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Theater in the United States

Vaudeville

The 1920s in America

Burns and Allen

by Patrick Adcock

Identification: American comedy duo

Born: George Burns, January 20, 1896, New York, New York; Gracie Allen, July 26, 1895, San Francisco, California

Died: George Burns, March 9, 1996, Beverly Hills, California; Gracie Allen, August 27, 1964, Los Angeles, California

The husband-and-wife duo of George Burns and Gracie Allen popularized a comedy routine in which a long-suffering husband, fiancé, or boyfriend must deal with the skewed thinking of his attractive but scatterbrained mate. Through their vaudeville act, motion pictures, a radio program, and eventually a television show, Burns and Allen influenced the screwball and situation comedies of the 1930s and after.

Born Nathan Birnbaum, George Burns derived his stage name from his brother Isadore’s nickname, George, and the name of a local coal company, Burns. One of twelve children, Burns sang for coins on street corners at age seven and left school after the fourth grade. Burns worked in a variety of comedy acts for several years, performing with anywhere from one to eight partners and occasionally with animals. Sources give various years of birth for Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen. She claimed 1906, 1902 appeared in her death records, and census records suggest either 1895 or 1896. Allen first appeared on stage at age three and on the vaudeville stage at age six, and after finishing convent school, she joined her sisters as one of the Four Colleens. The girls sang and performed Irish and Scottish dances.

Burns and Allen met in New York in 1923. Both lacking partners at the time, they decided to form an act and first performed at the Hill Street Theatre in Newark, New Jersey. Initially, Burns was the comic, but when audiences laughed at Allen’s voice and demeanor in delivering the straight lines, they switched parts. They were married in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1926, and continued to perform, graduating to a more prestigious vaudeville circuit the following year. A turning point in their career came in 1929 with the release of their first motion picture, Lambchops, which was followed by a string of one-reel comedies. They also debuted in radio that year, performing in a series of five-minute broadcasts on the BBC.

George Burns and Gracie Allen.

227_Burns_and_Allen.jpg

(AP Photo)

Impact

Burns and Allen did not invent the comic concept of pairing a bright and rather stodgy character with a dim and appealing partner, but they improved upon and popularized the form throughout the 1920s. In the following decades, the pair went on to be featured in a number of major films and perform in a long-running radio program. In 1950, Burns and Allen transitioned to television, continuing to influence comedy into the second half of the twentieth century.

Further Reading

1 

Burns, George. Gracie: A Love Story. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1988.

2 

Gottfried, Martin. George Burns. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

3 

Krupp, Edwin C. “On the Air.” Sky and Telescope 110, no. 4 (2005): 46–47.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Adcock, Patrick. "Burns And Allen." The 1920s in America, edited by Carl Rollyson, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1920_0090.
APA 7th
Adcock, P. (2012). Burns and Allen. In C. Rollyson (Ed.), The 1920s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Adcock, Patrick. "Burns And Allen." Edited by Carl Rollyson. The 1920s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed September 18, 2025. online.salempress.com.