06/06/2007
I'm on vacation for a week Pt. 3: Fred Allen (and Tallulah Bankhead)
Perhaps you've heard the name Fred Allen?
One of the most popular and funny radio personalities of the 40's and early 50's, Allen detested almost everything about the medium that made him so famous; sponsors, networks, advertising agencies, talent agents, and the near universally vapid programming. He wrote a book - Treadmill To Oblivion - about his rough dealings, and his collected letters (highly recommended) tell the tale likewise.
Nonetheless, his shows ran for years, and his humor was some of the most intelligent to ever come down the pike.
His running "feud" with Jack Benny was a national laugh-getter, and his radio cast of characters (Titus Moody, Mrs. Nussbaum, and Senator Claghorn, a southern politician who became the model for cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn) was known to every human being who owned a radio.
His detestation of radio went double for television, and he didn't make the transition to the new, even more dumbed-down medium.
And what do you know about the original wild child, Tallulah Bankhead?
I'll let you read up on her, but keep in mind public nudity, pansexuality, and generally outrageous behaviour, along with an occasional great acting role.
She was a hard-boiled southern girl, sometimes host and a constant guest on many radio shows.
Here Fred Allen and guest Tallulah spoof one of the staples of radio programming and a forerunner of the completely fake "reality" shows - the wake-up program that originated from some "ideal" couples' living room as they awoke to their glamorous life, always sunny and positive. Shot through with transparent sponsor plugola, the best example of this show was, I guess, Ed & Pegeen Fitzgerald.
There might be a few references you don't get, but hang in there; when they turn on the juice, it's pretty funny. And there's a violent ending.
"Oh, Peachfuzz, you've spilled some coffee on your vest!"