Editing Burns and Allen (section)

==Vaudeville==
[[File:Burns and Allen 1924.jpg|thumb|upright|Burns and Allen on the vaudeville circuit in 1924]]
Burns and Allen met in 1922 and first performed together at the Hill Street Theatre in [[Newark, New Jersey]], continued in small town vaudeville theaters, married in [[Cleveland]] on January 7, 1926, and moved up a notch when they signed with the [[Keith-Albee-Orpheum]] circuit in 1927.

Burns wrote most of the material and played the [[double act|straight man]]. Allen played a silly, addle-headed woman, a role often attributed to the "[[Dumb Dora]]" stereotype common in early 20th-century vaudeville comedy. Early on, the team had played the opposite roles until they noticed that the audience was laughing at Gracie's straight lines, so they made the change. In later years, each attributed their success to the other.

The Burns and Allen team was not an overnight sensation. "We were a good man-and-woman act," Burns said, "but we were not headliners or stars or featured attractions. We were on the bill with them. There would be a star or two stars and a featured attraction, and then we would come—fourth billing in an eight-act show." Their career changed direction when they made their first film.<ref name="Take One">{{cite journal |last=Nussbaum |first=Albert  |author-link=Albert Frederick Nussbaum|date=March 1977 |title=Funny Man: An Interview with George Burns |journal=[[Take One (Canadian magazine)|Take One]] |publisher=Unicorn Publishing Corp., Montréal, Québec, Canada |volume=5 |issue=8 |pages=26–28}}</ref>{{Rp|26}}