Acknowledgments Illustrations 1. An Introduction 2. The World of a Smalltimer, 1894-1932 3. The Fred Allen Shows, 1933-1949 4. Creating Radio Comedy 5. Fred Allen and Radio Censorship 6. Fred Allen's Comedy of Language 7. Fred Allen, Satirist 8. Allen's Alley, 1942-1949 9. An Epilogue Appendix: The Complex World of Network Radio Notes Index
Tracing a career that lasted from 1912 into the 1950s, Havig describes the "verbal slapstick" style that was Fred Allen's hallmark and legacy to American comedy
Alan Havig is Professor of History and American Studies at Stephens College in Columbia Missouri.
"A notable example of radio at its best." --Back Stage/SHOOT "Fred was one of the greatest of vaudeville and radio comedians. Anyone even casually concerned with the state of American humor will be well advised to give his work, as Mr. Havig presents it, careful study." --Steve Allen "Alan Havig has done an intelligent, careful and exhaustive research job. This is a well-written, solid performance-biography." --J. Fred MacDonald, Curator of the Museum of Broadcast Communication, Chicago "A Stephens College (Missouri) professor of history here examines Allen's (1894-1956) 20 years in vaudeville, his career in radio from 1933 to 1949, and his characteristic brand of air-wave comedy, and concludes that Allen was a literary humorist who created 'comedy uniquely aural in achievement and appeal.' His humor, as Havig observes, frequently involved parody, insult (as in Allen's long-time feud with Jack Benny); puns; dialect humor (a Chinese-American was a 'Yangtse Doodle Dandy'); worldly satire; and sporadorically profound wit (Allen defined life as 'a lull between stork and epitaph' and a spinster as 'a woman who indulged once too seldom'). Havig's searching account amuses and informs, offering further proof that the line between high and popular culture has blurred in our century." --Publishers Weekly
"A notable example of radio at its best." --Back Stage/SHOOT "Fred was one of the greatest of vaudeville and radio comedians. Anyone even casually concerned with the state of American humor will be well advised to give his work, as Mr. Havig presents it, careful study." --Steve Allen "Alan Havig has done an intelligent, careful and exhaustive research job. This is a well-written, solid performance-biography." --J. Fred MacDonald, Curator of the Museum of Broadcast Communication, Chicago "A Stephens College (Missouri) professor of history here examines Allen's (1894-1956) 20 years in vaudeville, his career in radio from 1933 to 1949, and his characteristic brand of air-wave comedy, and concludes that Allen was a literary humorist who created 'comedy uniquely aural in achievement and appeal.' His humor, as Havig observes, frequently involved parody, insult (as in Allen's long-time feud with Jack Benny); puns; dialect humor (a Chinese-American was a 'Yangtse Doodle Dandy'); worldly satire; and sporadorically profound wit (Allen defined life as 'a lull between stork and epitaph' and a spinster as 'a woman who indulged once too seldom'). Havig's searching account amuses and informs, offering further proof that the line between high and popular culture has blurred in our century." --Publishers Weekly
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