Fred Allen

Who was Fred Allen?

Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio.

His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it was only part of his appeal; radio historian John Dunning wrote that Allen was radio's most admired comedian and most frequently censored. A master ad libber, Allen often tangled with his network's executives, while developing routines whose style and substance influenced fellow comic talents, including Groucho Marx, Stan Freberg, Henry Morgan and Johnny Carson; his avowed fans also included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and novelists William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Herman Wouk.

Fred Allen was honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for contributions to television and radio.

Famous Quotes:

• It is probably not love that makes the world go around, but rather those mutually supportive alliances through which partners recognize their dependence on each other for the achievement of shared and private goals.
• Imitation is the sincerest form of television.
• I don't want to own anything that won't fit into my coffin.
• We are living in the machine age. For the first time in history the comedian has been compelled to supply himself with jokes and comedy material to compete with the machine. Whether he knows it or not, the comedian is on a treadmill to oblivion.
• A gentleman is any man who wouldn't hit a woman with his hat on.
• A molehill man is a pseudo-busy executive who comes to work at 9 am and finds a molehill on his desk. He has until 5 p.m. to make this molehill into a mountain. An accomplished molehill man will often have his mountain finished before lunch.
• A celebrity is a person who works hard all of their life to become well known, and then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.
• Life, in my estimation, is a biological misadventure that we terminate on the shoulders of six strange men whose only objective is to make a hole in one with you.
• Washington is no place for a good actor. The competition from bad actors is too great.
• He dreamed he was eating shredded wheat and woke up to find the mattress half gone.