Fred Allen was a major contributor to the early American comedic radio Broadcasts. His silly antics and well acted skits and performances made him one of the most popular radio personalities during the Golden Age of American radio. His comedic style, along with a talent to ad-lib with any situation, influenced many comedians that followed him. With his sense of humor and the scripts that he followed, he battled sensors and radio executives throughout most of his career.

Allen had many different bits, gags and skits during the run of his variety show. The most remembered and popular of them was his long running mock feud with Jack Benny, another successful Radio comedian. In their real lives, Allen and Benny were actually close friends. Allen was rewarded for his contributions to comedic radio, with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Like many other comedic radio stars of the times, Allen got his start on stage in Vaudeville acts. Allen was trained on the piano at a young age. Allen had a job working at the public library as a youth an during his time he read several books on comedy. Also at this time he used a great deal of effort, and learned to juggle. The library staff put on shows to entertain local citizens. After learning of Allen's talents, the library worker asked him to perform some of his comedic and juggling skills at one of the shows. At the end of his act, the people told him how good he was and that he should try and make a career out of performing, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Allen soon took a job with a local Vaudeville act and honed his comedic and juggling routines. He often billed himself as "the world's worst juggler". Using his skills, he created the image of a clumsy juggler and used jokes about his talent to make the audiences laugh. He toured on Vaudeville for a decade. His outlandish acts and wit proved to be too much for Vaudeville during the time period.

After Vaudeville, Allen worked on Broadway for a short time. While on Broadway, he met the woman that eventually became his wife, Portland Hoffa. Allen and his wife performed in various shows and did guest spots on radio for a few years. Allen was offered his own full time radio show in 1932. Allen hosted radio comedy and variety shows for CBS and later NBC, from1932 until 1949. Allen's radio shows had varying degrees of success, starting slowly, but later holding the number one show for a couple of years, and regularly being in the top ten. Allen took a couple of one year breaks during this time for health reasons. After the last year off, coupled by a 38th place ranking, NBC declined to renew his radio contract.

During his career as a radio host, Allen played in a few movies, even co-starring with his supposed arch-rival Jack Benny. Later in his career, Allen hosted some popular game shows for NBC, including "What's My Line". Allen died of a heart attack in 1961 while taking a late night walk.