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Allen, Fred
(redirected from Fred Allen)

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
Allen, Fred (b. John F. Sullivan) (1894–1956) comedian; born in Cambridge, Mass. Starting as a juggler as a youth, he switched to comedy when he found he was getting more laughs for his quips than applause for his skill. He appeared in vaudeville and Broadway shows in the 1920s and moved into radio in the 1930s. As host of Town Hall Tonight (1934–40) and then CBS's Texaco Star Theatre (1940–49), he wrote much of his material and was one of the first American comedians to employ situations and a cast of characters that satirized topical events. He converted somewhat reluctantly to television, starring in The Colgate Comedy Hour (1953–54) and Fred Allen's Sketchbook (1954). The nature of his characteristically wry, ironic, even occasionally mordant humor was expressed in the title of his autobiography, Treadmill to Oblivion (1954).


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Before that, it might be the amazing talent of the mid-1970s, in which four successive classes produced such big-time players as Fred Allen, DANNY MCDANIEL, DEXTER REED, LAWRENCE "LANKY" WELLS, RON BREWER, MARVIN DELPH (Micah) Delph's father), ROBERT GRIFFIN, SIDNEY MONCRIEF and CHRIS BENNETT, as well as several others who went on to NCAA careers.
Comparisons between today’s disasters and yesterday’s are so ubiquitous that one half-expects to turn on the radio and hear Fred Allen skewering greedy CEOs.
Inspired by such disparate sources as the late radio personality Fred Allen, the cornball television variety show Hee Haw, and Keillor's own upbringing as a Midwesterner, the program provides music, comedy, theatrical skits, and a lot of sweet and funny sermonizing about the dumb human things we do in an effort to be happy.
 
 
 
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