| Fred Allen (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956) and his wife Portland Hoffa (January 25, 1905 – December 26, 1990) began their radio career on October 23, 1932, starring on The Linit Bath Club Revue. By 1934, Allen was starring on Town Hall Tonight, a 1-hour show which featured Allen examining current events and interviewing unusual guests. It was here that Allen began radio’s longest-running “feud” in 1937, when he made a series of jokes about fellow comedian Jack Benny. Allen’s best-remembered feature was “Allen’s Alley,” a weekly segment in which he would discuss issues of the day with eccentric creations like the blustery Senator Claghorn, Brooklyn housewife Pansy Nussbaum and stoic New Englander Titus Moody. Allen himself likened Hoffa’s voice to “two slate pencils mating or a clarinet reed calling for help.” Allen was known to read up to 9 newspapers a day and often spent 12 to 14 hours a day writing and re-writing his scripts. Poor health forced Allen off the air in 1944, but he returned in the fall of 1945 with The Fred Allen Show, which lasted until June 26, 1949. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2116.jpg |
| Image Size | 118.04 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1020 x 1298 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 1, 1940 |
| Location | |
| City | New York |
| State or Province | New York |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | Fred Allen Archives |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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