Fred Allen

Born John Florence Sullivan on 31 May 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and passing away on 17 March 1956 in New York, the performer built a career as a comedian, actor, and singer whose dry, gravelly voice, baggy eyes, and deadpan expression proved perfectly suited to the topical monologues that defined his style. Following studies at Boston University, he rose to prominence as a vaudeville headliner and reached Broadway for the first time in the 1922 revue The Passing Show. Subsequent stage work included Vogues Of 1924 and the role of the wise-cracking reporter Addie Stiles in the short-lived 1929 musical comedy Polly, which closed after just two weeks. Greater success arrived with the sophisticated revues The Little Show in 1929 and Three’s A Crowd in 1930, where he shared the stage with Clifton Webb and Libby Holman. Several films followed, among them the musicals Thanks A Million in 1935, Sally, Irene And Mary in 1938, and Love Thy Neighbour in 1940; the last of these transferred to the screen the long-running mock feud with Jack Benny that had become a staple of Allen’s top-rated network radio program. His wife, Portland Hoffa, who had performed alongside him in revue, also joined the cast of that widely popular series, which remained on the air throughout the 1930s and 1940s.