August 23, 2012 (Thursday)
I’ve been thinking about comedians this week, and not to be forgotten are the comedy teams. One of the greatest teams of all time was George Burns and Gracie Allen. Their vaudeville act pre-dated radio, but went on to include not only radio but television and the movies.
When they started out, Gracie was the “straight man” and George was the funny guy. But after a while they began to understand that Gracie was getting all the laughs, so the material changed and she became the funny one. Her “thing” was to act dumb. There was never a dumber person on stage than Gracie. Actually she was a very intelligent person. When we stop and think it through, we will conclude that she must have been smart to play a person so dumb.
George was the writer genius behind the pair. He wrote the act by himself at first, and later for television with his brother Willie and a team of writers. The entire concept of the Burns and Allen characters, however, was one created and developed by George.
A movie clip from 1929, entitled, “Lambchops,”shows how her character was portrayed in its early days. She didn’t change it much through the years. Gracie died in 1964, her age estimated to have been 62 to 69, the year of her birth unclear. George lived on until 1996, when he died at age 100, actively performing almost until the end.
At the close of every program on radio and television, George would sign off and turn to Gracie with, “Say Goodnight, Gracie,” and she would always say, “Goodnight, Gracie.”