Fred Allen
1894-1956
Vaudeville,
Theatre, Radio
Born John Florence Sullivan, Fred Allen
is best known today for his radio shows of  the
1930s-40s. After an early career as a successful boxer he
worked in Vaudeville as a comedian and juggler. He called
himself the "World's Worst Juggler" and added patter
to his routine. After ten years in Vaudeville, he spent another
ten years on Broadway. He began his radio career in 1932,
and by 1936 he had a weekly radio audience of about 20 million.
With the emergence of television the bottom fell out of the
radio industry. Fred was one of the first to leave radio in
1949 and made a few attempts at television, but he was not
as successful as his contemporaries such as Jack Benny, Bob
Hope and George Burns & Gracie Allen who all starred in
their own TV shows. He was highly critical of television,
yet TV made famous many of his routines and characters from
his radio shows such as Warner Brothers' Foghorn Leghorn character.
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