# Charme Allen

Charme Allen (born Charme Willa Wright, November 19, 1890 – October 4, 1980) was an actress in old-time radio, on television, and on the stage, as well as a pianist, best known for her long tenure as Aunt Polly on the radio serial David Harum. She was also the voice of Borden's Elsie the Cow at the 1939 World's Fair and the original narrator for the American Ballet Theatre's debut production of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

## Early life and career

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Allen was the only child of Theresa Wolf and Charles A. Wright. She was performing in public as early as June 1902, when, at age 11, she was one of several piano students giving a recital at the studio of Lottie Schaeffer. By age of 16, she was listed in the Dayton business directory as a music instructor. Her interest in acting begin to develop shortly thereafter, as she attended the O'Brien School of Elocution and Dramatic Art. However, in deference to the steadfast opposition of her mother (who envisioned her daughter as a concert pianist), she continued her musical studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music while restricting her dramatic endeavors to local summer stock, initially with the Wright Huntington Players and later the Manhattan Stock Company. As she later recalled, "I took the roles the others didn't want. They were servant and other character parts. I suspect they gave me more valuable training than the heroine got."
Following the premature death of her mother in 1912, and a catastrophic flood which destroyed her place of employment and nearly proved fatal, Wright abruptly wed her colleague and fellow Conservatory alumnus, Joseph B. Allen, and the couple soon relocated to Buffalo, New York, where they would reside for more than 20 years.
In Buffalo, Allen joined the musician's union and quickly found work with local pit orchestras. Shortly thereafter, she connected with drama instructor Jane M. Keeler at the Twentieth Century Club, where she studied for approximately five years before becoming a member of Keeler's Studio Theater Players.
In the table below is a chronological listing of some of Allen's more notable radio roles.

### Radio

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1930–? | Nine O'Clock Show | various, inc. May Robson and Marie Dressler | |
| 1932–? | King's Castle | Mrs. Perkins (the caretaker's wife) | |
| 1935 | Melody Master | Mother Clemens | |
| 1935 | The March of Time | "frequent parts" | |
| 1935–? | The Story of Mary Marlin | Sarah Jane Kane | |
| 1935 | Backstage Wife | Mercy | |
| 1937–1951 | David Harum | Aunt Polly Benson | 1941: "She has been Polly in the David Harum series four years." 1942: "Charme Allen is known as 'Radio's Aunt Polly.' She has won the hearts of thousands of radio listeners as the genial sister of David Harum." 1947: "Prud'homme, who portrays 'David Harum' and Charme Allen, who is known to millions as 'Aunt Polly,' are eagerly awaited visitors every morning." 1949: "Prud'homme [as] the kindly but shrewd small-town banker and Charme Allen as the lovable Aunt Polly..." 1950: Charme Allen portrays Aunt Polly Benson, and Cameron Prud'homme portrays David Harum..." "Charme Allen returns to 'David Harum.'" |
| 1937–? | Pretty Kitty Kelly | Mrs. Murger | |
| 1938–? | Valiant Lady | Mrs. Scott | |
| 1938–? | County Seat | Sarah Whipple | With Ray Collins as Doc Hackett and Cliff Carpenter as Jerry Whipple. |
| June 30, 1938 | Pulitzer Prize Plays Ep. "Why Marry?" | NA | |
| 1939 | Meet the Dixons | | |
| July 20, 1939 | John Brown's Body | NA | Radio adaptation of Benet's poem by Norman Corwin. |
| December 1940–January 1941 | The Citadel | NA | Serialized adaptation of A.J. Cronin novel. |
| 1941–? | As the Twig Is Bent | Mrs. Carlton | The show that would later become We Love and Learn. |
| 1941–1942 | Into the Light | Ma Owen | |
| 1942 | Mother and Dad | Mother | Succeeds the late Effie Palmer. |
| 1942–1944 | Abie's Irish Rose | Mrs. Mueller | |
| 1943–? | Cohen and the Detective | NA | |
| 1944 | Columbia Presents Corwin Ep. Untitled | Mrs. Peters | Written, produced and directed by Norman Corwin; with Frederic March as Hans Peters, Hester Sondergaard as the Music teacher, Kermit Murdock as the Editor, and Michael Ingram as the Nazi. |
| September 1, 1945 | Grand Central Station Ep. NA | NA | Co-starring Berry Kroeger and Doro Merande |
| June 10, 1950 | Grand Central Station Ep. "Marked Money" | NA | Co-starring Parker Fennelly, Mason Adams, Thomas Hoier and Robert Emhardt |
| March 17, 1951 | Grand Central Station Ep. "Missing Persons Miss Money" | NA | Co-starring Edgar Stehli |
| March 22, 1952 | Grand Central Station Ep. "No Prize for Elmer" | NA | Co-starring Parker Fennelly, Bobby Nick, Joseph Sweeney and Vaughn Taylor |
| February 28, 1953 | Grand Central Station Ep. "Return Ticket" | NA | Co-starring Darren McGavin, Jean Gillespie, and Chester Stratton |
| October 1945–November 1945 | The World's Great Novels Ep. "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" | NA | Serialized adaptation. |
| Circa May 1947 | Perry Mason Ep. "The Case of the Bartered Bride" | Agnes | |
| June 28, 1948 | We Love and Learn | Mrs. Carlton | |
| 1949 | The Second Mrs. Burton | Mother Burton | Replacing Hollywood-bound Evelyn Varden |
| 1950–? | Just Plain Bill | NA | "John McGovern, Charme Allen, and Richard Janaver added to 'Just Plain Bill.'" |
| 1952 | Lorenzo Jones | NA | |
| April 1953 | Front Page Farrell Ep. ? | NA | "Helen Shields, Charme Allen, Sydney Smith, Cathleen Cordell, Florence Robinson in the new 'Front Page Farrell' sequence." |
| 1956–? | The Right to Happiness | NA | "Charme Allen, Sydney Smith, Cameron Andrews and Lawrence Zerbe into the cast of 'Right to Happiness." |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| December 1, 1952 | Robert Montgomery Presents Ep. "Post Road" | NA | |
| December 11, 1955 | American Inventory Ep. "In These Hands" | NA | Written by Edgar Marvin, starring House Jameson |

### Theatre

Although Allen never did get to realize her "fondest wish" (that being to "play on Broadway [and] show New York what I really can do"), she did manage to give New York—or at least its Off-Broadway contingent–at least one reasonably representative sample when she appeared in a 1948 revival of Lennox Robinson's Church Street, a one-act play presented by New Stages Inc. as the opening act of a double bill with Jean-Paul Sartre's The Respectful Prostitute. And while the critical consensus regarding the two pieces presented that night strongly favored the latter, that imbalance did not carry over into their assessment of performances, least of all as regards Allen. J.T.S. of The New Leader wrote, "This work is given a somewhat less smooth performance, but the women especially are good, from Florida Friebus as the fluttery and starving Miss Pettigrew to the soberly sharp work of Charme Allen as Aunt Moll." The Hollywood Reporter's Lee Rogow devoted so much space to Sartre's play that he had scarcely a paragraph left for Church Street, which he judged, in closing, "an overlong but interesting curtain-raiser [that] was illuminated by beautiful performances by Florida Friebus, Charme Allen, and Gertrude Corey." Similarly, Women's Wear Daily critic Thomas R. Dash, leaving himself little space to discuss Church Street, made sure to acknowledge the "superb portrayal by Charme Allen of the cantankerous yet highly intelligent Aunt Moll." Even the Times' Brooks Atkinson, who, alone among these critics, judged Church Street's presentation as harshly as he did the work being presented, exempted exactly one participant from this critique.
   "'Church Street' turns out to be more charade than drama, and with the exception of Charme Allen's acting, the performance is typical of most non-commercial productions; the characters are always just sliding out of the actors' grasp."

## Personal life and death

In Dayton, Ohio, on April 7, 1913, prompted by their harrowing experience in that season's well-publicized flood, Charme Wright and her then employer, saxophonist/clarinetist and bandleader Joseph Brown Allen, were married. Their union produced one child, radio actress Willa Gene Allen, and lasted until her husband's death on June 9, 1962.
On October 4, 1980, Allen died following a long illness at age 89, at the Actor's Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, where she had moved ten years prior. Allen's remains are interred at the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, in Dayton, Ohio.