Many remember George Burns as cigar smoking, wise-cracking, crotchety, old man, acting in movies, commercials and guest appearing on TV shows during his later life. From the age of 79, until his death at 100 years old, Burns enjoyed maybe the most successful and memorable times of his entire career, but an older generation remembers George Burns from his early days on the stages of Vaudeville and a successful radio comedy career, much earlier in his life.

Burns was first discovered at the very young age of seven. While working at a candy factory with some other young boys, Burns and the others enjoyed mimicking and practicing the singing techniques of local Barbershop Quartets. During one such practice, Burns and his crew were discovered by a letter carrier and some other passer-byes. The group listened and praised them on their singing and threw them pocket change for their efforts. The group decided to go out and try their luck at show business. Calling themselves "The Peewee Quartet", the group started doing shows on street corners, in brothels, salons and local ferryboats. Burns quit school after the fourth grade to go into show business full-time. Performing in various acts, gags, bits and doing anything else he could to make a living, Burns finally got on as a part-time act on Vaudeville. This is when he started to smoke cigars, which became a comic trademark part of his acts. While he normally did dance routines, with some comedy mixed in, he never fully clicked with various female partners, until he met Gracie Allen in 1923.

Burns and Allen got their big breaks by playing parts in several motion pictures in the 1930's, co-starring with some up and coming actors, such as Fred Astaire and Bob Hope. The married team of Burns and Allen got their first full-time radio show in 1932. Like many other Vaudeville veterans, their radio show was a comedy variety show featuring funny banter and barbs between the two of them and other co-stars. The original show depicted the real life couple as single people that had other romantic interests with some of the show's co-stars. With the public becoming more aware of the two and their real life marriage, the show adapted in 1940 to present them as the couple they actually were. After this change, the character of Gracie changed as well, often jabbing fun at Burns, and continually being mean to him. As the act grew tired and the ratings started to slip, Burns and Allen evolved the show into a situational comedy based on their real lives. With the new story-lines the weekly radio show regained most of its previous success.

Burns and Allen moved the show into prime-time television, and gave the audience faces to put with the voices they had come to love. The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show ran on CBS from 1950 until 1958, when Gracie was forced to retire for health reasons. Burns tried to stay with the show, but the ratings dwindled without the interaction with Gracie. Gracie Allen suffered a fatal heart attack six years later at the age of 69. Burns tried to keep his career going, but did not regain the majority of his fame until the later part of his life. With a entertainment career that lasted for 90+ years, George Burns will forever.