Gracie Allen
Gracie Allen (
July 26,
1902 -
August 27,
1964) was an American
comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner of husband
George Burns. Burns himself phrased it perfectly, in a gag that got laughs no matter how often he repeated it for the rest of his life: "One day, the audience realised I had a terrific talent. They were right. I did have a terrific talent. And I was married to her for 38 years."
In a career spanning vaudeville through television, Gracie Allen's daffy character became a national institution. Highly intelligent in real life, her character's humor came from a near perfect ability to misunderstand whatever was said to her. If a word had multiple meanings, Gracie could be counted on to choose the wrong one every time. What made the character so endearing was her good-natured patience at the rest of the world -which wasn't as bright as she was.
A classic example of Gracie misunderstanding:
George: (looking at Gracie, who is arranging a large vase of beautiful flowers) Grace, those are beautiful flowers. Where did they come from?
Gracie: Don't you remember, George? You said that if I went to visit Clara Bagley in the hospital I should be sure to take her flowers. So, when she wasn't looking, I did.
Allen was born
Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen in
San Francisco, California to parents George and Margaret (Darragh) Allen, into an
Irish Catholic show-business family. She was educated at the Star of the Sea Convent School. She was a gifted dancer, and began performing with her three sisters as
The Four Colleens.
She became a
vaudeville performer with her sister Bessie in 1909. She teamed up with
George Burns in 1922, and married him in 1926, a controversial matter at the time, as Burns was a Jew and Allen was Catholic.
Burns and Allen were not especially successful as a comedy team until George cannily flipped the act over---he made himself the
straight man and made Gracie the designated laugh-getter. Audiences immediately fell in love with Gracie, and the team toured the country, eventually headlining in major vaudeville houses. Many of their famour routines, including "Lambchops" were preserved on early one and two-reelers made while the couple was still performing on the stage. George Burns attributed all of the couple's early success to Gracie, modestly ignoring his own brilliance as a straight man. He summed up their act in a classic quip: "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 vaudeville stars of their era, Burns and Allen graduated to radio. In time, their radio show developed from their original "flirtation act" (as their vaudeville and short film routines had been) into the situation comedy vehicle for which they are best remembered: a working show business couple negotiating ordinary problems caused by Gracie's "logical illogic", usually with the help of neighbours Harry and Blanche Morton, and their announcer, Bill Goodwin (later replaced by
Harry von Zell during the run of their television series). One of the show's running gags (both in radio and television) had George firing the announcer at least once every other episode.
Burns & Allen used many running gags and publicity stunts. In 1932-33 they pulled off one of the best in the business: a yearlong search for Gracie's apparently missing brother. They would make unannounced cameo appearances on other shows, asking if anyone had seen Gracie's brother. Gracie's real-life brother was apparently the only person who didn't find the gag funny, and he eventually asked them to stop.
A decade later, Gracie launched a similar stunt when she mounted a gag campaign running as the Surprise Party candidate for the U.S. Presidency ("I don't know much about the Lend-Lease Bill, but if we owe it we should pay it?") and actually drew some votes in the November election. Another typical Gracie-ism on the "campaign trail" went like this: "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; the motto was "It's in the bag." As part of the gag, Gracie (in reality, the Burns and Allen writers) published a book, Gracie Allen For President, which included photographs from their (real life) nationwide campaign tour, and the Surprise Party convention.
Gracie was also the subject of one of S.S. Van Dine's famous Philo Vance mystery novels,
The Gracie Allen Murder Case. Typically, she couldn't resist a classic Gracie review: "S.S. Van Dine is silly to spend six months writing a novel when you can buy one for two dollars and ninety five cents."
Another publicity stunt had Gracie playing a piano concerto at the
Hollywood Bowl (and later at
Carnegie Hall). The Burns & Allen staff actually hired a composer to write the Concerto For Index Finger, a joke piece that had the orchestra playing madly, only to pause while Gracie played a single note with one finger. Ironically, the actual index-finger playing was done off-stage by a professional pianist.
It wasn't until 1941 (sponsored by Swan Soap) that the couple played themselves as married, and the show became a full-fledged domestic situation comedy. This was George's response to a marked drop in ratings under the old "Flirtation Act" format.
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George Burns & Gracie Allen |
By 1948-49,
Burns and Allen were part of the
CBS talent raid: their good friend (and frequent guest star)
Jack Benny, once CBS mastermind
William S. Paley made it clear that he believed the talent and not the network made the difference, had decided to jump from
NBC to
CBS---and he convinced among others Burns & Allen to join him. A year after they made the move,
Burns and Allen brought their show to television. They continued the formula which had kept them longtime radio stars, playing themselves as television stars, still living next door to Harry and Blanche Morton. They concluded each show a brief dialogue performance in the style of their classic vaudeville and earlier radio routines.
From the beginning, the television show blurred the traditional boundaries between the actors and the characters they played. George regularly broke the "fourth wall" and spoke directly to the television audience. The camera would pan back showing George himself watching the show's action, in a scene that didn't include him other than a hare-brained plot behind his back (or so the conspirators thought), launching him into a brief, low-keyed monologuethat amplified his reputation as comedy's funniest straight man. Later on, George acquired a television set, on which he could watch Gracie in other parts of the house. When the actor playing Harry Morton decided to leave the show, the new actor was introduced to the audience by George, yelling "Stop!" and causing everyone on stage to freeze. He explained the cast change to the audience, invited the new actor out to say hello, and meet actress
Bea Benaderet (who played Blanche Morton), and then called for the scene to resume. Harry enters, and Blanche promptly smacks him on the head with a phone book.
In the early 1930s, George and Gracie made several short films. They made several films with
W.C. Fields, and co-starred with
Fred Astaire in
Damsel In Distress, a musical film with an original score by
George Gershwin which introduced the song "A Foggy Day". In spite of their vaudeville beginnings, George and Gracie amazed the film critics with their ability to keep up with Astaire during the dance routines.
The signature Burns and Allen signoff became part of the country's vernacular. Born of their vaudeville routine and carried over to both radio and television, their shows normally ended with George asking Gracie to say goodnight, and she would comply with "Good night." Popular legend, however, has it that Gracie would say, "Good night, Gracie." According to her husband, recordings of their radio and television show, and other references, that never happened. It is likely that the confusion was caused by
Laugh In. Stars Dan Rowan and Dick Martin used a similar routine wherein Dan would face the camera to say "Say goodnight, Dick." Dick's reply would always be "Good night, Dick."
In the 1930s the couple adopted two children, Sandra Jean and
Ronald John, who were raised nominally Catholic, though Sandra was expelled from Catholic school for her liberal views. Ronnie eventually joined the cast of his parents' television show; Sandy, by contrast, made only occasional appearances on the show and retired from show business almost as quietly as she slipped in. Ronnie played himself as a drama student, to whom comedy was not the sort of thing an aspiring actor allowed himself. Sandy appeared occasionally as a drama classmate of Ronnie's.
Gracie was said to be sensitive about having one green eye and one blue eye (
heterochromia), and that it prompted her retirement as
The Burns & Allen Show contemplated switching to color for its eighth season on television. The real reason she retired in 1957 was her health; George Burns noted more than once that she stayed with the television show as long as she did to please him, in spite of health problems, though he didn't object when she finally had enough. Burns tried to soldier on without her; the show was re-named
The George Burns Show with the cast intact except for Gracie. Her absence was only too obvious---and impossible to overcome. The re-named show barely lasted a year following Gracie's retirement.
Even in the most balmy weather Gracie refused to wear sleeves cut higher than the middle of her forearms---she had been scalded badly on one arm as a child, and she could not bear to allow the scars to be exposed. The half-forearm style became as much a Gracie Allen trademark as many aprons and her illogical logic.
Gracie fought a long battle with heart disease, finally succumbing to a
heart attack in
Hollywood in 1964. She was interred in a crypt at the Freedom Mausoleum at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park in
Glendale, California; her husband was interred at her side when he died thirty-two years later. ("Gracie Allen and George Burns---Together Again," says the engraving on the marker.) Gracie's age almost depended on whom you asked; even her husband professed not to know exactly when she was born. (See note below.)
*
Lambchops (1929) (a "short" film)
*
The Big Broadcast (1932) (1st feature film)
*
College Humor (1933)
*
International House (1933)
*
Many Happy Returns (1934) (1st leading rôle)
*
Six Of A Kind (1934)
*
We're Not Dressing (1934)
*
Love in Bloom (1935)
*
Here Comes Cookie (1936)
*
A Damsel in Distress (1937) (1st
Fred Astaire movie without
Ginger Rogers & 1st in which Burns and Allen danced)
*
College Swing (1938)*
Honolulu (1939)
*
The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939) (without Burns -- a "
Philo Vance" mystery by S. S. Van Dine)
*
Mr. and Mrs. North (1941) (2nd murder mystery without Burns)
*
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) (guest appearance & last movie)
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 George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: 1950 -
1958 CBS
* A note regarding her date of birth'': Depending on which source you read, Gracie Allen was born on July 26 in 1895, 1897, 1902 or 1906.
1906 can be safely removed as a possibility.
July 26,
1902 is taken from the California Death Records database of the State of California, but this is not necessarily true. During her lifetime, the year of her birth had been accepted as 1906 for many years, but when pressed for proof of this, Gracie would claim that her birth certificate had been destroyed in the big
San Francisco earthquake of that year. When it was pointed out to her that the earthquake took place 3 months before her claimed birthdate, she smiled and replied, "Well, it was an awfully big earthquake". George Burns himself professed not to know exactly how old Gracie was.
IMDb lists
1895 as the year of her birth.
*
Ancestry of Gracie Allen (from Genealogy.com) 
