Arthur B. 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. 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).
Allen was for several years a private secretary in Buffalo, N.Y. 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. He termed this "the greatest school for the actor
ever devised".
So he became a member of the Jesse Bonstelle stock
company in 1913 in the days when they played in the old Star theater in Buffalo
in which over a period of years he appeared with such gifted performers as
Katherine Cornell, William Powell and Ann Harding.
One of the few actors who have perfected the art of pantomime. 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. He claims 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.
As early as 1917 he was seen on Broadway. When
Allen came to New York he played for two years in Emperor Jones
(1920) with Charles Gilpin.
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).
On June 30. 1921 he married Gertrude Elizabeth Watt and settled in Hempstead
where his hobbies were gardening and painting.
Arthur continued working on Broadway he played old Jacob
in The Field of Gold, and was the inventor of the original horse
and buggy in Winthrop Ames'
White Wings (1926) and afterwards with Paul
Green's Field God (1927). In Dec 1927 he
was also featured in The Skinners 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.
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 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). "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.
Some Soconyland sketches
appearences by Arthur include:
-
#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", een origineel verhaal
met Arthur als 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)
-
"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 Maj. 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)
-
"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 Horse 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.
-
Also from Snow
Village was Uncle
Dan'l Dickey who would never acknowledge that
anyone managed him, although both Hattie (his wife,
played by Agnes Young) and Margie do that. He is
quick-tempered, generous, and impulsive, the complete
opposite of Hiram 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)
 
Above left: Arthur B. Allen and Parker Fennelly in a picture
for Snow Village.
Above right: Dan'l Dickey (Arthur Allen) would never acknowledge that anyone
managed him, although he is. Quick-tempered generous, and impulsive, the
complete opposite of Hiram Neville, with whom he has been at swords' points
the past fifty years.
The Wayside Inn
(NBC, 1929), was a regional variety
program and a forerunner of the daytime dramatic serial. Arthur played the part of Jack Spindle.
He was heard as "Gus" again
with Louis Mason in "Gus and Louie" part of the Schradertown
Band in 1929.
They get tangled and untangled in affairs financial and sentimental.
They were cast as small town garage owners whose watchword is service and
whose hearts are always in the right place. The musical background was supplied by
Arthur Pryor’s band, which took the role of a small town organization, with
Gus and Louie as two of its musicians. The two had teamed together in the
NBC Retold Tales series of O. Henry stories.
 
Above left: Uncle Abe and David
were unknown to listeners until the last week of June 1930, when the
characters were first heard on the networks.
Above right: Uncle Abe Stetson (Phil Lord) and David
Simpson (Arthur Allen) in character.
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 (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).
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