My Funny Valentine: Comedy’s Real-life Married Couples

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a tribute to the history of a fairly small but influential slice of the show business population: Married comedy couples.

Throughout a particular period in the annals of entertainment, it became quite common to see (or hear) real-life married couples join forces as comedy partners. In the early 1930s, many came to national attention on radio, when that medium virtually exploded with programs starring comedians who had already made names for themselves in vaudeville. Several may have begun as solo performers on the stage, but at various points in their vaudeville careers, they struck gold by adding their spouses to the act, thereby setting it off in new, and more successful directions.

George Burns and Gracie Allen met in 1922 while each was struggling with only marginal success in vaudeville — George as a comedian (at one point working with a trained seal as his partner), and Gracie as part of a singing act with her sisters. Upon deciding to create their own team, George wrote an act in which Gracie played “straight” while he delivered the jokes. When he noticed that her set-up questions were getting more laughs than his answers, he switched things around, and began working to ensure that she would have the right (and funny) words to say, which she delivered with commendable concentration and timing. They married in 1925, and became a much-beloved act in radio, films, and television.