Our current batch of political satirists like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert really owe a great debt of gratitude to Fred Allen. Allen was possibly the first to tackle the blowhards and stuffed shirts of the establishment by way of a national broadcast.

A St. Patrick’s Day show. The first tune is, “Swing High, Swing Low.” Town Hall News Of The Week, The Mighty Allen Art Players do a hillbilly drama. Town Hall Varieties: Professor Quigley tries to escape from a packing case once again. Adrian O’Brien, an Irish tenor sings. Martin Burns and The Irish Blackbirds, Maria and Julia Dougherty (from Bayonne, New Jersey) dance an Irish jig to the tune of “The Cow That Ate The Blanket.”

Town Hall Tonight with Fred Allen – St. Patrick’s Day

Fred Allen, Harry Von Zell (announcer), Peter Van Steeden and His Orchestra, Portland Hoffa, The Town Hall Quartet, Adrian O’Brien, Martin Burns and The Irish Blackbirds, Maria Dougherty (dancer), Julia Dougherty (dancer).

NBC Red network. Sponsored by Ipana, Sal Hepatica.

Download the show here!

The first tune is, “Boo Hoo.” Town Hall News Of The Week: awards to movie patrons for unusual achievements. Fred meets “Fink, O’Reilly, and Fink,” Jewish attorneys at law. They recommend that Fred sue Jack Benny (a funny skit). The Mighty Allen Art Players present, “Murder On The High Seas,” or “One Long Pan Helps Boy Meets Gull.” Fred has an unkind thing or two to say about Jack Benny. Guest Marshall Rogers plays, “Some Of Thse Days” on the musical glasses. Professor Quigley, an escape artist, fails to escape from a packing case!

Town Hall Tonight with Fred Allen – Murder on the High Seas

Fred Allen, Harry Von Zell (announcer), Peter Van Steeden and His Orchestra, Portland Hoffa, Minerva Pious, The Town Hall Quartet, Marshall Rogers, The Cecil Mack Mixed Choir.

NBC Red network. Sponsored by Ipana, Sal Hepatica.

Download the show here!

Unfortunately of the great comedy stars from the Golden Age of Radio, Fred Allen, has today been largely eclipsed by the much more famous names of Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Bob Hope and so on. Fred Allen (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), born John Florence Sullivan, was a comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in America.

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 (in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio) wrote that Allen was radio’s most admired comedian and most frequently censored. A master adlibber, Fred often tangled with his network’s executives (and often ripped them on the air over their battles), while developing routines the style and substance of which influenced contemporary – and future – comic talents, including Groucho Marx, Stan Freberg, Henry Morgan and Johnny Carson. Allen’s fans also included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as novelists William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Herman Wouk (who began his career writing for Allen).

It’s possible we don’t remember Fred Allen as well as we should simply because Allen had a great distaste for television and didn’t segue over to the medium as easily as many of his contemporaries. Allen just didn’t have “the look” for TV. Speaking of medium though, Allen delivered perhaps his best-remembered crack about television on one of the last gasps against the rapidly-growing television tide, The Big Show: “You know, television is called a new medium, and I have discovered why they call it a medium — because nothing is well done.”

It’s also possible Allen isn’t so well remembered simply because he passed away too early in the lifetime of television, 1956; there were no years and years of I Love Lucy-like reruns of his work to cement him into the popular culture.

You’ll find that some of the jokes haven’t aged as well as some you may hear on other comedies of the time but that’s mainly because Allen was such a topical comedic writer. Never the less no radio personality was as adept at the turn of a phrase or displaying great off the cuff wit as the late, great Fred Allen!

Town Hall Tonight w/ Fred Allen – Who Killed Rappaport?