Golden Age of Radio

The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 10, 1938 BURNS AND ALLEN THEY SANG AND DANCED IN VAUDEVILLE BEFORE GRACIE BECAME “DIZZY.” THEY BOTH PLAY GOLD—BUT SEPARATELY. PEOPLE LAUGH AT GRACIE NO MATTER WHAT SHE SAYS, EVEN WHEN MAKING PURCHASES. IT TAKES four men to keep GracieAllen “dizzy” – George Burns and three gagmen . . .Burns did it alone till he began to talk that way himself . . .they teamed first as a song and dance act in vaudeville . . . were married after trouping together for four year . . . became famous on radio . . .Gracie isn’t funny on movie sets . . . but people laugh at her anyway . . .she refers all interviewers to George . . . won’t answer questions herself . . . George handles all business matters . . . she never reads a script . . . George teaches her the lines—believes she’ll be funnier if she doesn’t know what’s going on. . .George is an expert golfer. . . Gracie a rank amateur. . . he took her golfing one day . . . she made a hole-in-one . . . tha...

The Milwaukee Journal –Feb 7, 1943 Who is Dis Guy Archie, Anyway? Ed Gardner of ‘ Duffy ’s’ Went From WPA to Radio Heights; You’d Enjoy Meeting Him By Paul McMahon Of The Journal’s N. Y. Bureau ED GARDNER is Archie. And Archie is Gardner. They have been one and the same since Gardner played piano at the age of 14 in a saloon in his home town of Astoria, N. Y. It wasn’t until late years that Gardner got around to creating the Archie role for the entertainment of radio fans who now hear the naive, wise guy counterman in “ Duffy ’s” over the Blue network at 7:30 Tuesday nights. “ Dere’s always been somethin ’ of Archie in me,” Gardner confessed one day. “ Ya know de old sayin ’, ‘As de twing is bent.’” The character of Archie first came to life in 1939 in a program entitled “This Is New York,” to which Gardner had been assigned as director and producer. Gardner went through misery trying to find someone to fit his conception of Archie. In despair one...

The Milwaukee Journal – Oct 4, 1942 She’s Really Anything but a Dope By Carlton Cheney DOWN through the ages countless millions of words have been uttered or written about the manifold advantages of being smart. But one may look in vain to the advice of sages and pundits for single observation , a friendly tip extolling the manifold virtues of being dumb. This, it appears, is a gross and deplorable omission which we right here and now set about to correct, being moved to the effort by a visit we paid the other day to the home of Gracie Allen , that darling dunce of the air waves , on the eve of her return to radio with husband-partner George Burns . Gracie and George , as you no doubt know, have been taking a summer vacation, but they will be back on the ether Tuesday night, again supported by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra; Jimmy Cash, the Arkansas Singer; Bill Goodwin, announcer and stooge, and Clarence Nash as Herman the Duck. White the show this season w...

The Milwaukee Journal – Feb 16, 1941 George Burns Loves Gag He Pulled 3,000 Times A STATISTICIAN with a flair for adventure made a pilgrimage recently to the home of George Burns and GracieAllen . He emerged a week later, weakly muttering facts and figures which summarized something like this: George and Gracie , in the 18 years of their career together, have used up approximately 40,000 jokes. One joke which makes George laugh has been used 3,000 times, and it’s still good for laughs from George. Burns and Allen , long before they became NBC stars, played seven years of vaudeville with only two routines, titled “Sixty Forty” and “Lamb Chops.” Each act ran 14 minutes, and changes in routine were events of such importance that George and Gracie , before inserting a new joke, went to some small town to break it in. “Now,” Gracie says, “the new joke is broken in, and is still going strong on our NBC programs.” When Burns and Allen, booked on the Gus Sonn circu...