cover image Fred Allen's Radio Comedy CL

Fred Allen's Radio Comedy CL

Alan R. Havig. Temple University Press, $64.5 (287pp) ISBN 978-0-87722-713-7

A Stephens College (Missouri) professor of history here examines Allen's (1894-1956) 20 years in vaudeville, his career in radio from 1933 to 1949, and his characteristic brand of air-wave comedy, and concludes that Allen was a literary humorist who created ``comedy uniquely aural in achievement and appeal.'' His humor, as Havig observes, frequently involved parody, insult (as in Allen's long-time feud with Jack Benny); puns; dialect humor (a Chinese-American was a ``Yangtse Doodle Dandy''); worldly satire; and sporadorically profound wit (Allen defined life as ``a lull between stork and epitaph'' and a spinster as ``a woman who indulged once too seldom''). Havig's searching account amuses and informs, offering further proof that the line between high and popular culture has blurred in our century. Photos. (Nov.)