Fred Allen - Death

Death

Taking one of his regular late night strolls up New York's West 57th Street Saturday night March 17, 1956 he suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 61. A popular myth repeated for many years, first published in the New York Times story which appeared the next day reporting on his death, was that he had died while walking his dog. However, his biographer Robert Taylor later revealed that Allen had never owned a dog. Allen died before he could complete the final chapter of his memoirs, and as a result the book was published as he had left it. A tireless letter writer, his letters were edited by his wife into the publication of Fred Allen's Letters in 1965.

During the following night's regular Sunday broadcast of What's My Line? at 10:30PM, barely 24-hours following Allen's death, host John Daly preceded the program with a special message to the viewing audience. He stated that earlier in the day the producers had considered replacing the regular game play with a special memorial episode, but Allen's wife Portland Hoffa stated that she preferred the show be conducted as it always had been, indicating that this is what Allen would have wanted. The program then proceeded as normal, but with a noticeably subdued tone. Steve Allen took Fred's chair on the panel. During the final ninety seconds of the program he, along with Arlene Francis and Bennett Cerf (whose eyes began to water) gave brief but heartfelt tributes to Fred. A somber Dorothy Kilgallen thanked Steve Allen for stepping in and helping them to carry on at a difficult moment. He is buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. Both his real and stage name are engraved on the headstone.

Allen has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: a radio star at 6709½ Hollywood Blvd. and a TV star at 7021 Hollywood Blvd. His widow, Portland Hoffa, married bandleader Joe Rimes in 1959 and celebrated a second silver wedding anniversary well before her own death of natural causes in Los Angeles on Christmas Day 1990. Fred Allen was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1988. A pedestrian passageway in Boston's Theater District, designated "Allen's Alley", also honors his memory.