Gracie Allen

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Gracie Allen
Gracie Allen
Born	July 26, 1895[1] San Francisco, California  United States
Died	August 27, 1964 at age 69 Hollywood, California

Gracie Allen (July 26, 1895^[1] – August 27, 1964) was an American comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil 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 with the rest of the world — which clearly wasn't as bright as she was.

A classic example of Gracie's miscommunication:

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.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Life and early career 1.2 Double act 1.3 Radio 1.4 Publicity Stunts 1.5 Television 1.6 Movies 1.7 "Say goodnight, Gracie" 1.8 Private Life 1.9 Farewell 2 Filmography 3 Radio series 4 TV series 5 Gracie Allen Award 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Life and early career

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 talented dancer, and began performing Irish folk dances with her three sisters, billed as The Four Colleens.

She became a vaudeville performer with her sister Bessie in 1909. She teamed up with George Burns to form a comedy act in 1922, and married him in 1926, a controversial matter at the time, as Burns was Jewish and Allen was Catholic.

[edit] Double act

The Burns and Allen act began with Gracie as the straight man, setting up George to deliver the punchlines -and get the laughs. In his book Gracie: A Love Story George later explained that he noticed Gracie's straight lines were getting more laughs than his punchlines, so he cannily flipped the act over — he made himself the straight man and let Gracie get the laughs. Audiences immediately fell in love with Gracie's zany character, and the team toured the country, eventually headlining in major vaudeville houses. Many of their famous 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?'"

[edit] Radio

In the early 1930s, like many vaudeville stars of their era, Burns and Allen graduated to radio. Their show was modestly successful, though the ratings began to decline. The show was originally a continuation of their original "flirtation act" (as their vaudeville and short film routines had been). George realized that they were simply too old for that material, and changed the show's format into the situation comedy vehicle for which they are best remembered: a working show business couple negotiating ordinary problems caused by Gracie's "illogical logic", usually with the help of neighbors 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.

[edit] Publicity Stunts

Burns & Allen frequently used running gags as publicity stunts. In 1932-33 they pulled off one of the most successful 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.

In 1940, the team launched a similar stunt when Gracie announced she was running for President of the United States on the Surprise Party ticket. George and Gracie did a cross-country whistlestop campaign tour on a private train, performing their live radio show in different cities. In one of her campaign speeches Gracie said, "I don't know much about the Lend-Lease Bill, but if we owe it we should pay it." 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 nationwide campaign tour, and the Surprise Party convention. Gracie actually drew some votes in the November election.

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 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 (incorrect) note with one finger. On her final "solo," she would finally hit the right note, causing the entire orchestra to applaud. Ironically, the actual index-finger playing was done off-stage by a professional pianist.

[edit] Television

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 pull back showing George watching and commenting on the show's action — punctuated by occasional puffs on his cigar. 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, Fred Clark, decided to leave the show, the new actor, Larry Keating, was introduced to the audience by George, yelling "Stop!" and causing everyone on stage to freeze, with Blanche Morton holding a telephone directory over her head, ready to hit her husband Harry as he enters the room. George explained the cast change to the audience, invited the new actor out to say hello, and meet actress Bea Benaderet (who played Blanche Morton). The two actors exchange friendly greetings, saying how much they have admired the other's work, and George then called for the scene to resume. Harry enters, and Blanche promptly smacks him on the head with a phone book.

Gracie retired in 1957, and Burns tried to soldier on without her. The show was re-named The George Burns Show with the cast intact except for Gracie. The locale of the show was changed form the Burns home to George's office, with Blanche Morton working as George's secretary so she could help Gracie keep an eye on him. Gracie's absence was only too obvious, and impossible to overcome. The re-named show barely lasted a year.

[edit] Movies

In the early 1930s, George and Gracie made several short films, preserving several of their classic vaudeville routines on celluloid. They also made two films with W.C. Fields, and co-starred with Fred Astaire in A 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 their Oscar-nominated dance routine in an amusement park funhouse.

[edit] "Say goodnight, Gracie"

The signature Burns and Allen signoff became part of the country's vernacular and the title of Rupert Holmes' 2002 play about the couple. 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 has it that Gracie would say, "Good night, Gracie." According to her husband, recordings of their radio and television shows, and other references, that never happened. It is likely that the confusion was caused by Rowan & Martin's 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."

[edit] Private Life

In the 1930s George and Gracie 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 playing George and Gracie's son, a serious drama student who disdained comedy. Sandy, by contrast, made only occasional appearances on the show, and left show business to become a teacher.

As a child, Gracie had been scalded badly on one arm, and she was extremely sensitive about the scarring. Throughout her life she wore either full or three-quarter length sleeves in order to hide the scars. The half-forearm style became as much a Gracie Allen trademark as her many aprons and her illogical logic. When the couple moved to Beverly Hills and acquired a swimming pool, Gracie put on a bathing suit and swam the length of the pool, to prove to her children that she could swim. She never put on a bathing suit or entered the pool again.

Gracie was said to be sensitive about having one green eye and one blue eye (heterochromia), and there was some speculation that plans to film the eighth season of The Burns & Allen Show in color prompted her retirement. 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 her health problems.

[edit] Farewell

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; George was interred at her side when he died thirty-two years later. ("Gracie Allen and George Burns — Together Again," reads 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.)

[edit] Filmography

• 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)

[edit] Radio series

• 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

[edit] TV series

• The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: 1950 - 1958 CBS

[edit] Gracie Allen Award

The Gracie Allen Award is presented by The Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television to recognize and encourage positive and realistic portrayals of women in entertainment, commercials, news, features and other programs.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Ancestry of Gracie Allen (from Genealogy.com)

• I Love Her, That's Why (by George Burns)

• Gracie: A Love Story (by George Burns)

• Say Goodnight, Gracie: The Story of George Burns and Gracie Allen (by Cheryl Blythe and Susan Hackett)

[edit] External links

• Gracie Allen at the Internet Movie Database
• Gracie Allen at Findagrave.com
• How to Become President by Gracie Allen