Show #9 - "The Burns & Allen Show" and "The Easy Aces"

January 10th's program was an ode to two of the three most famous ditzy radio comediennes - Gracie Allen and Jane Ace.  (For the record, the other was Marie Wilson as Irma in "My Friend Irma"). 

Gracie's husband, George Burns, is probably now the most remembered of the pair, as he outlived Gracie by some 32 years, dying in 1996.  During the days of "The Burns & Allen Show", however, Gracie was seen as just as famous and funny (and maybe even moreso) as George.

Jane Ace, like Gracie, was an airhead, and a queen of malapropisms.  Hers are more subtle.  Listen for instance, as she slips in "running around like a chicken with its hair cut off".   Without a studio audience to cue laughter at home, one had to know when to laugh themselves. 

I think modern day audiences, so used to having the laugh track and the studio audiences, will either love or hate "The Easy Aces", and programs that relied on subtle humor like "Bob & Ray" and "Lum & Abner".   To an ear accustomed to studio audience laughter, though, the programs may seem talky, and not funny.  But listen, and I think you'll enjoy...