother. However, her brother did not find it comical and eventually asked them to stop; he was so irked by the gag's popularity that he disappeared from society at the height of its popularity.

In 1940, Allen announced that she was running for president of the United States on the Surprise Party ticket.[7]^{: 184–193}[14] Burns and Allen embarked on a cross-country whistle-stop campaign tour on a private train, performing their live radio show in various cities. In one of her campaign speeches, Gracie said, "I don't know much about the Lend-Lease Bill, but if we owe it we should pay it." Another typical quip on the campaign trail was: "Everybody knows a woman is better than a man when it comes to introducing bills into the house." The Surprise Party mascot was the kangaroo, and its motto was "It's in the bag." As part of the gag, Dwell, Sloan and Pearce published a book, How to Become President by Gracie Allen (in reality, written by Burns and Allen writer Charles Lofgren) that included photographs from their nationwide campaign tour and the Surprise Party convention. Allen received an endorsement from Harvard University.[15]

Allen was also the subject of one of S. S. Van Dine's Philo Vance mystery novels, The Gracie Allen Murder Case. Allen said: "S.S. Van Dine is silly to spend six months writing a novel when you can buy one for $2.95."

In another publicity stunt, Allen played a piano concerto at the Hollywood Bowl (and later at Carnegie Hall).[7]^: 182 The Burns and Allen staff hired a composer to write the "Concerto for Index Finger", a joke piece in which the orchestra would play madly, only to pause while Allen played a one-finger scale with a final incorrect note. The orchestra would then play a musical piece that developed around the wrong note. On her final solo, Allen would finally hit the right note, causing the entire orchestra to applaud. The actual index-finger playing was performed offstage by a professional pianist. The concerto was featured in the film Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) with an orchestra conducted by Albert Coates.[16]

Lobby card with W.C. Fields, Mary Boland and Allen in 1934

In the early 1930s, Burns and Allen appeared in several short films in which they performed some of their classic vaudeville routines. They also appeared in two full-length movies with W. C. Fields: International House (1933) and Six of a Kind (1934).[17] Burns and Allen also appeared in three out of the four Big Broadcast ensemble comedies including The Big Broadcast (1932) with Bing Crosby, The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935) with Crosby, and The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936) with Jack Benny. They were also in We're Not Dressing (1934), billed directly under Crosby and Carole Lombard.

In 1937, Burns and Allen starred with Fred Astaire in A Damsel in Distress, a musical with an original score by George Gershwin that introduced the song "A Foggy Day". It was Astaire's first RKO film without dancing partner Ginger Rogers.[18] Astaire's costar Joan Fontaine was not a dancer, and he was reluctant to dance on screen alone. He also felt the script needed more comic relief to enhance the overall appeal of the film. Burns and Allen had each worked in vaudeville as dancers before forming their act, and when word of the project reached them, they called Astaire and he asked them to audition.[18] Burns contacted an act whom he had once seen performing a dance using small whisk brooms. For the next several weeks, he and Allen practiced the complicated routine for their audition. When they presented the dance to Astaire, he liked it so much that he asked them teach it to him, and it was added to the film with the three of them dancing together. Burns and Allen also matched Astaire step-by-step in the film's demandingly epic dance sequence in a funhouse including amazing visuals with distorted mirrors.[7]^: 205

Their next film the following year was College Swing (1938) starring Burns and Allen top-billed above Martha Raye and Bob Hope with a stellar supporting cast featuring Edward Everett Horton, Betty Grable, Jackie Coogan, John Payne, Robert Cummings, and Jerry Colonna. The picture was directed by Raoul Walsh.

A lively musical comedy came next titled Honolulu (1939) starring Eleanor Powell, Robert Young and Burns and Allen billed above the title. Unusually, Burns and Allen performed separately through most of the film until the end, with Allen singing and dancing the energetic titular song with Powell at one point while Burns is off-screen.

That same year, Allen's popularity was such that S.S. Van Dine wrote one of his Philo Vance detective novels featuring her as the principal character titled The Gracie Allen Murder Case. The zanily comedic book was adapted into a film, also titled The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939). Allen was billed above Warren William (the actor then portraying Philo Vance in the series of Vance films), and without Burns. The result was so successful that Allen was cast two years later in a similar mystery/comedy film titled Mr. and Mrs. North (1942) in which she is top-billed as a comedic detective, again without Burns in the cast.

Allen made her last film appearance in a musical cameo as an amusing concert pianist in Two Girls and a Sailor, without Burns, but remained in radio and would segue into series television with her husband six years later.

George Burns and Gracie Allen in 1955

In the fall of 1949, having apparently put their movie career behind them but working continuously in radio, Burns and Allen became part of the CBS talent raid. Their good friend and frequent guest star Jack Benny had already departed NBC for CBS, and CBS head William S. Paley made it clear that he believed that talent, not the network, made the difference, which was not the case at NBC. Benny convinced Burns and Allen (among others) to join him in the move to CBS. The Burns and Allen radio show became part of the CBS lineup, and a year later, they also brought their show to television as The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. They continued to use the formula that had kept them longtime radio stars, playing themselves only now as television stars, still living next door to Harry and Blanche Morton. They concluded each show with a brief dialogue performance in the style of their classic vaudeville and earlier radio routines.

Allen retired in 1958, and Burns tried to continue without her. The show was renamed The George Burns Show with the cast intact except for Allen. The show's setting was changed from the Burns home to his office, with Blanche working as Burns' secretary so that she could help Allen keep an eye on him. The renamed show barely lasted a year.

During their vaudeville routine, and later on radio and television, as their show ended, Burns would look at Allen and say "Say good night, Gracie," to which she would usually simply reply "Good night." A popular legend holds that she would reply "Good night, Gracie," but according to Burns, recordings of their radio and television shows and several histories of old-time radio (such as John Dunning's On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio), she never used the phrase.

Eleanor Roosevelt (center) and Gracie Allen (right) in 1940

In the 1930s, Burns and Allen adopted two children, Sandra Jean and Ronald Jon, after discovering that they could not conceive on their own. They agreed to raise the children as Catholics and to permit them to make their own religious choices as adults. Ronnie eventually joined the cast of his parents' television show, playing their son, a serious drama student who disdains comedy. Sandy made only occasional appearances on the show (usually as a telephone operator, waitress, secretary or clerk), and left showbusiness to become a teacher.

As a child, Allen had been scalded badly on one arm, and she was extremely sensitive about the scarring. Throughout her life, she wore long or three-quarter length sleeves to hide the scars, and the half-forearm style became her trademark. When the couple moved to Beverly Hills and acquired a swimming pool, Allen wore a bathing suit and swam the length of the pool to prove to her children that she could swim; she had taken swimming lessons to fight a longtime fear of drowning. She never again wore a bathing suit or entered the pool.

Burns and Allen ca. 1946

Allen was said to be sensitive about having one green eye and one blue eye (heterochromia), and some speculation in various biographies report that plans to film the eighth season of The Burns & Allen Show in color prompted her retirement, but this seems unlikely as a color episode was filmed and broadcast in 1954 (a clip of the episode was included in a CBS anniversary show), plus there were many color publicity photographs published. Allen retired in 1958 for health reasons; Burns repeatedly noted that she had continued with the television show as long as she did in order to please him, in spite of her health problems.

In later years, Burns admitted that he had a very brief extramarital affair. Stricken by guilt, he phoned Jack Benny and told him about the indiscretion, but Allen overheard the conversation and Burns quietly bought her an expensive centerpiece. Burns also said that he spent $10,000 on a diamond ring for Gracie upon the cessation of the affair. Nothing more was said, but years later, Burns discovered that Allen had subsequently told one of her friends about the affair, finishing with, "You know, I really wish George would cheat on me again. I could use a new centerpiece."[7]^: 306

Crypt (with wrong year of birth) at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California

Allen, who had a history of heart disease, died from a heart attack in Hollywood on August 27, 1964, at age 62[19] (later found to be 69 according to census records). Her remains were interred in a crypt at the Freedom Mausoleum in the Sanctuary of Heritage at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.[20]

Burns' remains were interred at her side in 1996 when he died at the age of 100. The marker on the crypt was changed from "Grace Allen Burns—Beloved Wife And Mother (1895–1964)" to "Gracie Allen (1895–1964) and George Burns (1896–1996)—Together Again".[21]

• Lambchops (1929; short) as Gracie the Girlfriend
• The Big Broadcast (1932; first feature film) as Gracie
• International House (1933) as Nurse Allen
• College Humor (1933) as Herself
• Six of a Kind (1934) as Gracie Devore
• We're Not Dressing (1934) as Gracie
• Many Happy Returns (1934, first leading role) as Herself
• Love in Bloom (1935) as Gracie Downey
• Here Comes Cookie (1935) as Herself
• The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935) as Herself
• The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936) as Mrs. Platt
• College Holiday (1936) as Calliope 'Gracie' Dove
• A Damsel in Distress (1937) as Gracie
• College Swing (1938) as Gracie Alden
• Honolulu (1939) as Millie De Grasse
• The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939; without George Burns – a "Philo Vance" mystery by S. S. Van Dine) as Herself
• Mr. and Mrs. North (1941; second murder mystery film without Burns) as Pamela North
• Two Girls and a Sailor (1944, guest appearance without Burns; last movie role) as Herself

• The Robert Burns Panatella Show: 1932–1933, CBS
• The White Owl Program: 1933–1934, CBS
• The Adventures of Gracie: 1934–1935, CBS
• The Campbell's Tomato Juice Program: 1935–1937, CBS
• The Grape Nuts Program: 1937–1938, NBC
• The Chesterfield Program: 1938–1939, CBS
• The Hinds Honey and Almond Cream Program: 1939–1940, CBS
• The Hormel Program: 1940–1941, NBC
• The Swan Soap Show: 1941–1945, NBC, CBS
• Maxwell House Coffee Time: 1945–1949, NBC
• The Amm-i-Dent Toothpaste Show: 1949–1950, CBS

The Gracie Award is presented by the Alliance for Women in Media to recognize exemplary programming created by women, for women and about women in radio, television, cable and web-based media, including news, drama, comedy, commercials, public service, documentary and sports.[22] The awards program encourages the realistic and multifaceted portrayal of women in entertainment, news, features and other programs. Allen has twice been nominated to the National Women's Hall of Fame, though she has not been inducted. She has been honored by James L. Brooks, who named Gracie Films after her.

• The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, 1950–58, CBS

• Burns, George (1988). Gracie: A Love Story. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140126562. OCLC 19740761.
• Gracie a Love Story by George Burns (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1988) ISBN 0399133844
• The Great American Broadcast by Leonard Maltin (New York: Dutton, 1997)
• I Love Her, That's Why!: An Autobiography by George Burns (1955, 2003, 2011) ISBN 978-1258012144
• Mcclintock, Walter. Current Biography Yearbook: 1951. Place of publication not identified: H W Wilson, 1951.
• On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
• Say Goodnight, Gracie: The Story of Burns and Allen by Cheryl Blythe and Susan Sackett (1986, 1989) ISBN 1559580194
  • Revised and Updated (2016) Amazon eBook ASIN B01D3X6R34
• The Third Time Around by George Burns (New York: Putnam, 1980), including transcripts of several classic Burns & Allen routines.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gracie Allen.

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• Gracie Allen at IMDb
• Gracie Allen at AllMovie
• Home of George Burns & Gracie Allen-Radio Television Mirror – December 1940 (page 17)