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His was a simpler time, a time when America enjoyed a different, more personal form of entertainment, when families gathered around the living-room radio once a week to laugh at his particular humor, revel in his distinctive voice, and relish the comic-genius that was Fred Allen. This biography, the first of the man who created some of America's wittiest and most popular radio shows, is an informed and entertaining vision of twentieth-century comedy, seen through vaudeville, Broadway, Hollywood, radio and early television. Born near Boston in 1894 to an inebriate father, Fred Allen took to comedy as a natural outlet. He started out as a juggler wit meandering patter. Although first humiliated by crowds as much at his physical ineptitude as at his jokes, he quickly transformed his performance, presenting himself as The Worlds Worst Juggler.  That act led him to New York City, San Francisco, Australia - and to every small town, two-bit boarding house, and raucous entertainment palace in between. Infinitely creative, he transferred his talents easily to the Broadway stage, where he wrote sketches and performed in some of the most lavish variety shows ever produced. His featured costars were Clifton Webb and Libby Holman, and his popularity soared. But radio, the medium best suited to Fred Allen's verbal wizardry was the vehicle that propelled him to superstardom. Through the 1830s and 1940s, on such programs as Town Hall  Tonight, the entire country was treated to his biting wit and his incredible ability to turn a phrase on just one word (The reason why television is called a medium is because nothing on it will ever be well done).Drawing freely from Allen's scripts, journals, and other writings, Robert Taylor revives that humor the comedy that spilled from Allen's Alley.