Gracie Allen
Gracie Allen was an American comedian, actor, singer, dancer, and vaudeville performer born in San Francisco on July 26, 1895.
Allen built her career across multiple performance disciplines, working in vaudeville, on stage, and in film. Her range as a performer took her from live variety entertainment through to the screen, a path that many performers of her era followed as the entertainment industry shifted and expanded. She worked as a dancer and singer as well as a comedic and dramatic presence, making her one of the more versatile entertainers to come out of the vaudeville tradition. Her work in film added another dimension to a career already grounded in live performance, and she continued to work across these different formats throughout her professional life.
Allen was a citizen of the United States and conducted her work in English. She died in Hollywood on August 27, 1964, having spent decades performing across stage, screen, and variety formats. Her career was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a concrete marker of the sustained body of work she produced as a comedian, actor, and performer. The breadth of her occupations — vaudeville, stage, film, comedy, song, and dance — reflects a career shaped by the overlapping entertainment worlds of the early and mid twentieth century.
Quotes by Gracie Allen
Gracie Allen's insights on:
I really don't act. I just live what George and I are doing. It has to make some sort of sense to me, or it won't ring true. No matter what the script says, there's no audience and no footlights and no camera for me. There's no make-believe. It's for real.
The on-stage Gracie may look poised, but the real Gracie is shy, a little self-conscious, and, before every performance of my life, panicky.
All the other candidates are making speeches about how much they have done for their country, which is ridiculous. I haven’t done anything yet, and I think it’s just common sense to send me to Washington and make me do my share.
Brains, integrity, and force may be all very well, but what you need today is Charm. Go ahead and work on your economic programs if you want to, I’ll develop my radio personality.
I fully realize that every promise I make, the Republicans will double and the Democrats will redouble. They think this will make me vulnerable, but they don’t know I have some tricks up my sleeve, along with a box of raisins to munch on while I’m waiting for the returns to come in.
This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it’s all checks and no balances.
Cultivate friendships. If you don’t have time to cultivate all of them, plow under every fifth one and collect your bonus.
I’m having my platform run up by a movie set designer, so it will be very impressive from the front, but not too premanent. After all, there’s no sense putting a lot of time and thought into something you’ll have no use for after you’re elected.
Let’s all pull together and make these United States the grandest place in this whole country. I see a vision. A glorious vision. A united people, marching forward shoulder to shoulder, giving their all for the common good, working while I whistle.