The Milwaukee Journal – Feb 16,
1941
George Burns Loves Gag He Pulled
3,000 Times
A STATISTICIAN with a flair for
adventure made a pilgrimage recently to the home of George Burns and GracieAllen. He emerged a week later, weakly muttering facts and figures which
summarized something like this:
George and Gracie, in the 18 years
of their career together, have used up approximately 40,000 jokes. One joke
which makes George laugh has been used 3,000 times, and it’s still good for
laughs from George.
Burns and Allen, long before they
became NBC stars, played seven years of vaudeville with only two routines,
titled “Sixty Forty” and “Lamb Chops.” Each act ran 14 minutes, and changes in
routine were events of such importance that George and Gracie, before inserting
a new joke, went to some small town to break it in.
“Now,” Gracie says, “the new joke
is broken in, and is still going strong on our NBC programs.”
When Burns and Allen, booked on
the Gus Sonn circuit, decided to abandon “Sixty Forty” in favor of “Lamb Chops,”
they began sneaking it in by doing 13 minutes of “Sixty Forty” and one of “Lamb
Chops” one day, then 12 and two, and so on. While they were playing in Detroit
they became so mixed up they stayed on 28 minutes with both routines, and the
musicians thought George and Gracie were the best ad lib artists in the
business.
IN 10 years on the air, George and Gracie have played 425 regular broadcasts, 55 special shows and more than 100
benefits, or a total of more than 680 shows, each the equivalent of a complete
vaudeville routine.
George estimates that in three and
one half years of vaudeville, Gracie and he played to approximately 4,900,000
persons, about one-fourth of the audience that hears each Burns and Allen
broadcast.
Combining their radio, stage and
screen appearances the NBC stars have entertained an audience equal to 100
times the population of the world. The figures astound Gracie, “Just think,”
she says, some Zulu savage could hear our show 100 times, and the army won’t
let my brother Willie out of the guardhouse to listen to one program.”
GEORGE estimates that he has used
200 pounds of aspirin doing script rehearsals, and Gracie, who likes a gumdrop
before a broadcast, thinks that a figure of 7,000 gumdrops would be a
reasonable figure, taking her bad memory into account.
In addition, Gracie volunteered
the information that the Burns family has lost 20 cooks as a result of the
irregular hours necessitated by their profession.
Statistics on miles traveled are
so astronomical that George and Gracie refused to estimate them. Innumerable
trips across country and a journey to England would have to be calculated, but
Gracie turned down the job, because she is a poor judge of distances.
Burns and Allen played 15 weeks on
BBC in England before trying radio in the United States. Gracie made a guest
appearance on Eddie Cantor’s show in New York in 1930, starting the amazing
career of the nitwits of the networks.
They have learned plenty about
radio in 10 years, acquired thousands of new gags, but the joke that makes
George laugh will be heard again soon, for the three thousand and first time.
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