Allen (Fred) is born in Cambridge.

Born John Sullivan, Fred Allen lives, after the death of his mother, with his aunt in Allston and then at 290 Savin Hill Avenue. At age 6, he appears as a comic juggler in an amateur night at the Hub Theatre, graduates from the High School of Commerce after working nights at the Boston Public Library where he read all he can about comedy, then begins touring in 1914. Allen marries Portland Hoffa in 1922 settles in New York City, and begins his radio career in 1932, starring in “Allen’s Alley,” where he creates characters with accents learned in Boston neighborhoods. But he is unable to make the transition to television, which he describes as “a device that permits people who haven’t anything to do to watch people who can’t do anything.” Allen dies in New York City on March 17, 1956.