By: norman barasch

norman barasch — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:07:49 +0000

I wrote for Fred for a year during his declining years. Not only was he easily the wittiest man I ever knew, but also the kindest and most thoughtful.
I still have a private tape of Fred and Groucho Marx in a duel of wits after Fred’s taping of a pilot for a quiz show. Fred won the duel. I loved the man and miss him to this day, some fifty years later.

By: Pelter

Pelter — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:49:22 +0000

From the very first time I heard an old recording of a Fred Allen radio broadcast (from the 1930’s & later 40’s), I realized this was true genius. A thinking man’s comedian, he used everything for humorous fodder, old vaudeville, quick word play and razor sharp topical humor combined and delivered in a brilliant- if often droll verbal manner. From the bottom of society to the top, the man used ethnic, immigrant musings/travails and royally lanced society’s fixations and mores. And if that wasn’t innovative enough, created and typed each and every one of his own shows (a source of lifelong pride, and frankly-when you hear the results- astounding)
It amazes me he isn’t better known today. He was to Radio what Johnny Carson was Television (and also one of Carson’s chief comedic inspirations). Allen’s famous “feud” with Jack Benny, the characters found in “Allen’s Alley” (famously Mrs Nussbaum & Senator Claghorn) and Fred’s ability to tailor the show’s material to a weekly guest’s talents, is still very impressive to hear. To me, it set a standard of verbal inventiveness that few comedians have ever matched, even to this day.

By: john

john — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:49:09 +0000

I loved watching Fred Allen on What’s My Line?. He was very clever.

Comments on: Larry Gelbart on Fred Allen

By: norman barasch

By: Pelter

By: john