Gracie Allen
Comedy Star

“Say goodnight, Gracie.”

With these words George Burns ended the act and his wife Gracie Allen responded with a gracious “Good night.” (Despite a common belief, she never said “Goodnight, Gracie.”) And as she did so the Burns and Allen team ended either a vaudeville routine, or a radio or TV program, an act where George asked the questions and Gracie’s zany and illogical (to anyone but Gracie) answers endeared her to several generations of Americans.

Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen was born in 1903 in San Francisco - or was it actually 1895, 1897 or even 1906? The reason for the discrepancy wasn’t because Gracie was hiding her age but because most public records were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake/fire. Occasionally when Gracie would claim to be born in July, 1906 and someone mentioned that the earthquake was actually several months later she would respond, “Well, it was an awfully big earthquake.”

Yet no matter when she was born, Gracie began performing at an early age. After she completed her convent school education, and billed as “The Four Colleens” she joined her three sisters in an act performing Irish folk dances. Her career continued with several partners until in 1922 she met fellow vaudeville star George Burns. They soon became partners in a comedy act and four years later life partners with their marriage.

In the classic Burns and Allen act George asked the questions as the “straight man” and Gracie gave zany answers (called “the punch line”), but their roles originally were reversed. Originally Gracie was the “straight man” and George gave the funny responses. It changed very early when Burns realized one day that Gracie’s questions to him were getting more laughs than his responses. He wisely changed the act. In his 1988 book Gracie, a Love Story George described what happened:

“The act did not go the way it was supposed to. Gracie fed me a straight line and the audience chuckled. I answered with my topper. Nothing. She gave me another line, this time a few persons laughed. I answered. Again nothing. By the time we finished our first show Gracie was getting good laughs…” The pair began touring and George described what happened: “By the end of the month Gracie was the whole act. My part had been reduced to little more than walking onstage with her and asking, “So how’s your brother? The response of the audience made me realize I had a very special talent – Gracie Allen.” And he also realized the type of person she portrayed on stage. “The character was simply the dizziest dame in the world… [and] Gracie played her as if she was totally sane, as if her answers actually made sense.” What assured their success was Gracie’s skill as a comedic actress and not a comedienne simply responding with comic lines. However, away from the stage, she was entirely the opposite – not only intelligent but also well aware that she was playing a role.

As the act changed, the Burns and Allen team soon appeared in major vaudeville venues as well as in several short films. However, just as they were becoming popular, they realized, as did their fellow performers, that vaudeville was gradually failing. And it was because of radio. “For the first time people didn’t have to leave their homes to be entertained, “ George related. To compete vaudeville theaters called an intermission, hauled a radio on stage for fifteen minutes for the audience to listen to “Amos n’ Andy” and then resumed the vaudeville acts. So as did many others Burns and Allen moved to radio in the early 1930s.

Using their vaudeville and movie format as being a courting couple – a “flirtation act” as it was called – their program was successful for several years. However, in the 1940s ratings dropped and George decided to change the format. He realized, as he told Gracie, the “jokes were too young for us…everybody knows that we’re really married. But on the show you’re still flirting with everybody. Let’s tell them we’re married.” So as the next program began George announced that he and Gracie had been married for a long time, had two kids, and from then on they would be married on the show. As he put it later: “We were the only couple in radio history to get married because we had to.” And it worked because they retained their top position and kept it.

Like many of the other radio programs of the period, the Burns and Allen show used various publicity gimmicks to attract and then keep listeners. One early stunt had Gracie searching for her brother. The original purpose was to publicize a program time change, so they planned for Gracie so show up unannounced on other network shows to ask about her lost brother and then mention the time change. In some shows she walked on, ask and when no one had seen him, she’d happily depart. Occasionally they used a different tact. For example in one serious adventure drama set in a submarine someone called down from the surface asking if Gracie’s brother was down there with them. The campaign worked well, however Gracie’s real life brother George complained of unwanted media and public attention. Eventually they ended the scheme.

In 1940 as President Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for his third term, he had an opponent – of sorts – when Gracie entered the race as a candidate for the “Surprise Party.” Her slogan was “Down with common sense, vote for Gracie,” and she felt her chances of winning were good since “half of all the married people in this country are women.” It began as a campaign to promote a new movie, and as part of the promotion a national railroad provided a campaign train from Los Angeles to Omaha for Gracie and her party. Since Gracie disliked public speaking she found it difficult at first to address the crowds who met the train but George persuaded her to give it a try. At one stop she was greeted by a stuffed kangaroo with a baby in the pouch and the label “It’s in the bag!” as well as a large enthusiastic crowd. Soon, she relaxed and began her speech. “As I look around and see all these trusting and believing faces shining up at me with love and respect, tears come into my eyes. And do you know why? My girdle is killing me.” After the roar of laughter died down she described what she hoped to accomplish. For example she advocated bigger farms “so asparagus can grow lying down” and welcomed foreign relations “but they have to bring their own bedding.” She also wanted her campaign to encourage women in Congress and the Senate, since “anybody knows that a woman is much better than a man when it comes to introducing bills in the house.” The Burns and Allen program writers produced a book (ostensibly by Gracie) of photos from the campaign and “party convention.” On Election Day that November she actually drew a few votes.

As television gradually succeeded radio as the medium of appeal, Burns and Allen also made the switch in the late 1940s, but only after Gracie carefully considered it. Their radio schedule allowed Gracie time to do what she enjoyed most – shopping and time with her friends, and the move to TV meant she would be busier than before. For a time she talked about retiring, so George had to persuade her to basically start a whole new career. He suggested she make a “screen test” to see how she looked and if she didn’t like it, George agreed to forget it. Obviously the plan worked and after she agreed they continued on TV with the radio format with George and Gracie playing themselves. They still lived next door to Harry and Blanche Morton, and a variety of characters, including their program announcer, continued to drop in and become involved in the strange events derived from Gracie’s schemes. However, the Burns and Allen program had one unique feature and it derived from a Broadway play.

Since many of the plots were based on Gracie’s misunderstanding an event and then applying her own solutions, it was important that George come across as the only one who actually knew what was going on. So he adapted a technique used in the Thornton Wilder play “Our Town” where the Stage Manager talked to the audience and described the action, as well as taking part in it. George did the same when he stepped out of the scene, talked to the studio audience, discussed past or future events, and then stepped back in to continue the action. In later episodes he retired to another room and turned on a TV set there to watch what happened.

But being part of a popular TV program meant the female star was very involved. “Gracie worked harder than anyone else on the television show and probably enjoyed it less,” George wrote later. “She did it because that was her job …she knew that there were a lot of other people whose jobs depended on her doing the show. That was a tremendous amount of pressure. But she never missed a single show, not one. She worked when she had colds, she worked when her headaches were so bad she could hardly get out of bed, and she worked when her heart started going bad.”

Gracie had had several minor heart attacks before she retired from the program, but in the years before modern heart surgery there was little to be done. Finally the routine of performing on the series became too difficult and as George put it,” She just didn’t have anything to give.” In February, 1958 they announced her retirement. However, during their last season, the Burns and Allen program had an opportunity to demonstrate Gracie’s skill as an actress. In one episode, Gracie is hypnotized to make her the smartest woman in the world and under that influence she appeared on a quiz show. Finally as the hypnotist brought her out of it he intoned: “Repeat after me, my mind is perfect blank, ready to accept any suggestion…” Gracie repeated it and when he informed her she was the old Gracie Allen, she still intoned, ”My mind is a perfect blank…”

George and Gracie adopted two children in the 1930s, Sandra Jean and Ronald Jon. While Sandra appeared on the TV program occasionally she soon retired to private life as a wife and mother. However, Ronnie became a cast member, portraying himself as a college student. He continued in TV, in the next few years, staring in several series.

After Gracie retired, George remained active with appearances on television, as well as producing several popular TV series. Despite her heart problems, Gracie enjoyed her new life as she finally had time to spend with friends. However, she suffered another major heart attack in 1961, and the angina attacks became so serious she needed a nurse companion to accompany her. Finally her heart gave out and the end came in August, 1964.

George became a beloved icon of TV, live performances and of course movies until his death in 1994 at age 100.