Don't Believe Everything You Hear About George Burns and Gracie Allen

Photo of Gracie Allen and George Burns at CBS — *Gracie Allen and George Burns at CBS*

Gracie Allen and George Burns are Mr. and Mrs. in private life. She's the dumbest gal at large in the world today, if you can believe all you hear on the radio, and furthermore, she introduced into George's life an annoying lost brother and other pestiferous in-laws.

If this picture is accurate, then George has grounds for divorce in any fair-minded court in the land. But tut, tut, and a couple of more tuts -- don't you believe it. Burns and Allen are a couple of love birds, although wedded these many years.

She affectionately buttons up his coat before she kisses him out the door, to make sure that he doesn't catch cold, and they play bridge together, which, expert psychologists have ascertained, is the supreme test of domestic felicity.

Far from being dumb, she is the "brains" of the combination and carefully squires the pennies in the mutual family budget. They played together in vaudeville for some time before they decided on the shuddering leap together.

Furthermore, "Mrs. Burns" is named after a coal wagon and how many wives would stand for that? It happened this way: George was born into the world as a Birnbaum and when he started in vaudeville, the first name that popped into his head was "Burns Bros." ... that of the coal dealers on whose wagons he used to steal rides as a boy and pilfer odd bits of fuel for the family stove.

John McCart in Microphone, June 22, 1934

Old Time Radio · Gracie Allen · George Burns · CBS ·

2026/02/17 · Link