Great Old Radio Shows – Burns and Allen – The Early Years

Great Old Radio Shows – Burns and Allen – The
Early Years
By Robert Bro

The Burns and Allen Show was one of the most popular of
all the great old radio shows.   However, it was a long way from the
streets of New York City to Beverly Hills.

George Burns was
born Nathan Birnbaum on Jan 20, 1896.  He began his singing career at
the age of eight on street corners and ferry boats in a group called
the Pee Wee Quartet.  A lover of show business, George eventually
found his way into small town vaudeville houses.  He once said:
“After a playing a town I would change my name. The talent booker
would never give me another job if he knew who I was.”

Gracie
was born Gracel Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen in 1903 in San Francisco.
Her show business career began even earlier than her husband’s.
Gracie’s father was a vaudevillian performer and introduced her to
performing on stage at the tender age of three.

The future Mr.
And Mrs. Burns met in New Jersey in 1923, and it seems George had
quite a reputation as a ladies man.

Gracie was engaged to
another Vaudevillian by the name of Benny Ryan.  Show business being
show business, Gracie and Benny were separated for long periods of
time as they made the show circuit. Before Ryan moved on to his next
town he made Gracie promise she would stay away from that George Burns
character.

Meantime, George had just split with his stage
partner, Billie Lorraine.  Gracie, looking for work, went back stage
to meet Lorraine to see if he would consider her as a new partner.
Gracie mistook George for his partner and George went along with it.
He told her that he was, indeed, Billy Lorraine and invited her to
team up with him to become an act.

George carried on the
subterfuge for an entire week before sheepishly telling her that he
was George Burns -  the fellow her boyfriend had warned her
against!

It didn’t take long for  George to realize he was
falling in love with Gracie.  He often said it was the first time he
had ever fallen for a nice girl.   It took him a year to tell
Gracie how he felt about her.  She was still planning to marry Benny
Ryan.  All of this was difficult for George because they spent so much
time on the road.  They slept in separate hotel rooms and had separate
bunks on the trains – George always took the upper.   They became such
close friends that Gracie would frequently talk to George about how
much she loved Benny Ryan.

In the meantime, they were appearing
together on the Vaudeville circuit, and as the years went by they
became more and more successful.   Burns and Allen eventually made it
all the way to the Palace Theater on Broadway.  The year was 1928 they
played for 17 weeks with Eddie Cantor and George Jessel.

Their
first appearance on radio was on the BBC while touring England in the
late 1929.  Then,  in 1931, back on Broadway working with Eddie Cantor
at the Palace,  Cantor invited Gracie to be on his radio show.
Cantor’s show was one of the most popular old time radio shows of the
30’s.  George agreed to let her appear without him as long as he could
write her material.

Gracie was a smash!

Burns and Allen
were then were offered a spot on Rudy Vallee’s show for a whopping
single performance fee of $1000.   As a result of that appearance,
Burns and Allen were made regulars on Guy Lombardo’s radio show in
February, 1932.

By this time George and Gracie were married,
and they inherited Guy Lombardo’s CBS Show In 1934 when Lombardo moved
from CBS to NBC.

Their show, which eventually moved to
California, was on for over two decades.  It is one of the most
endearing and popular of all the great old radio shows of the era.

I have several great clips, along with a couple of complete
episodes of The Burns and Allen Show on my blog that you can listen
to.

Bob Bro has a collection of over 7,000 old time radio
shows. He shares his passion on his blog:
href=”http://theoldtimeradioshow.com”>http://theoldtimeradioshow.com,
where he invites you to drop in anytime and listen to some of his
favorite great old radio shows! You can also hear Bob on his daily one
hour radio show on
href=”http://www.yesterdayusa.com”>Yesterday USA the non profit
internet radio station that has been playing commercial free old time
radio shows 24 hours a day for over 25 years.

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