The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1938) is a detective novel by S. S. Van Dine featuring his famous fictional detective of the 1920s and 1930s, Philo Vance, and the zany half of the George Burns & Gracie Allen comedy team. It is in many ways an experimental novel, including not just Burns & Allen but also such characters as Gracie's mother and brother. (George Burns, after all, has described the couple's act as, "All I had to do was ask, 'Gracie, how's your brother?' and she talked for 38 years.") That gave the book an unusual feel, as did the comic tone of much of Gracie's dialogue. This tone suddenly shifts in a later chapter to one character's philosophically anguished speculations, and then back again to Gracie. S. S. Van Dine was the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright (October 15, 1888 - April 11, 1939), a U.S. art critic and author. ... 1920 (MCMXX) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Philo Vance was a fictional American detective created by S. S. Van Dine in the 1920s who appeared in 12 novels. ... Burns in the 1950s. ... Grace Allen, wife of comic legend George Burns, who started show business in vaudeville, became famous when teamed with him. ...
For some readers the whole thing works oddly wonderfully, and shows S. S. Van Dine's skill at combining his traditional approach with some unusual forms. Other readers found this book both disconcerting and disappointing. It did not enjoy anything near the commercial success of Van Dine's earlier novels (or his prime character, when Philo Vance himself was developed into a classic radio show), and most critics considered it a failure. S. S. Van Dine was the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright (October 15, 1888 - April 11, 1939), a U.S. art critic and author. ...
Those critics might have agreed with the protagonist herself. In classic Gracie style, when Van Dine was working on the novel, Allen quipped, "S.S. Van Dine is silly to spend six months writing a novel when you can buy one for two dollars and ninety-eight cents."
Born Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen, into an Irish Catholic show-business family, (her mother was actress Ronnie Burns), Allen was educated at the Star of the Sea Convent School as a girl, and then became a vaudeville performer with her sister Bessie in 1909.
Gracie was said to be sensitive enough about having one green eye and one blue eye (according to one biographer, anyway) that it prompted her retirement as The Burns and Allen Show completed its seventh season on television, as it supposedly had when colour came to films as well.
Gracie wasn't allowed to enjoy her retirement undisturbed; she fought a long battle with heart disease, finally succumbing to a heart attack in Hollywood in 1964.
GracieAllen transferred her popular fictional persona from vaudeville, film, and radio, to American television in the 1950s.
Allen had performed with her husband and partner, George Burns, for nearly 30 years when the pair debuted in The George Burns and GracieAllen Show on CBS in October 1950.
The onscreen Gracie's reinterpretations of the televisional world proved extremely disruptive to people and events around her, although the disruptions were generally playful rather than serious, and were quickly settled (usually by her husband the straight man) at the end of each episode.
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