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FRED ALLEN SHOW, THE / aka TEXACO STAR THEATER - Guest Bela Lugosi

Air Date/Released Sunday, April 25, 1943
Station/Studio CBS (radio)
Host/Star Fred Allen
Featuring Joe Besser (Solo)

Fred Allen's long-running radio series was at its most popular in this ½-hour format for Texaco, with its iconic "Allen's Alley" feature. Fred Allen's trademark was his sharp wit and topical humor.

Fred opens with jokes and banter with announcer Jimmy Wallington and Portland Hoffa (Fred's wife) about that afternoon’s New York Easter Parade. The episode moves on to Allen's Alley where residents John Doe, Mrs. Nussbaum, Socrates Mulligan and “poet” Falstaff Openshaw offer their opinions on what features should be eliminated from newspapers if wartime shortages affect paper supply. Fred and Portland discuss some current events. Fred is looking for a new apartment, but isn’t having much luck until Bela Lugosi offers his house to rent. Unfortunately for Fred, the house is filled with ghouls, and Lugosi has been luring radio stars there to construct a “Radio Monster” from their body parts. Al Goodman's orchestra and vocalists Hi Lo Jack and the Dame perform "Don’t Get Around Much Anymore."

Was Joe Besser originally intended to appear in this episode? Could be. Lugosi’s house contains a lady ghost, who has [wartime reference] “released a male ghost for essential haunting.” She’s the ghost of Joe Besser, “I came here to spook for Joe.” If that is the case, the reason(s) Besser is not in the broadcast is unknown.



Cast: Fred Allen (Host), Jimmy Wallington (Announcer), Portland Hoffa-Allen (Portland Hoffa, the ghost of Joe Besser), Bela Lugosi (Himself), John Brown (John Doe, real estate agent, human head, invisible man), Minerva Pious (Mrs. Nussbaum, Frankenstein’s sister), Charlie Cantor (Socrates Mulligan, Bela’s assistant), Alan Reed (Falstaff Openshaw, Chairman of the Draft Board), Al Goodman (Orchestra), Hi Lo Jack and the Dame (Vocalists)
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