Discarded Brassieres -- December 30,. 2023

Variety, 31-January-1924

Fred Allen, the greatest comedian of old time radio, made his first movie in 1929. In 1923 I think he toured the country in a traveling company of The Passing Show of 1922, and then probably went back to vaudeville. I can't find a Broadway show called The Sidewalks of New York in 1923. 

Variety, 27-December-1923

Nellie Revell wrote a column in Variety call Right off the Chest. In 1923, she published a book with a collection of columns. Fred Allen's ad parodied the title as Discarded Brassieres.

Variety, 03-January-1924

Fred Allen gave a Question Man item asking people if they believed in Santa Claus. He combined it with New Year's wishes. He mentions that he has been with Willie and Eugene Howard in The Passing Show of 1922.

Fred Allen -- The Old Joke Cemetery -- February 18, 2023

Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, 13-February-1922

Fred Allen, the greatest comedian of old time radio, made his first movie in 1929. In 1922-1923 he played Broadway and then toured the country in a big revue, The Passing Show of 1922.One of his sketches was called "Old Joke Cemetery," It used a big backdrop with gravestones that bore the punchlines of antediluvian jokes. One of the chorines in the show was Portland Hoffa. He married her and they worked together for the rest of his life.

Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, 13-February-1922

Fred's name is hard to read in the complete ad. The big stars of the show were brothers Willie and Eugene Howard. They starred in three editions of The Passing Show. They had a very limited film career. Fred Allen had the first name on the supporting list. 

 The Passing Shows were yearly revues that ran from 1912 to 1924. You will notice that the 1922 edition was still on the road in 1923. 

Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, 13-February-1922

I found his two memoirs in the San Francisco Public Library, Treadmill to Oblivion and Much Ado About Me. The books taught me a lot about writing humor.

Fred Allen 125 -- May 31, 2019

www.listal.com

Comedian Fred Allen was born 125 years ago today, on 31-May-1894. I used to listen to Gene Nelson's old time radio show on KSFO every night. He would play Fred Allen now and then. I read about Fred Allen in Jim Harmon's The Great Radio Comedians and sought a copy of Allen's memoir, Treadmill to Oblivion. I found it at the Richmond Branch library, and took it out several times. I later found Much Ado About Me and Fred Allen's Letters and read each of them several times. I think he influenced my sense of humor and delivery.

www.listal.com

The few people who remember him today probably remember him for Allen's Alley and his long-time feud with Jack Benny.  The feud was staged, but it was often very funny.

www.listal.com

His best performance in a movie was as one of the criminals in "The Ransom of Red Chief," part of the anthology movie O Henry's Full House. Oscar Levant, another favorite of mine, was his partner.