Inspired by the author's participation in the Allied bombing of the monastery at Monte Cassino during World War II, the novel is considered a masterpiece by literary critics. It has been compared favorably with the works of Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and Walker Percy and its themes of religion, recurrence, and church versus state have generated a significant body of scholarly research.
Friday, April 4, 2025
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Inspired by the author's participation in the Allied bombing of the monastery at Monte Cassino during World War II, the novel is considered a masterpiece by literary critics. It has been compared favorably with the works of Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and Walker Percy and its themes of religion, recurrence, and church versus state have generated a significant body of scholarly research.
Friday, March 28, 2025
Fred Allen
However, Allen's wit wasn't well-suited to vaudeville audiences, and after one unsuccessful performance, he quit the show.
Allen left vaudeville and went on to work in Shubert Brothers' theatrical productions such as The Passing Show in 1922. The show ran for ten weeks at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre. In that show, he met one of the chorus girls, Portland Hoffa, whom he married.
He earned critical acclaim for his comedic work in several of the productions in which he appeared, particularly Vogues and Greenwich Village Follies. He also wrote a humor column for Variety called "Near Fun."
Fred Allen's first exposure to radio came when he and his wife performed on the Chicago radio show WLS Showboat. Later, the couple landed a spot on Arthur Hammerstein's musical show, Polly. The show also featured a young Cary Grant. Other programs he appeared on included The Little Show (1929-30) and Three's a Crowd (1930-31), and from that point on, he began to dedicate himself to radio full-time.
Good friends in real life, Fred Allen and Jack Benny unintentionally created a gag in 1937, in which each disputed with the other from his own program. The back-and-forth between them became so successful that both continued with it for a decade.
After their show ended, Allen became a regular guest on NBC's The Big Show (1950-1952), hosted by Tallulah Bankhead. He appeared on 24 of the show's 57 installments, including the inaugural, proving that he had not lost his trademark wit. In some respects, The Big Show was inspired by Allen's old show: former Texaco Star Theater host Jimmy Wallington was one of The Big Show's hosts, and Portland Hoffa also made several appearances.
Allen attempted three television projects that were short-lived, including an adaptation of "Allen's Alley" to the new medium. The other two were game shows. One of them, Judge For Yourself (subtitled "The Fred Allen Show") was a game show that incorporated musical numbers.
Allen also worked in his later years as a newspaper columnist and humorist. He wrote Treadmill to Oblivion (in 1954, recalling his years in radio and television) and Much Ado About Me (in 1956, about his childhood and his years in vaudeville and Broadway). The first of the books was one of the best sellers about the classic radio era. But before finishing the last chapter of the second, Allen suffered an acute myocardial infarction that caused his death at the age of 61. His death occurred in New York City. Allen is buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne.
Fred Allen has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for his radio work at 6709 Hollywood Boulevard. And another for his television work at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Fred Allen
Friday, March 14, 2025
Barbara Jo Allen
Born in New York, she was known by the name Vera Vague, the spinster she created and played on radio and screen in the 1940s and 1950s, and for whom she was inspired by a person she met in real life, a woman who was giving a lecture on literature and who spoke in a confusing manner. As Vague, she popularized the catchphrase "You dear boy!"
Allen's acting talent already emerged in the plays performed at school. After graduating from high school, she went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. Concentrating on the study of languages, she became fluent in French, Spanish, German, and Italian. After her parents died, she moved to Los Angeles, where she lived with her uncle.
In 1937, she made her radio debut, playing Beth Holly on NBC's One Man's Family, and later appearing on Death Valley Days, I Love a Mystery, and other radio series. After appearing as Vera in 1939 on NBC's Matinee, she appeared regularly alongside Bob Hope beginning in 1941.
Allen acted in at least 60 films and television series between 1938 and 1963, often under the stage name Vera Vague instead of her own. The character she created became so popular that she eventually adopted her name as her professional moniker. From 1943 to 1952, as Vera, she made more than a dozen comedy shorts for Columbia Pictures.
In 1948, she did not work as hard as an actress, instead setting up an orchid business while serving as Honorary Mayor of Woodland Hills, California. In 1953, as Vera, she hosted her own television series, Follow the Leader, a CBS audience participation show. In 1958, she was Mabel in the rerun version of the Jeannie Carson sitcom Hey, Jeannie!, which aired for only six episodes.
Allen was also a voice actress in animated films, most notably as Fauna in Sleeping Beauty (1959) and the scullery maid in The Sword in the Stone (1963).
Allen's first marriage was to actor Barton Yarborough, with whom she had one son. In 1946, the couple starred in the short comedy Hiss and Yell, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short. From 1931 to 1932, Allen was married to Charles H. Crosby, and in 1943 she married Bob Hope's producer, Norman Morrell. They had one son and were married until her death on September 14,1974 in Santa Barbara, California. Her remains were cremated and her ashes given to her loved ones.
Friday, March 7, 2025
William Spier
Friday, February 28, 2025
The Adventures of Sam Spade
Sam Spade shot him to national fame. The character, as Spier saw it, would Have many easily identifiable traits. The first thing Spade usually wanted to know was, "How much money you got on you?" "Two hundred? Okay, I'll take that and you can pay me the rest later." But Spade wasn't a spendthrift -- he never threw silver-dollar tips a la Johnny Dollar, even if he could have put it on his expense account. Spade favorite way to travel was by streetcar; it took him almost anywhere for a dime. He disliked cabs and liked cheap booze. You didn't need more than an occasional, subtle reminder: those glasses clinking every week as Sam opened his desk drawer and began dictation were enough. We knew Sam and Effie weren't toasting each other with Sal Hepatica. Sam was a man who worked out of his desk, and the thing closest at hand in that top drawer just might be a half-empty bottle of Old Granddad.
His clients got bumped off with startling regularity. Then Sam sent his report (and presumably his bill) to the widows. He dictated his cases to his faithful secretary, Effie Perrine, a babbling, man-hungry female who might have been the adult Corliss Archer. Each case came out as a report, dated, signed, and delivered. Spade license number - 137596 - was always included in the report. The cases unfolded in chronological order, the scenes shifting between Sam and Effie and the dramatization of Sam's dictation. Effie, who always seemed on the verge of tears whenever Sam became involved (as he did weekly) with a curvy client, was beautifully played by Lurene Tuttle, Jerry Hausner played Sam's lawyer, Sid Weiss. Lud Gluskin directed the music and Dick Joy announced. Soon after the series began, Ann Lorraine dropped her writing duties, and Gil Doud became Bob Tallman's writing partner.
The show ran in its original format through the episode of September 17, 1950. Then Howard Duff quit for a fling at movies, and Sam Spade languished for two months. On November 17, 1950, it returned on NBC. Duff's absence was handled in usual network form: by importing a new voice. NBC ran the show as though nothing had happened, using Steve Dunne as a boyish-sounding Spade. Spier and Miss Tuttle followed the series over, and for a time so did Wildroot. Wildroot and the listeners all got wise around the same time. Dunne was a good radio man, but he sounded like Sam in knee pants.
Duff once said that Hammett had done such a great job in The Maltese Falcon that any actor could have played Sam and become a radio hero. He saw that theory proved wrong.
Dashiell Hammett's name was removed from the series in the late 1940s because he was being investigated for involvement with the Communist Party. Later, when Howard Duff's name appeared in the Red Channels book, he was not invited to play the role when the series made the switch to NBC in 1950.
Friday, February 21, 2025
Ben Alexander
A Canticle for Leibowitz
A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960....

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