Fred Allen Town Hall - Uncle Tom's Hot Spot or It Might be Hammy But it Ain't Porgy

Fred Allen (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956) was an American
comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show
(1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking
humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio. Fred
Allen's first taste of radio came while he and Portland Hoffa
waited for a promised slot in a new Arthur Hammerstein musical.
In the interim, they appeared on a Chicago station's program, WLS
Showboat, into which, Allen recalled, "Portland and I were
presented... to inject a little class into it." Their success in
these appearances helped their theater reception; live audiences
in the Midwest liked to see their radio favorites in person, even
if Allen and Hoffa would be replaced by Bob Hope when the radio
show moved to New York several months afterward. The couple
eventually got their Hammerstein show, Polly, which opened in
Delaware and made the usual tour before hitting Broadway. Also in
that cast was a young Englishman named Archie Leach, who received
as many good notices for his romantic appeal as Allen got for his
comic work. Hammerstein retooled the show before bringing it to
New York, replacing everyone but two women and Allen. Leach
decided to buy an old car and drive to Hollywood. "What Archie
Leach didn't tell me," Allen remembered, "was that he was going
to change his name to Cary Grant." Polly never succeeded in spite
of several retoolings, but Allen did go on to successful shows
like The Little Show (1929–30) and Three's a Crowd (1930–31),
which eventually led to his full-time entry to radio in 1932.
Allen first hosted The Linit Bath Club Revue on CBS, moving the
show to NBC and becoming The Salad Bowl Revue (in a nod to new
sponsor Hellmann's Mayonnaise, which was marketed by the parent
company of Linit) later in the year. The show became The Sal
Hepatica Revue (1933–34), The Hour of Smiles (1934–35), and
finally Town Hall Tonight (1935–39) [in 1939–40, however, sponsor
Bristol-Myers, which advertised Ipana toothpaste as well as Sal
Hepatica during the program, altered the title to The Fred Allen
Show, over his objections]. Allen's perfectionism (odd to some,
considering his deft ad-libs) caused him to leap from sponsor to
sponsor until Town Hall Tonight allowed him to set his chosen
small-town milieu and establish himself as a bona fide radio
star.-WikiPedia