A Stroll Down Allen’s Alley

The Milwaukee Journal-Nov 16, 1947

A Stroll Down Allen’s Alley
                By ROBERT FLEMING

MEET THE CHARATERS WHO TICKLE YOUR FUNNYBONE ON SUNDAY NIGHTS

EACH Sunday night, in millions of American homes, a nasal voice suggests, “Now let’s be off to Allen’s Alley.” And during 15 seconds of music, bridge games are halted, children are hushed, papers are laid aside, and people all over the nation chuckle in anticipation. Fred Allen is off to another gay adventure in neighborliness.

“Allen’s Alley” users about five minutes of each Fred Allen show. Since his program currently tops the listener surveys and has been near top for season after season, it’s almost unnecessary for him to say he’s about to visit Senator Claghorn, Titus Moody, Mrs. Nussbaum and Ajax Cassidy. Regular listeners know the four. But before the conversational Mr. Allen comes into the “alley” again, let’s visit the place, look around, and investigate the residents.

The “alley” is one of radio’s most successful devices. Allen has been using it for about 15 years, always with carefully conceived characters that permit kindly humor, rather than some of the acid lines he uses himself. And so that listener anticipation can help produce enjoyment, Allen always calls at the four doors in the same order. Senator Claghorn, the southerner, is always blustery at the invasion. Titus Moody, the New England farmer, never varies his “Howdy, bub.” Mrs. Nussbaum’s questioning “Nu?” regularly prepares the audience for such a query as “You were expecting maybe Weinstein Churchill?” And Ajax Cassidy, the Irishman bursts forth with that amazing triple tongue greeting that is his own.

Clouded Alley

IT’S a credit to Allen that listeners don’t become incredulous about the “alley.” To avoid that, it is never described. Allen’s glib chatter doesn’t permit one to wonder about this strange collection of houses—Claghorn’s southern mansion, Mrs. Nussbaum’s city tenement, Moody’s rocky farm, and Cassidy’s shanty in Ireland.

The four people who play these parts seldom have more than minute each on any program—except for Claghorn, who gets added air time out of character as Announcer Kenny Delmar. Yet each of the four is familiar to millions.

But Kenny Delmar, at 37, who plays the old senator, seldom speaks up in a loud voice, and he is a native of Boston and he had early dramatic training inspired by his mother, one of the famed “Delmar Sisters” of vaudeville. His portrayal of Claghorn came when a recording of his southern dialect was played for Allen by Minerva Pious, the Mrs. Nussbaum of the show. Since 1945. Kenny has doubled as announcer and Claghorn.

<RURAL: Titus Moody grew up on a farm, but left it for the city>

Titus Moody provides New England and rural humor, even to the extent of some of the “cornier” jokes on the show. Typical is his story of being left an orphan when his mother, a snake charmer in a circus, “grabbed a rattler and left town.” His farm is a poor one – so poor, in fact, “that grasshoppers passing by have to carry their own lunch.” And his own health is so bad that when he cuts his finger, “it don’t bleed—all it’ll do is hiss and pucker.”

Long on the Stage

PARKER FENNELLY, who plays Titus, was born on a Maine island, but he didn’t stay on any farm. He studied dramatics and in 1915 was in his first Broadway play: Walter Huston in Zona Gale’s “Mr. Pitt.” A list of his subsequent stage appearances would fill a page. In summary, he’s a veteran actor, now a grandfather, and one of his hobbies is his rock garden.

Mrs. Nussbaum has lived longest in the “alley.” Incidentally, her lines get the closest scrutiny to avoid any complaint of anti-Semitism. When complaints have come, many prominent Jewish listeners have rallied to the support of the kindly woman with a constant supply of troubles. And so she carries on, telling hilarious stories of how she happened to marry Pierre Nussbaum. A typical account of it is this one:

“When I am a young goil in –you will pardon the expression—pigtails, fat-loose and fancy. I am incessantly winning, through the mail, contests. One day I am winning, through the mail, a wedding ring. When the postman delivers it, he is slipping it on my finger. Luckily, behind the door I have two witnesses—relatives—and a justice of the peace. And the next thing I know the is saying ‘two dollars, please.’ And I am Mrs. Pierre Nussbaum.”

Minerva Pious, who plays Mrs. Nussbaum, is the one member of the cast who never planned to act. She is Jewish and was in Russia, but was brought to America when she was 2. After growing up in Bridgeport, Conn.. she came to New York as a stenographer and was a promotion writer for a newspaper feature service when she began part time radio work as a piano accompanist. Allen overheard her mimicry at a rehearsal studio, and hired her. She’s little –five feet tall and 90 pounds—but is too reserved to be a Mrs. Nussbaum away from a microphone.

On the Way Out?

THERE’S less lore about Ajax Cassidy, because he hasn’t been on the show long. In fact, there are authentic reports that Allen may not keep Cassidy around much longer – the Irish dialect requires lines so simple that humor is difficult. One of the best laughs on a recent show was Cassidy’s, however, when he was expressing his opposition to all music, so intense that “I even carry rocks to throw at the nightingales.”

<NU? Mrs. Nussbaum is oldest of the residents of Allen’s Alley

Peter Donald, who provides Cassidy’s Irish brogue, is an expert in dialects who will play a new character if and when Ajax moves out of the “alley” to make room for another tenant. Born in England while his parents were on a world vaudeville tour, he started in his father’s act when he was 3, and he’s been acting ever since. But that doesn’t mean he’s as old as Ajax Cassidy—he’s 29. His first radio program was in 1928 as Tiny Tim in Dickens’ “Christmas Carol.”  By 1942 he was playing Tiny Tim’s father.