Theater of the Mind
Fred Allen
Cast, Host, Narrator, Announcer, Writer
Born May 31, 1894.
269 episodes in 16 shows · 1932–1956
Radio Hall of Fame inductee.
Fred Allen began in radio on CBS with the Linit Bath Club Revue, which evolved through several names into Town Hall Tonight, The Fred Allen Show, and the Texaco Star Theater. His Allen's Alley segment, launched in 1942, visited regulars like Titus Moody and Senator Claghorn, and his mock feud with Jack Benny ran for about a decade. He later appeared on The Big Show and became a panelist on TV's What's My Line?
Sources: Fred Allen, Wikipedia
Play everything Fred Allen is in
On the radio
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The Fred Allen Show227 · Cast, Writer
1932
1933
- Judge Allen's Court
- Inspector Allen Solves the Spinach Robbery
- Dr. Allen of the Bedlam Sanitarium
- The Bargain Basement Court
1935
- The Mountain Bride
- Once an Amateur, Always an Amateur
- Who Killed Kirk Reuben?
- The Wild Women of the Wilderness
- Whoopee on the Volga
- The Case of the Disappearing Elephant
- The Department Store Santa
1936
- Murder at the Microphone
- Mumbo
- Lord Falconbeak's Dilemma
- Going, Going, Gone
- The Fatal Shot
- Murder Backstage
- Colonel Culpepper's Plight
- The Studio's Dilemma
- Hortense's Dilemma
- Sandy's Crime
- The Lost Vice President
- The Slogan
- The Comedian's Plight
- Trombone Annie
- Murder in the Chop House
- Welcome Stranger
- Stoopnagle and Budd
- Will She Come Out?
- Murder at Cupcake County
- Studio Strategy
- The Great Dane Mystery
- The Egg Baron
- The Prodigal Daughter's Return
- The Community Sing
- The First Department Store Santa
1937
- Murder on the High Seas
- St. Patrick's Day
- The Coronation
- The Tycoon's Dilemma
- Santa Will Not Ride Tonight
- The Great Swimming Pool Mystery
1938
- High, Wide and Homely
- The Hotel Mystery
- The True Story of Your Hero
- Who Killed the Hula-Hula Dancer?
- The House That Jack Built
- The Program Was Killing Them
- The Music Publisher Needed a Tune
- The Studio's Predicament
- Mountain Malfeasance
- The Bank's Dilemma
1939
- Murder at the Opera
- Murder at Addison Square Garden
- The Studio's Plight
- Crisis on the Showboat
- The Sound Man's Revenge
1940
- The Political Amateur Hour
- The Visibility Was Poor, but the Pilot Could See His Finish
- The Missing Cat
- The Eagle Show
- The Laziest Man in the World
- The Crisis in the Central Park Zoo
- From Nipper to Nobody
- He Caught His Wife Kissing a Stranger
- Information Tease
- The Barber College
- The Curse of Ra
- Death Takes a Pretzel Baron
- The Senator's Dilemma
- Hillbilly Court
- The Million Dollar Smile
- Us, the People Speak
- The Sea Buzzard
- Death Takes a Boniface
- The Story of Bramson Snide
- Mountain Justice (1940)
- The Eagle Is Back
- The Great Department Store Dilemma
- Death Comes to the Mystery Story Writer
- The Dentist's Plight
- Santa Claus Sits Down
- Murder at the Faculty Club
1941
- The Quiz Nippers
- All Is Not Gold That Glitters
- The Specialist's Quandary
- They Almost Junked the Junket
- A Stay-at-Home Cruise to Havana
- Mountain Justice (1941)
- Truth or Subsequences
- Milk
- Western Union
- Little Red Riding Hood
- Philander Blank: My Story
- Nicotine Alley
- The Wedlock Society
- One Long Pan Takes a Chance
- Shortcut to a Nervous Breakdown
- Sleep
- The Undoing of Abner Snide
- The Baritone's Plight
- Jack Benny's Tenth Anniversary
- Rhyme Doesn't Pay
- Who Killed Carmen Feitlebaum?
- The Great Studio Economy Wave
- One Long Pan on the Ghost-to-Ghost Network
- The Saga of the Great American Drugstore
- No Blood and No Sand
- The Hour of Good Intentions
- Havoc in the Auto Factory
- Death Comes to Barnegie Hall
- Mob-Breakers
- How Clean Is My Alley
- Death Valley Takes a Holiday
1942
- Mayhem at King Tut's Tomb
- The Hardy Family in the Penitentiary
- Forum for the Forlorn
- The Great Side Show Mystery
- The Courtin' of Nasty and Nell
- Jack Haley in Court
- A Star Is Born
- Mountain Justice (1942)
- Vacation Plans
- Poor Old Charlie
- Roland Young and the Shrimp Cocktail
- Les Miserables
- The Courtin' of Ginny Suggs
- Robert Benchley
- Hugh Herbert
- Accept It or Pip Off
- Fred at the Opera
- A New Suit
- The First Allen's Alley
- Santa Claus Refuses to Mediate
1943
- The Missing Shot
- Jack Benny's Violin
- Oscar Levant
- The Phantom of Carnegie Hall
- The Shot in the Penthouse
- Fred's One Hundredth Texaco Show
- The Great Goldfish Murder
- Jimmy Durante and the War Stamps
- Bela Lugosi's House
- Are You Raising Chickens?
- Fred's Life Story
- The Jockey Who Rode with Death
- Life Can Be Melchior
1944
- Lum Allen and His Barefoot Bobcats
- Duffy's Tavern
- The Three Dollars
- Louella Parsons' Last Stand
- Murder in Studio H
- The Black Market Murders
- Victory Gardens
- Fixing the Ticket
- Radio Versus Television
- The Pekinese of the Baskervilles
- North Dakota
- The Story of Moose Max
- One by Allen
- Portland's Birthday
- South Dakota
1945
- Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy
- Hillbilly Music (Guest: Frank Sinatra)
- Charlie McCarthy Sues for Slander
- Mash Notes (Guest: Martha Raye)
- Charlie the Chicken (Guest: Monty Woolley)
- Renting a House (Guest: Boris Karloff)
- The Brooklyn Pinafore (1945)
- Seeking a Radio Job
- Radio Shows in Russia
1946
- Take It or Leave It (Guest: Phil Baker)
- A Movie on Fred's Life (Guest: George Jessel)
- Beethoven's Confession
- Piccadilly Oklahoma (Guest: Beatrice Lillie)
- Les Misérables (Guest: Orson Welles)
- Carmen Miranda Visits
- The Brooklyn Pinafore (1946)
- The Racing Form Trial
- Mr. and Mrs. Breakfast Show (Guest: Tallulah Bankhead)
- Cairo (Guest: Sydney Greenstreet)
- King for a Day
- The Bowery
- Anniversary of the Telephone (Guest: Oscar Levant)
- Love, Honor and Obey
- Mr. and Mrs. Breakfast Show Reprise (Guest: Tallulah Bankhead)
1947
- British Radio
- Buying Duffy's Tavern
- Lawbusters
- Lauritz Melchior Wants a Radio Job
- Murder in the Penthouse (Guests: The Quiz Kids)
- Picadilly, with Beatrice Lillie
- Suing Fred over Piccadilly Rights (Guests: Rodgers and Hammerstein)
- The Hollywood Mikado
- Gimmick with a Microphone (Guest: Rudy Vallee)
- I Stand Condemned
- Fred the Boarder (Guests: Ozzie and Harriet)
- The Perfect Crime, with James Mason
- Selling Life Stories (Guest: Jack Haley)
- New Year's Eve Plans (Guest: George Jessel)
- Returning Fred's Cuckoo Clock (Guest: Monty Woolley)
1948
- One Long Pan
- Husband and Wife Radio Show (Guests: James and Pamela Mason)
- One Long Pan (Guest: Basil Rathbone)
- The Author Meets His Match (Guest: James Farley)
- Baseball Tickets (Guest: Leo Durocher)
- J.P. Morgan Court of Human Relations (Guest: Henry Morgan)
- Break the Contestant (Guest: Don McNeill)
- Bing Crosby's Life Story (Guest: Bing Crosby)
- Quiz Program and Soap Opera (Guest: Jack Eigen)
- Prize for Listeners Missing Any Contest (Guest: Dale Carnegie)
- Sam Shovel, Private Eye (Guest: Arthur Treacher)
- George Jessel Tries to Sneak into the Roxy
- TV Commercials (Guest: Henry Morgan)
- Maine Murder Trial
1949
- Literary Panel (Guest: H. Allen Smith)
- Traveling Salesman (Guest: Jack Haley)
- Fred Tries to Get Rudy Vallee into TV
- Planning a Television Show (Guest: Bert Lahr)
- Murder Case (Guest: Doc Rockwell)
- Cease the Melody
- Just Plain Fred
- Mob Buster (Guest: Victor Moore)
- The Mad Doctor of Downing Street
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- The Final Fred Allen Show (Guests: Jack Benny and Henry Morgan)
The Jack Benny Program13 · Cast
- From the Hotel Pierre
- Harry Von Zell Subs for Don Wilson
- New Year's Eve Skit
- Jack Looks for a Replacement Singer
- Allen's Alley
- Mrs. Nussbaum's Restaurant
- From St. Albans Naval Hospital
- Contest Winners
- Fred Allen Asks Jack to Be on His Show
- Benny's Boulevard
- From New York (1948)
- How Jack and Fred Allen Met
- From San Francisco (1953)
The Big Show7 · Cast
Command Performance3 · Cast, Host
Family Theater3 · Host, Narrator
Recollections at Thirty2 · Cast
The Bing Crosby Show2 · Cast
The Bob Hope Show2 · Cast
The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show2 · Cast, Announcer
Mail Call1 · Cast
Credits from RadioGOLDINdex and the Internet Archive copies.