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Gracie Allen (July 26, 1895 or 1902, San Francisco, California - August 27, 1964, Los Angeles, California) was a comedienne of the movies, radio, and early television. Born Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen, she was the scatterbrain of the team Burns and Allen, and her husband George Burns was the straight man. They originated the catch-phrase "Say 'good-night,' Gracie."
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Born into an Irish Catholic show-business family, Allen was educated at the Star of the Sea Convent School as a girl, and then became a vaudeville performer with her sister Bessie in 1909. She teamed up with George Burns in 1922, and married him in 1926. Early on the team noticed that Gracie was getting far better audience laughs than George even though she was the comic foil of the team. Bowing to reality, the team switched roles and the team had great success.
In the 1930s they adopted two children: Sandra Jean and Ronald "Ronnie" John; when Ronnie was grown, he joined the cast of his parents' 1950-1958 Monday-night television show on CBS, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.
Allen's stage persona was as a bizarre, illogical, and not very bright woman. Offstage she was anything but dimwitted, however: historians credit her with having the genius to deliver her lengthy diatribes in a fashion that made it look as though she was making her arguments up on the spot.
She and Burns were deeply devoted to each other. After her death, Burns told a reporter that he had received a number of letters asking why he remained married to "that fruitcake". Burns replied to them by publishing a book titled: I Love Her, That's Why.
Allen had one green eye and one blue one. At least one biographer has speculated that her sensitivity about that was what caused her to retire from television when color television came in, which would have revealed that feature to her fans. She had stopped making films in the early 1940s when color movies came in, too.
Gracie Allen died of a heart attack in Hollywood at the age of 69 (or only 62).
In their debut series, George and Gracie shared the bill with Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra. The pair launched themselves into national stardom with their first major publicity stunt, Gracie's ongoing search for her missing brother.
This series featured another wildly successful publicity stunt which had Gracie running for President of the United States.
Advertising a brand new product called "Spam". . . this show featured musical numbers by jazz great Artie Shaw.
This series featured a radical format change, in that George and Gracie played themselves as a married couple for the first time, and the show became a full-fledged domestic situation comedy. This was George's response to a marked drop in ratings under the old "Flirtation Act" format.
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: 1950 - 1958 CBS
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