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79-452: The most striking feature was the extremely long (for a five-passenger car) hood-like cover over the luggage compartment of the sedan which was exaggerated on the Starlight. Critics of the radically styled models commented by asking the rhetorical question, "Which way is it going?" (Comedian Fred Allen quipped: "Next year Studebaker is coming out with a model that you won't be able to tell if it

158-434: A "respectfully" received duo that billed themselves as Fink and Smith, and played a few of the dying vaudeville houses. Allen returned to New York to the pleasant surprise that Portland Hoffa was taking instruction to convert to Roman Catholicism . After the couple married, Allen began writing material for them to use together ("With a vaudeville act, Portland and I could be together, even if we couldn't find any work"), and

237-564: A Crowd (1930–31), which eventually led to his full-time entry to radio in 1932. Allen first hosted The Linit Bath Club Revue on CBS and moved the show to NBC to become The Salad Bowl Revue (in a nod to new sponsor Hellmann's Mayonnaise, which was marketed by the parent company of Linit) later in the year. The show became The Sal Hepatica Revue (1933–34), The Hour of Smiles (1934–35), and finally Town Hall Tonight (1935–39). In 1939–40, however, sponsor Bristol-Myers , which advertised Ipana toothpaste as well as Sal Hepatica during

316-574: A call from Stop the Music or any similar game show while they listened to The Fred Allen Show . He never had to pay up, and he was not shy about lampooning the game-show phenomenon (especially a riotous parody of another quiz show that Parks hosted by launching Break the Bank in a routine called "Break the Contestant" in which players did not receive a thing but were compelled to give up possessions when they blew

395-427: A freshening of the 1947 design with the addition of the "bullet nose" (or "spinner") front sheet metal design, sharing a similar appearance with the 1949 Ford sedan. When combined with the Starlight body style, Studebakers looked comparatively futuristic at the time. This version of the Starlight body style continued until the end of the 1952 model year, when it was sold side by side with a hardtop "Starliner" version of

474-406: A girl in the crowd told him, "You're crazy to keep working here at the library; you ought to go on stage," Allen decided that his career path was set. In 1914, at the age of 20, Allen took a job with a local piano company, in addition to his library work. He appeared at a number of amateur night competitions, soon took the stage name Fred St. James, and booked with the local vaudeville circuit at $ 30

553-542: A little class into it." Their success in these appearances helped their theater reception. Live audiences in the Midwest liked to see their radio favorites in person even if Allen and Hoffa would be replaced by Bob Hope when the radio show moved to New York several months afterward. The couple eventually got their Hammerstein show, Polly , which opened in Delaware and made the usual tour before hitting Broadway. Also in that cast

632-646: A much smaller company than AMC or the Big Three, particularly hard. The 289 V-8 returned as the standard engine in the Hawk. Studebaker had a proven sales winner in the 1959 Lark, which was continued into 1960 with little change. With steel in short supply, the company chose to focus on building as many Larks as possible to ensure an adequate supply for the company's dealers. This meant that Silver Hawk production for 1960, which had been scheduled to begin in November or December 1959,

711-433: A punchline on each gravestone. It was the "Old Joke Cemetery," where overworked gags go to die. In Allen's act, the audiences would see the curtain (and have several minutes to read its 46 punchlines) before Allen made his entrance. Audiences typically would be laughing at the curtain before Allen even appeared. Robert Taylor's biography of Allen includes an impressive full-length photo of Branner's curtain painting, and many of

790-583: A question). Unfortunately, Allen fell to number 38 in the radio ratings, which was compounded by the rise of television in many major cities. By then, he had changed the show again somewhat with the famed "Allen's Alley" skits now taking place on "Main Street" and rotating a new character or two in and out of the lineup. He stepped down from radio again in 1949, at the end of his show's regular season, as much under his doctor's orders (for Allen's continued hypertension) as because of his slipping ratings. He decided to take

869-405: A railroad observation car. The curved window was achieved with four fixed panels of glass. The roof was supported by two wide pillars (sometimes called "B" pillars) immediately behind the doors and in front of the wraparound back window. The body style was originally named, simply, "5-passenger coupe"; however, for the 1949 model year it was renamed Starlight Coupe. The car's unique profile provided

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948-471: A signature for three of the four years. The other change, born in the Texaco days and evolving from his earlier news spoofs, proved his most enduring, premiering December 6, 1942. The inspiration for the mythical Main Street of " Allen's Alley " came from the small-town heartland folks who were often profiled in the newspaper columns written by O. O. McIntyre (1884–1938), one of the most popular columnists of

1027-490: A week (equal to $ 913 today), enough at the time to allow him to quit his jobs with the library and the piano company. Eventually, he became "Freddy James" and often billed himself as the world's worst juggler. Allen refined the mix of his deliberately-clumsy juggling and the standard jokes and one-liners. He directed much of the humor at his own poor juggling abilities. During his time in vaudeville, his act evolved more toward monologic comedy and less juggling. In 1917, returning to

1106-659: A year off, but it did more for his health than his career. After the June 26, 1949 show on which Henry Morgan and Jack Benny guested, Allen never hosted another radio show full-time again. Good friends in real life, Fred Allen and Jack Benny inadvertently hatched a running gag in 1937 when a child prodigy, the violinist Stuart Canin , gave a very credible performance on the Allen show and inspired an Allen wisecrack about "a certain alleged violinist" who should hide in shame over his poor playing. Allen often mentioned his show-business friends on

1185-408: Is going sideways".) The viewer's astonishment was compounded by the great expanse of the wrap-around rear window. Previously cars had tended to shroud back-seat passengers. Unlike other pillared two-door sedans that use two side windows separated from the rear window by roof supports, Loewy created a roof rounded at the rear with a wraparound window system that provided a panoramic effect, similar to

1264-547: Is precisely why I am here." Mrs. Nussbaum always greeted Allen by saying, "You were expecting maybe...", and then she would mispronounce the name of a glamorous film star, such as "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra Bankhead?" The Alley sketches made only one further cast change, when Peter Donald 's chipper Irishman Ajax Cassidy succeeded Reed's Falstaff. Despite the ethnic diversity, the Alley characters seemed less citified and more akin with O. O. McIntyre's small-town America. Allen's topical humor

1343-1268: Is sometimes thought an acquired taste for audiences curious about his generation of radio stars; Dunning has written that when he "went into topical humor, he may have forfeited his only opportunity to be the Mark Twain of his century. He had flashes of undeniable brilliance. But the main body of his work deals with the day-to-day fodder of another time, and sons have seldom been amused by the embarrassments or tragedies of their fathers." However, others find many parallels to today's world and its absurdities. The "Allen's Alley" stereotypes make some cringe, as Allen biographer Robert Taylor noted (in Fred Allen: His Life and Wit ), but others find them lancing more than lauding stereotypes, letting listeners make up their own minds about how foolish they could be. "Interestingly enough," wrote Frank Buxton and Bill Owen in The Big Broadcast 1920-1950 , "[Claghorn, Nussbaum, Moody, and Cassidy] were never criticized as being anti-Southern, anti-Semitic, anti-New England, or anti-Irish. The warmth and good humor with which they were presented made them acceptable even to

1422-570: The Hollywood Walk of Fame for contributions to television and radio. John Florence Sullivan was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts , to Irish Catholic parents. Allen barely knew his mother, Cecilia ( née Herlihy) Sullivan, who died of pneumonia when he was not quite three years old. Along with his father, James Henry Sullivan, and his infant brother Robert, Allen was taken in by one of his mother's sisters, "my aunt Lizzie", around whom he focused

1501-506: The Studebaker Hawk series. In 1958, Studebaker again applied the Starlight name to a body style, this time on its first full-sized hardtop models since 1952. With lackluster sales and a switch to the compact Lark , the company no longer was in need of the Starlight moniker and it was permanently retired at the end of the model year. Oldsmobile would attempt an effect similar to the Starlight in 1977 with its Toronado XS model. Unlike

1580-603: The " Aunt Jemima " on pancake boxes, and singer Donald Gardner from Saugerties, New York . Allen held himself personally responsible for the show's success and devoted much of his time to writing and rewriting routines and scripts. The overwork took a heavy toll on his health. His condition was diagnosed as hypertension, and he was forced to take more than a year off. Concurrent with his radio duties, Allen made occasional motion pictures by appearing in seven full-length features and three shorts between 1929 and 1952. His first film, filmed by Paramount Pictures at its New York studio,

1659-611: The '53 coupes and hardtops designed by Robert Bourke, as head of the design team Studebaker contracted from Raymond Loewy Associates. In 1956 the Golden Hawk, Sky Hawk and Power Hawk came with 352 cid, 289 cid and 259 cid v-8s respectively, while the Flight Hawk ran the Champion 185 cid engine. The Golden and Sky Hawks were hardtops; while the Power and Flight Hawks were pillared coupes. Only one of

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1738-429: The 1930s, with some seven million readers. "Allen's Alley" followed a brief Allen monologue and comic segment with Portland Hoffa ("Misssss-ter Allll-llennnn!"), usually involving gags that she instigated about her family. Then, a brief music interlude would symbolize the two making their way to the fictitious Alley. The segment was always launched by a quick exchange that began with Hoffa asking Allen what he would ask

1817-460: The 1953–1954 models) similar to the Golden Hawk were added, and the interior was somewhere in between the two former models' levels of luxury. Two-tone paint was discontinued for all U.S. orders, though it was still available for export. Under the hood (at least for U.S. models), buyers could choose the newly-shrunken (to pre-'55 size) 90 HP 169.6 cu in (2.8 L) six or the 259 cu in (4.2 L) V8 of 180 or 195 HP (depending on

1896-405: The 1959, internally, the major change was the return of the 289-cubic-inch (4.7 L) V8 last used in 1958. This was the only engine available for U.S. orders in both 1960 and 1961, the last year of the finned Hawk. Some six-cylinder and 259 cu in (4.2 L) V8 models were built for export markets. The 1961 models saw the limited return of a second paint color, beige, in a stripe along

1975-497: The Alley denizens that week. After she implored him, "Shall we go?" Allen would reply with cracks like, "As the two drumsticks said when they spotted the tympani, let's beat it!'" or "As one strapless gown said to the other strapless gown, 'What's holding us up?'" A small host of stereotypical characters greeted Allen and Hoffa down the Alley, discussing Allen's question of the week, usually drawing on news items or popular happenings around town, whether gas rationing, traffic congestion,

2054-580: The Golden Hawk with the supercharged President 289 V-8. A one-year-only model '58 Packard Hawk was also offered with the 289 supercharged engine. In appearance, the Silver Hawk was plainer than the Golden Hawk . Besides being a coupe, while the Golden was always a hardtop, there was a bit less chrome, no supercharger or bulge in the hood, and a simpler two-tone paint scheme was adopted — simply one color below

2133-456: The Netherlands where Studebaker was quite popular. Changes for 1959 included new tailfins, with the "Silver Hawk" script moved to the fins instead of on the trunk lid (where new individual block letters spelling out STUDEBAKER were placed), with a new Hawk badge in between the two words. The parking lights moved to the side grilles from the front fenders, chrome moldings around the windows (from

2212-559: The New York circuit, his stage name was changed to Fred Allen so that he would not be offered the same low salary that theater owners had been accustomed to paying him in his early career. His new surname came from Edgar Allen, a booker for the Fox theaters. In 1922, Allen commissioned comic-strip artist Martin Branner to cover a theater curtain with an elaborate mural painting depicting a cemetery with

2291-551: The News" and Saturday Night Live 's "Weekend Update" were influenced by Town Hall Tonight's "The News Reel", later renamed "Town Hall News" (and in 1939–40, as a sop to his sponsor, " Ipana News"). The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 's "Mighty Carson Art Players" routines referred to the Mighty Allen Art Players in name and sometimes in routines. Allen and company also satirized popular musical comedies and films of

2370-672: The Pulitzer Prizes, postwar holiday travel, or the annual Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus visit. The Alley went through a few changes in the first installments. Early denizens included sarcastic John Doe ( John Brown ), self-possessed Senator Bloat and town drunk Sampson Souse ( Jack Smart ), dimwitted Socrates Mulligan ( Charlie Cantor ), pompous poet Falstaff Openshaw ( Alan Reed ), and wry Jewish housewife Pansy Nussbaum ( Minerva Pious ). By 1945, Pious and Reed were joined by two new Alley denizens: Parker Fennelly as stoic New England farmer Titus Moody, and Kenny Delmar ,

2449-528: The Races ). Steaming mad because of his long battles for recognition, Boasberg was said to have delivered a tirade that ended up (in slightly altered form) in an Allen-Benny feud routine: ALLEN: Why, you fugitive from a Ripley cartoon ... I'll knock you flatter than the first eight minutes of this program. BENNY: You ought to do well in pictures, Mr. Allen, now that Boris Karloff is back in England. ALLEN: Why, if I

Studebaker Starlight - Misplaced Pages Continue

2528-578: The Silver Hawk became the only Hawk model in production, largely because Studebaker dealers wanted a glamorous flagship model as a dealership draw. Those customers would more than likely walk out with Studebaker's last-ditch hope, the new Lark compact. In fact, the Silver Hawk was the only non-Lark model kept. Studebakers were also exported and rebuilt as CKD's (completely Knock Down) to Belgium. Prospects could order whatever model or options (with- or without fins) to suit their preference. Cars were built by D'Ieteren Frères of Belgium for European markets such as

2607-609: The Studebaker marque with an easily recognized body shape copied as soon as possible by the other US manufacturers in their 1949 models, and appeared to be influenced by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning , particularly by the shortened fuselage with wrap around canopy. Studebaker followed a styling trend soon after the war of adopting fighter aircraft appearances on their products, as demonstrated on Buick and Cadillac vehicles starting in 1948. For 1950 and 1951, all Studebakers received

2686-476: The Studebaker, however, advances in auto glass production allowed the Toronado wrap around window to be manufactured in one sheet of glass that was bent using "hot wire" technology. Fred Allen John Florence Sullivan (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), known professionally as Fred Allen , was an American comedian. His absurdist topically-pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932–1949) made him one of

2765-473: The air ("Mr. Jacob Haley of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts" was Allen's way of saying hello to his pal Jack Haley ), and on the Canin broadcast Allen knew Benny would be listening. Benny, according to Allen biographer Taylor, burst out laughing, then responded in kind on his own program. The rivalry gag went on for a decade and convinced some fans that the two comedians really were blood enemies. The Allen-Benny feud

2844-424: The air over the battles while developing routines whose style and substance influenced fellow comic talents, including Groucho Marx , Stan Freberg , Henry Morgan , and Johnny Carson ; his avowed fans also included President Franklin D. Roosevelt , humorist James Thurber , and novelists William Faulkner , John Steinbeck , and Herman Wouk , who began his career writing for Allen. Allen was honored with stars on

2923-461: The base of the fin between the two lower moldings. Interiors gained the option of wide, comfortable bucket seats; customers could opt to team their 289 V8 with a new four-speed Borg-Warner manual transmission, the same model used in the Chevrolet Corvette . When the 1960 model year began, U.S. automakers were in the throes of a steel strike, and the shortage of steel hit Studebaker, which was

3002-578: The best lines of the night. (Both Benny and Allen revealed later that each man's writers consulted with each other on routines involving the feud.) They toned the gag down after 1941, though they kept it going often enough as the years continued, climaxing on Allen's May 26, 1946 show, in which a sketch called "King for a Day," satirizing big-money game shows, featured Benny pretending to be a contestant named Myron Proudfoot on Allen's new quiz show. ALLEN: Tomorrow night, in your ermine robe, you will be whisked by bicycle to Orange, New Jersey , where you will be

3081-527: The best of it by circulating an obituary of his act on black-bordered funeral stationery. He also mailed vials of his supposed "flop sweat" to newspapers as part of his comic self-promotion. In 1921, Fred Allen and Nora Bayes toured with the company of Lew Fields . Their musical director was nineteen-year-old Richard Rodgers . Many years later, when he and Oscar Hammerstein II appeared as mystery guests on What's My Line? , Rodgers recalled Allen's act of sitting on

3160-403: The car to be stripped and the body sent to the secret graveyard at the proving grounds. A non-engineering employee requested permission to purchase the car, rather than see it rot away with the other prototypes. Chief engineer Gene Hardig discussed the request with E. T. Reynolds. They agreed to let the employee purchase the car on the condition that the employee never sell it. In the 1970s, the car

3239-633: The choice between coming with him and his new wife or staying with Aunt Lizzie. Allen's younger brother chose to go with their father, but Allen decided to stay with his aunt. "I never regretted it," he wrote. Allen was a Catholic and regularly attended Mass at St. Malachy's Church in Manhattan. Allen took piano lessons as a boy, his father having brought an Emerson upright along when they moved in with his aunt. He learned exactly two songs, "Hiawatha" and "Pitter, Patter, Little Raindrops," and would be asked to play "half or all my repertoire" when visitors came to

Studebaker Starlight - Misplaced Pages Continue

3318-449: The choice of carburetor). The 289 was no longer available. The 1959 model year was Studebaker's first profitable year in six years, thanks mostly to the Lark, and the rising tide of sales lifted the Silver Hawk, which sold 7,788 examples. While the Silver Hawk was the only model offered in 1959, it too was dropped for 1960, with all models called simply Hawks. Largely unchanged externally from

3397-431: The chrome belt line and another above, but unlike the Golden Hawk, the lower color included the fin. Some dealers painted the fin only, and sometimes the deck lid recess and or the left and right "side grills" were painted in a contrasting Studebaker color. These usually matched the interior, some were Blue, Gold, Red, or Black and were better looking according to many owners than the factory two-tone paint scheme. For 1959,

3476-451: The comic feud with Jack Benny. Allen's sole leading role was as flea circus impresario Fred F. Trumble Floogle in the frenetic It's in the Bag! , a loose adaptation of Ilf and Petrov's novel The Twelve Chairs . In 1945 The Fred Allen Show returned to NBC, Sunday nights at 8:30 p.m. EST. Standard Brands ' Blue Bonnet Margarine and Tender Leaf Tea, and later, Ford Motor Company, were

3555-405: The company did not have the financial resources to add another body type to the model line. The company's leadership mistakenly thought the 2-door sedans, 4-door sedans, and 1954 Conestoga wagon would sell better than the 2-door coupes, so the company's resources were focused on production of the sedans and the wagon. When the prototype convertible was no longer needed, engineer E. T. Reynolds ordered

3634-658: The country began quoting his catchphrases : "Somebody, Ah say, somebody knocked"; "I'm from the South, Suh"; "That's a joke, son"; and "Pay attention, boy!" Claghorn served as the model for the Warner Bros. cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn , who first appeared the following August in the Oscar-nominated Walky Talky Hawky . Other characters had catchphrases that were almost as famous as Claghorn's, such as Titus Moody's "Howdy, Bub", and Falstaff Openshaw's "That

3713-493: The coupes were available as pillared and hardtop body styles. Hardtop coupes were designated Starliners while the Starlight designation was applied to the five window pillared coupes. The styling on both these later (1953) cars influenced the Hillman Minx of the late 1950s and 1960s, which was also designed by Raymond Loewy . In late 1952 Studebaker produced one 1953 Commander convertible as an engineering study to determine if

3792-426: The couple divided their time between the show business circuit, Allen's New England family home and Old Orchard Beach, Maine , in the summers. Allen's first taste of radio came while he and Portland Hoffa waited for a promised slot in a new Arthur Hammerstein musical. In the interim, they appeared on a Chicago station 's program, WLS Showboat , into which Allen recalled, "Portland and I were presented... to inject

3871-427: The day, including and especially Oklahoma! . Allen also did semi-satirical interpretations of well-known lives, including his own. The show that became Town Hall Tonight was the longest-running hour-long comedy-based show in classic radio history. In 1940, Allen moved back to CBS Radio with a new sponsor and show name, Texaco Star Theater , airing every Wednesday at 9:00 pm ET on CBS, then Sundays at 9:00 pm in

3950-527: The edge of the stage with his legs dangling down, playing a banjo, and telling jokes. Allen temporarily left vaudeville, moving to work in such Shubert Brothers stage productions as The Passing Show in 1922. The show played well in its runup to Broadway but lasted only ten weeks at the Winter Garden Theatre . Portland Hoffa , who was in the chorus of the show, was eventually to marry Allen. He received good notices for his comic work in several of

4029-409: The fall of 1941. By 1942, he shortened the show to half an hour, at 9:30 pm ET, under the edicts of the network and sponsor. He also chafed under being forced to give up a Town Hall Tonight signature of using barely-known and amateur guests effectively in favor of booking more recognizable guests although he liked many of them. Guests included singers from Kingston, New York , the original woman behind

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4108-510: The feud's highlights involved Al Boasberg , who is credited with helping Benny refine his character into what may have been America's first stand-up comedian . Boasberg was well known behind the scenes as a top comedy writer and script doctor, but he seldom received recognition in public. He worked, uncredited, on many films (including the Marx Brothers ' hits A Night at the Opera and A Day at

4187-441: The first chapter of his second memoir, Much Ado About Me . His father was so shattered by his mother's death that according to Allen, he drank more heavily. His aunt suffered as well; her husband, Michael, was partially paralyzed by lead poisoning shortly after they married, which left him mostly unable to work; Allen remembered that as causing contention among Lizzie's sisters. Eventually, Allen's father remarried and offered his sons

4266-470: The former minor league baseball Single-A Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate took its name from this model. Originally the logo and lettering on the teams' uniforms mirrored the logo and lettering on the car, but this has since changed to a more cartoon-esque design. The team was renamed the South Bend Cubs, following the 2014 season. A Studebaker Hawk was featured as the title character's personal car in

4345-506: The four models in 1956 sported any fins, that being the Golden Hawk. In 1957 the Silver Hawk was introduced as a pillared coupe, replacing both the Power Hawk and Flight Hawk. The 185 cid Champion engine was standard in the model, with the 259 Commander V-8 offered only in export models. The Sky Hawk was also dropped in 1957, resulting in only two Studebaker Hawk models offered that year, the Silver Hawk with Champion Six or standard 289 V-8 and

4424-486: The house. He also worked at the Boston Public Library , where he discovered a book about the origin and the development of comedy. Enduring various upheavals at home (other aunts came and went, which prompted several moves), Allen also took up juggling while he learned as much as possible about comedy. Some library co-workers planned to put on a show and asked him to do a bit of juggling and some of his comedy. When

4503-472: The judge in a chicken-cleaning contest. BENNY (rapturously): I'm King for a Day! [Allen proceeds to have Benny's clothes pressed:] Studebaker Silver Hawk The Studebaker Silver Hawk is an automobile produced in 1957, 1958 and 1959 by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana . Studebaker introduced the "Hawk" line in 1956, with four models based on the wheelbase and body of

4582-407: The later years. When a joke was greeted with an awkward silence, Allen would comment on the lack of response with his ad-libbed "explanation" almost always funnier than the original joke, a technique that was later adopted successfully by Johnny Carson. The Fred Allen Show was radio's top-rated show of the 1946–47 season. Allen was able to negotiate a lucrative new contract as a result not only of

4661-459: The model could be profitably mass-produced. The car was based on the 1953 2-door hardtop coupe. The car was later modified to 1954-model specifications, and was occasionally driven around South Bend by engineers. Additional structural reinforcements were needed to reduce body flexure. Even though the car was equipped with the 232 cu. in. V-8, the added structural weight increased the car's 0-60 mph acceleration time to an unacceptable level. In addition,

4740-660: The most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio . His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny , but that was only part of his appeal. Radio historian John Dunning (in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio ) wrote that Allen was perhaps radio's most admired comedian and most frequently censored. A master ad libber , Allen often tangled with his network's executives and often barbed them on

4819-419: The most sensitive listeners." Allen employed a writing staff, but it served as his sounding boards and early draft consultants as much as actual writers. It was Allen who had the final edit, rewrote of each week's script, and worked as long as 12 hours a day on ideas or sketches. His ad-libbing ability caused many a show to fade away behind the ending network identification because Allen often ate up air time. It

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4898-411: The new show's announcer, as bellowing Southern senator Beauregard Claghorn . Pious is credited with bringing Delmar to Allen's attention. Delmar based the blowhard character on a real-life person he had encountered while hitchhiking in 1928; Delmar had originally named the voice characterization "Dynamite Gus." Within weeks, Claghorn became one of the leading comedy characters of radio as listeners across

4977-546: The productions, particularly Vogues and Greenwich Village Follies , and continued to develop his comic writing. He even wrote a column for Variety called "Near Fun." A salary dispute ended the column; Allen wanted only $ 60 a week (equal to $ 1,092 today) to give up his theater work to become a full-time columnist, but his editor tried a sleight of hand, based on the paper's ad rates, to deny him. He spent his summer in Boston, honed his comic and writing skills even further, worked in

5056-479: The program, altered the title to The Fred Allen Show over his objections. Allen's perfectionism (odd to some because of his deft ad libs) caused him to leap from sponsor to sponsor until Town Hall Tonight allowed him to set his chosen small-town milieu and establish himself as a bona fide radio star. The hour-long show featured segments that would influence radio and, much later, television. News satires such as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In ' s "Laugh-In Looks at

5135-498: The punchlines are clearly legible in the photo. Allen used a variety of gimmicks in his changing act from a ventriloquist dummy to juggling to singing, but the focus was always on his comedy, which was heavy on wordplay. One recurring bit was to read a purported "letter from home" with material such as the following: Allen's wit was at times intended not for the vaudeville audience but rather for other professionals in show business. After one of his appearances failed one day, Allen made

5214-448: The same model. For 1953 designer Robert E Bourke , head of Raymond Loewy Associates Studebaker design operation, radically redesigned all Studebaker cars. Studebaker sedans rode on an 116 in (2,900 mm) wheelbase, although emphasis was placed on the sports car -like Raymond Loewy-designed 2-door coupes that rode on Studebaker's longer 120 in (3,000 mm) wheelbase. Offered in both Champion and Commander model ranges,

5293-421: The show's success but also in large measure to NBC 's anxiety to keep more of its stars from joining Jack Benny in a wholesale defection to CBS as well as to retain its services for its rapidly-expanding television programming. The CBS talent raids broke up NBC 's hit Sunday night, and Benny also convinced George Burns and Gracie Allen and Bing Crosby to join his move. However, a year later, Fred Allen

5372-445: The sponsors for the rest of the show's run. (Texaco revived Texaco Star Theater in 1948 on radio, and more successfully on television , making an American icon out of star Milton Berle ). Allen again made a few changes, including the singing DeMarco Sisters to whom he had been tipped by arranger-composer Gordon Jenkins . "We did four years with Mr. Allen and got one thousand dollars a week," Gloria DeMarco remembered. "Sunday night

5451-472: The start of Hawk production in 1960 shows just how close Studebaker came to not producing a model that they had at least halfheartedly promoted in print advertising and showroom brochures. The Hawk lived on, and later that year a stock production model won its class in the 1960 Mobil Economy Run , delivering 22.9 miles per gallon. The Hawk was replaced for 1962 by the restyled (by Brooks Stevens ) Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk . The South Bend Silver Hawks ,

5530-415: The total reached 15 minutes, Baker barged into the studio 15 minutes earlier than schedule, while Allen was on the air, and took over the show by welcoming the audience to Take It or Leave It . Allen, aghast but amused, surrendered the microphone to Baker. Allen's parting shot was, "I'll write a letter to Senator Claghorn about this!" Allen also "died" more eloquently than other radio comics, particularly in

5609-463: Was The Installment Collector (1929), a nine-minute adaptation of one of his vaudeville acts in which he remits a succession of personal articles to an insistent debt collector. Allen followed it with two shorts for Vitaphone , also filmed in New York. Allen's first feature film was the 1935 Dick Powell musical comedy Thanks a Million , which The New York Times reviewed by naming only Allen in its headline. In 1940, Love Thy Neighbor played off

5688-407: Was a horse, a pony even, and found out that any part of my tail was used in your violin bow, I'd hang my head in my oatbag from then on. Benny's side of the feud included a tart interpretation of Allen's Town Hall Tonight show, which Benny and company called "Clown Hall Tonight." A signature element of the feud was that, whenever one guested on the other's shows, the host would tend to hand the guest

5767-555: Was a young Englishman named Archie Leach, who received as many good notices for his romantic appeal as Allen got for his comic work. Hammerstein retooled the show before he brought it to New York by replacing everyone but two women and Allen. Leach decided to buy an old car and drive to Hollywood. "What Archie Leach didn't tell me," Allen remembered, "was that he was going to change his name to Cary Grant ." Polly never succeeded in spite of several retoolings, but Allen went on to successful shows like The Little Show (1929–30) and Three's

5846-467: Was delayed. Sales of the Lark began to fall off in the closing months of 1959. By the beginning of February 1960, Hawks finally began to roll from the South Bend assembly line. It isn't known what might have happened had Lark sales continued at their 1959 levels, but speculation has been advanced that the company might not have produced any Hawks. The lengthy delay between new-model announcement time and

5925-437: Was knocked off his perch not by a talent raid but by a show on a third rival network, ABC (the former NBC Blue network). The quiz show Stop the Music , hosted by Bert Parks (debuted 1948), required listeners to participate live by telephone. The show became a big enough hit to break into Allen's grip on that Sunday night-time slot. At first, Allen fought fire with his own kind of fire: he offered $ 5,000 to listeners getting

6004-409: Was not as unusual for him as for others to sign off with "We're a little late, so good night, folks." Allen's habit of signing off late affected fellow former vaudevillian Phil Baker , whose quiz show Take It or Leave It immediately followed the Allen show. Baker hatched a comic plan to remedy the situation. He kept track of how much time he was losing to Allen over a period of a few months, and when

6083-426: Was re-discovered behind a South Bend gas station and no longer owned by the former employee. After eventually passing through several owners, the car is now in a private collection of Studebaker automobiles. For 1955 the pillared Starlight reverted to "5-passenger coupe", the pillarless "Starliner" became "5-passenger hardtop." For 1956 these 5-passenger 2-door coupes with pillars were heavily modified and reissued as

6162-479: Was the best night on radio." Sunday night with Fred Allen seemed incomplete on any night that listeners did not hear the DeMarco Sisters, whose breezy, harmonious style became as familiar as their cheerfully sung "Mr. Al-len, Mr. Alll-llennnn" in the show's opening theme. During the theme's brief pause, Allen would say something like, "It isn't the mayor of Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga, kiddies." That device became

6241-635: Was the longest-playing, best-remembered dialogic running gag in classic radio history. The gag even pushed toward a boxing match between the two comedians and the promised event was a sellout, but the match never occurred. The pair even appeared together in films, including Love Thy Neighbor (1940) and It's in the Bag! (1945), Allen's only starring vehicle, also featuring William Bendix , Robert Benchley , and Jerry Colonna . He also starred with Oscar Levant in 20th Century-Fox's anthology film O. Henry's Full House , in The Ransom of Red Chief . Some of

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