Arthur Bennett Allen was born on April 8, 1881 in Gowanda, New York, USA as only child of Millard N. Allen, a druggist, and Eliza M. Bennett, like he said "poor but honest parents".

He spent his boyhood in Gowanda, New York some 35 miles from Buffalo. From the first, the stage interested him. He peddled papers as a boy, raised chickens, sold eggs and was one of those kids who organize amateur circuses and charge pins for admission.
In his youth, Arthur sought to emulate Hi Henry (of the famous Primrose Minstrels), his cousin by marriage and his patron saint by adoption. The young man staged amateur minstrel shows in his father's barn.

Every minute that he could steal away from the manifold duties and things to do that a country lad always finds, he spent hanging on the words of the self-appointed town sages who gathered evenings around the stove and sawdust box in the general store and talked among themselves then as Arthur talked to radio audiences later.

He went to school in his home town and later to Oberlin College in Ohio (Class of '04). Even at Oberlin College the old theatrical yen still gripped him. He studied at a conservatory and through his musical efforts held down a job as church organist for several years. A pretty good pianist and organist he also did some music teaching (Persia, Cattaraugus, New York). Jessica Dragonette was one of his pupils.

Allen was for several years a private secretary in Buffalo, N.Y. , a stenographer in a real estate office. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He played all sorts of parts in every dramatic offering. Then, out of a clear sky, a dramatic stock company came to town and he joined it (1913). He termed this "the greatest school for the actor ever devised".

"I was a very despondent young man when the break first came in the acting business," said Mr. Allen, "I was in New York. Some influential Buffalo people had given me a note to Jessie Bonstelle. It was my last resort, and I wasn't very hopeful, at that."
"My trunks were packed and I was all ready to quit. But I went to Miss Bonstelle with my note and she said, 'I'd like to use you, but I really need someone with experience,' "
"I told her either all actors must be born with experience or be born liars. Then I thanked her and walked out As I was getting into the elevator, she caught up with me and said, 'Come on back. Maybe I can use you after all. Will you go to Buffalo for $10 a week?' "I said I would, at the same time wondering what I could get a room at the YMCA for and how much I'd have left over to eat on."
"That was in 1914. I was with, the Bonstelle group for five years, Winter and Summer, and got experience you can't buy. Some of the people in that company were Anne Harding, Ben Lyon, Katharine Alexander — why, yes, and Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic."
"And I shared a room with William Powell for two years. He's doing all right."

So he became a member of the Jessie Bonstelle stock company in the days when they played in the old Star Theater in Buffalo.

Starting his professional career as an actor in Buffalo, Detroit, Northampton and Toronto he soon toured the country for many (4-5) years with such well known stage folks as James Rennie, James Gleason, Lou Tellegen, Herbert Corthell and Charles Gilpin.

The one-night stand trouping started around 1920 at the conclusion of the Bonstelle stock days. Mr. Allen recalls with a grin that part of the fun was breaking the ice in pitchers before you could wash and trying to apply grease paint so cold you couldn't smear it.

As a young man was prominent in Shakespearian plays, appearing with such artists as Walter Hampden and Forbes Robertson (both as walk on man and understudy).

He claimed to have appeared in more than 500 performances as a butler and to have worn out no less than a dozen sets of butler's livery during that time. After exclaiming "Yes my Lord" something like 10,000 times he moved on. From stock he went into road companies and later into Broadway productions.

The Flaming Soul (Opera House Providence, Jan 29. 1919 ) Owen Davis & Charles Guernon's play had successful tryout, when it was approved by the Providence playgoers. The cast included Blanche Friderici, Clara Joel, Arthur Allen,...

Blind Man's Bluff (Ford's Opera House Baltimore, Nov 17. 1919) Arthur made the professor in wrinkled clothes and absurd little flat hat rather amusing.

Morning, Rosamond (48th Street Theatre, Dec 10. - 31. 1917),
Love Laughs (Bijou Theatre, May 20. - June 1. 1919),
The Mandarin (Princess Theatre, Nov 9. - 30. 1920),
The Emperor Jones (Neighborhood Playhouse - Selwyn - Princess, Nov 1. 1920 - May 21. 1921) as part of the Provincetown Players, with a tour afterwards until June 1922),
Like a King (39th Street Theatre, Oct 3. - 31. 1921).

On June 30. 1921 he married Gertrude Elizabeth Watt and settled in Hempstead (141 Washington Street) where his hobbies were gardening and painting.

Arthur continued working on Broadway he played old Jacob in The Field of Gold, was in Out of Step (Hudson Theatre, Jan 29. - Feb 1. 1925), was the inventor of the original horse and buggy in Winthrop Ames' White Wings (Booth Theatre, Oct 15 - Nov 1. 1926) and also played in Paul Green's Field God (Greenwich Village Theatre - Cort Theatre, Apr 21. May 28. 1927) which also featured Fritz Leiber.

He was also featured in Don Marquis' The Skinners (Shubert Playhouse Wilmington, Dec 29. - 31. 1927) with Frank Keenan, Catherine Willard, Josephine Hull, A. O. Huhan, and Roya Byron. Together with the last two Arthur played playing the parts of Pop Skinner's three cronies and drinking companions, and did this well!

It was with amusement rather than bitterness that he remembered his early years when he was often considered "too small, too puny" to take part in theatricals.

In August 1927, radio (WJZ) sought him. Even his mother and Aunt Harmony initially thought he would have done a lot better if he had stuck to his job in a Buffalo, New York, furniture store. When he wrote his mother of turning to radio she sent word right back. "Don't you do it. You haven't got the voice." The she did hear him one day - she came to New York to see her boy - and Arthur put her in a control room during his program. "He sounds so natural," she said. "Just like he is, but he's no hero to me".

Gerald Stopp, director, is directly responsible for the "discovery" of Arthur Allen, as a radio headliner. Confronted with the "necessity" of finding some one to fill the role of Jeff Peters in the early Retold Tales series (1927-1929), Stopp recalled a performance in which he had seen Arthur Allen act on the legitimate stage. During the subsequent interview the director was successful in his attempt to interest the actor in the radio series in which he was to co-star with Louis Mason (as Andy Tucker), another dramatic artist from the theater world. They played two confidence men, hard at work fleecing the innocent public.

It was a friend who advised him to consider acting for radio audiences. But radio didn't appeal at the time, and he only grudgingly consented to appear before the microphone. As it turns out he ended up becoming one of the first actors of the legitimate theater to turn to radio performances as a profession.

"There's a big difference between trouping on the stage and trouping on the air, but the things I learned in stock help me every night on the radio," Allen said. A spry, energetic little man, with quick-moving hands, thin narrow face, and mild blue eyes above a sensitive mouth and long chin, was just the sort of Yankee personality his radio voice indicated. For a man who made his living by talking, he moves his lips very little. "Long stage experience taught me the trick of throwing my voice from the back of the throat,'' Allen explained. "On the air I develop a slightly different voice for nearly every character. On the stage you have action costume and lighting effects to get your story and character to the audience. On the radio you have only your voice and the words, and you never know what effect you are creating until its over." Despite the difficulties of the medium, Allen said he liked radio because it insures what every actor always wants—"a full house."—no peeping through the curtains to see how many empty seats there may be.
The habits of many years on the stage are too strong for Arthur Allen, who acted some of the better character roles, to drop before the microphone. He usually went through the motions suggested by his part, or screwed his physiognomy up to resemble the type he was portraying.

In 1927, ex-Broadway playwright William Ford Manley and Henry Fisk Carlton created a weekly anthology show known as Soconyland Sketches (Socony was an acronym for Standard Oil Company of New York). They started with Shakespeare, as a gesture to the Shakespearean celebration going on at the time, it consisted chiefly of scenes from Shakespeare's plays. "Our first idea was to do only history stories," said Manley. "We did Miles Standish, Old Ironsides, and The Cherry Valley Massacre. But we found, after the first year, that Parker Fennelly teamed so well with Arthur Allen that we conceived of two homespun rural characters built around these two actors." So while Soconyland Sketches (Nov 1. 1927 - ) did not set out to have continuing characters, Parker Fennelly and Arthur Allen both played village rubes, stereotypical dry New Englanders. Together they probably created more shows in this "hillbilly" genre than anyone else before or since. The five-man team was completed with Harold McGee, who directed.

Some Soconyland sketches appearances by Arthur include:

• #2 "The Courtship of Miles Standish," a Gloucester fishing story;

• #7 "Sebago Lake, fishing yarn" (1928) was one of the most popular episodes several times repeated (Mar 31. 1931; Apr 11. 1932). A humorous yarn in which an uptight New York businessman took a springtime fishing trip to Maine. The show was stolen by one of Manley's repertory company actors, Arthur Allen, as the philosophical fishing guide who taught the city slicker a thing or two about real living;

• #34 "Hunting", with Arthur Allen as game warden in the Maine Woods;

• Maule in #35 "The House of Seven Gables";

• Timothy Dexter in #45 "Lord Timothy Dexter of Newburyport" (Jan 9. 1929);

• #57 "Wuthless", an original story with Arthur as Pearly Pevere;

• #60 "Fishing Story - Maine", Arthur Allen's story of game law observance;

• #76 "Tale of a Wayside Stand", where Arthur Allen builds a hot dog stand (1929);

• "Shavings" story of Cape Cod as a trilogy (Jun 3. 1930);

• "Scrooge"  Arthur Allen as Scrooge (WEAF, Dec 23. 1930);

• "The Story of Major Andre" (Sep 28. 1931 & Oct 5. 1931) The tangled affairs of war which led to disaster for both Benedict Arnold and Major John Andre, the British officer who was executed for his part in the plot. Arthur Allen is cast as Josiah Smith the innocent American colonist who was with Arnold and Andre during the last days before Arnold's treachery was discovered;

• "Old Bet, the Birth of the American Circus," sketch with Arthur Allen and Parker Fennelly (May 7. 1934);

• "The Ethics of Pig", sketch with Arthur Allen and Parker Fennelly. (Sep 18. 1934);

• "No Place Like Home", dramatic sketch with Arthur Allen, Parker Fennelly and Mildred Natwick (WABC, Oct 20. 1934);

• "The Great White Teacher"  written by Captain Peter Freuchen with Parker Fennelly and Arthur Allen (Feb 2. 1935).

Arthur Allen also played several recurrent characters in the Soconyland Sketches, the most popular were:

• One of the first roles Arthur played was David Harum, the quaint country banker who had a box full of mortgages and a heart full of kindness.
  #21 "David Harum's Hoss Trade" (Jul, 1928),
  #39 "David Harum's Christmas Gift"  (Nov 20. 1928),
  #64 "David Harum in Newport society".

• Grandsir, or Wilbur Z. Knox, the male half of the oldest couple in Snow Village. In his middle eighties, as lively as a terrier and as unreliable as New England weather. The oldest inhabitant couldn't remember when he and his venerable spouse Grammie agreed on anything. In spite of 50 years of domestic storms, they celebrated their Golden Wedding day.
  "Grandsire" (WEAF Nov 2. 1931).

• Also from Snow Village was Uncle Dan'l Dickey who would never acknowledge that anyone managed him, although both his wife Hattie (played by Agnes Young) and Margie (Ruth Russell) did just that. He is quick-tempered, generous, and impulsive, the complete opposite of Hiram "Old" Neville (Parker Fennelly), with whom he has been at swords' points for the past fifty years.
  
  "The Auctioneer" (Nov 26. 1929) (first Snow Village sketch)
  ''The Coming of Margie” with Arthur Allen, Effie Lawrence Palmer, Parker Fennelly and Linda Watkins (Mar 25. 1930)
  "The Clock in the Steeple" (Mar 2. 1935)
  "Salmon Fishing on Tabago lake" (Apr 30. 1935)

Enter Phillips H. Lord, a native of Maine, who created Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's (NBC, 1929) with Lord himself as kindly old Seth Parker. While this series was still running Lord branched out into other forms of Yankee humor, creating Uncle Abe and David for Goodrich Tires (June 23, 1930 to May 9, 1931). Radio listeners were sitting around the cracker barrel of "Everybody's Equiperies", the general store in Skowhegan, Maine, while Uncle Abe Stetson (Phil Lord) and David Simpson (Arthur Allen), the proprietors, discussed their plans for the vacation in New York which they had been deferring for thirty long years. Halfway through the show's run on NBC they sold their store and moved to New York City. Some sources state Phil Lord was replaced by Parker Fennelly after a few weeks. Although 1930 and 1931 magazines still stated Lord as main character. (see picture above left & right)

Weeks after Uncle Abe and David went off the air, the formidable Lord/Allen/Fennelly trio was responsible for another series in this vein, The Stebbins Boys (Blue, June 22, 1931 to October 21, 1932). In the small town of Bucksport Point, Maine, two elderly brothers - Allen as John Stebbins and Fennelly as Esley Stebbins- were in business together in ... a general store. A great success only to be suddenly dropped from the airwaves by their meat packer sponsor Swift & Co., packers without explanation  (see pictures below).