Barbara Jo Allen

Acting

Barbara Jo Allen

Born 1906-09-02 · New York City, New York, USA

From Wikipedia Barbara Jo Allen (September 2, 1906 – September 14, 1974) was an actress also known as Vera Vague, the spinster character she created and portrayed on radio and in films during the 1940s and 1950s. She based the character on a woman she had seen delivering a PTA literature lecture in a confused manner. As Vague, she popularized the catch phrase "You dear boy!" Allen's acting ability first surfaced in school plays. Following her high school graduation, she went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. Concentrating on language, she became proficient in French, Spanish, German and Italian. After the death of her parents, she moved to Los Angeles where she lived with her uncle. In 1937, she debuted on network radio drama as Beth Holly on NBC's One Man's Family, followed by roles on Death Valley Days, I Love a Mystery and other radio series. According to Allen, her Vera Vague character was “sort of a frustrated female, dumb, always ambitious and overzealous… a spouting Bureau of Misinformation.” After Vera was introduced in 1939 on NBC Matinee, she became a regular with Bob Hope beginning in 1941. Allen appeared in at least 60 movies and TV series between 1938 and 1963, often credited as Vera Vague rather than her own name. The character she created was so popular that she eventually adopted the character name as her professional name. From 1943 to 1952, as Vera, she made more than a dozen comedy two-reel short subjects for Columbia Pictures. In 1948, she did less acting and instead opened her own commercial orchid business, while also serving as the Honorary Mayor of Woodland Hills, California. In 1953, as Vera, she hosted her own television series, Follow the Leader, a CBS audience participation show. In 1958, she appeared as Mabel, the boss of the flight attendants, in Jeannie Carson's syndicated version of her situation comedy Hey, Jeannie! The program aired only six episodes in syndication. Allen's first marriage was to actor Barton Yarborough. They had one child together. In 1946, the couple co-starred in the two-reel comedy short, Hiss and Yell, nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Subject. In 1931-32, Allen married Charles H. Crosby. In 1943, she married Bob Hope's producer, Norman Morrell. They had one child and were married for three decades, until her 1974 death in Santa Barbara, California.

Acting credits

Sleeping Beauty poster
6.9

Cursed to die by the evil fairy Maleficent when she was a baby, Princess Aurora is sent into hiding under protection from three good fairies. As she grows up far away, Maleficent becomes increasingly determined to seal the princess's fate.

Sleeping Beauty

1959

The Sword in the Stone poster
7.2

Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for him beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give him an education, believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way.

The Sword in the Stone

1963

The Women poster
7.2

A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.

The Women

1939

Goliath II poster
6.6

Goliath II is a 6-inch-tall elephant (son of the huge Goliath). He's a big disappointment to his father, but mom is proud of Goliath II anyway. Goliath II is constantly getting into trouble because he's so small. In particular, the tiger Raja looks for every opportunity to try a bite-size taste of elephant. After one incident where he ran away and his mother scolded him, he runs away. After he's rescued, the rest of the elephants are terrified of a mouse, but Goliath II stands his ground.

Goliath II

1960

Broadway Melody of 1940 poster
6.8

Johnny Brett and King Shaw are an unsuccessful dance team in New York. A producer discovers Brett as the new partner for Clare Bennett, but Brett, who thinks he is one of the people they lent money to, gives him the name of his partner.

Broadway Melody of 1940

1940

The Opposite Sex poster
5.4

Former radio singer Kay learns from her gossipy friends that her husband, Steve, has had an affair with chorus girl Crystal. Devastated, Kay tries to ignore the information, but when Crystal performs one of her musical numbers at a charity benefit, she breaks down and goes to Reno to file for divorce. However, when she hears that gold-digging Crystal is making Steve unhappy, Kay resolves to get her husband back. The Opposite Sex is a remake of the 1939 comedy The Women.

The Opposite Sex

1956

Priorities on Parade poster
7.0

Band leader Johnny Draper auditions his band, the Dixie Pixies, at the Eagle Aircraft Co., hoping to be hired to play for the workers in the plant. However, personnel manager E. V. Hartley can only offer them regular jobs, and when Johnny inspires the Dixie Pixies to work in the plant, lead singer and dancer Donna D'Arcy leaves the band for a singing job at the Club Martel in downtown Los Angeles.

Priorities on Parade

1942

No artwork available
8.0

Vera Vague, in the All-StarComedy works for the district attorney, and when his two-timing fiancee and her boyfriend try some trickery, Vera steps in with some effective wrestling holds.

Nursie Behave

1950

Larceny, Inc. poster
7.1

Three ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers...

Larceny, Inc.

1942

Rosie the Riveter poster
5.3

In this romantic wartime comedy, four female defense plant workers share a house with four male workers. The situation is on the up and up as the men and women work different shifts and they are only making do because there is a housing shortage. Unfortunately, they soon begin to fight about who gets the house during certain hours. Romance ensues.

Rosie the Riveter

1944

Design for Scandal poster
5.1

A newsman (Walter Pidgeon) falls in love on Cape Cod with the judge (Rosalind Russell) his angry boss (Edward Arnold) expects him to discredit.

Design for Scandal

1941

Wha' Happen? poster
9.0

Suffering from amnesia, Vera thinks she's responsible for a burglary.

Wha' Happen?

1949

Ice Capades Revue poster
6.0

Promoter Ann Porter decides to start her own Ice Show despite the efforts of ex-racketeer Duke Baldwin who owns a rival show. Jeff Stewart, a rich, suave young Broadwayite, falls in love with Ann and aids her in her fight against Baldwin.

Ice Capades Revue

1942

Buy Me That Town poster
6.3

A gangster and his mob buy a small-town in this warm comedy. They, tired of trying to make it as big city hoods, buy the town to use as a hideout. The leader of the gang begins to have a change of heart after he begins falling for a local girl.

Buy Me That Town

1941

Kiss the Boys Goodbye poster
6.5

New York chorus girl Cindy Lou Bethany becomes frustrated when she prepares for an audition for a Broadway musical, but the auditions close and her roommate, Gwen Abbott, is hired to be secretary to Top Rumson, the show's financial backer. Gwen tells Cindy that the director, Lloyd Lloyd, and composer, Dick Rayburn, have been sent to the South on a talent search for a classic Southern belle type to star in the show, although their shows usually feature Myra Stanhope, an actress whose style is hopelessly inappropriate for this show. Desperate for work, Cindy returns to her aunt Lily Lou and uncle Jefferson Davis Bethany's home in the South and schemes to get Lloyd and Rayburn to audition her.

Kiss the Boys Goodbye

1941

Clunked in the Clink poster
10.0

Vera's husband thinks she ahs been killed in a plane crash, unaware she has been arrested for speeding on the way to the airport.

Clunked in the Clink

1949

Melody Ranch poster
6.2

His Arizona hometown of Torpedo invites Gene back to be the honorary sheriff of the Frontier Days Celebration.

Melody Ranch

1940

Melody and Moonlight poster
7.5

Jane Frazee made her starring film debut in the Republic B-plus musical Melody and Moonlight. The plot is motivated by the show-biz aspirations of bellboy Danny O'Brien (Johnny Downs). With the help of a wealthy chiropodist (Jerry Colonna), O'Brien not only gets to star on a big-time radio show, but also sprinkles stardust upon his sweetheart Kay Barnett (Jane Frazee)-who, unbeknownst to everyone but the audience, is the daughter of the show's sponsor.

Melody and Moonlight

1940

The Mad Doctor poster
6.2

A reporter sleuths the mystery behind an oft-married Viennese doctor whose wives met mysterious fates.

The Mad Doctor

1940

Mohawk poster
5.6

An artist working in a remote army post is juggling the storekeeper's daughter, his fiancée newly arrived from the east, and the Indian Chief's daughter. But when a vengeful settler manages to get the army and the braves at each other's throats his troubles really begin.

Mohawk

1956

Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid poster
10.0

High-school student Henry Aldrich hopes to improve his grades by finding a sweetheart for his unmarried teacher.

Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid

1944

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch poster
8.0

In the shanty town called the Cabbage Patch, Mrs. Wiggs scrabbles for survival with her brood of children and hopes for the return of her husband, who left many years before.

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

1942

Ice-Capades poster
5.9

Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating on a different New York rink and pass her off as Karen. The scheme backfires when promoter Larry Herman takes a look at Bob's film and decides to make the skater a star. Unfortunately, it's actually amateur (and illegal immigrant) Marie Bergin in the newsreel footage, not the great figure skater from Switzerland. Chaos ensues as Bob tries to straighten everybody out.

Ice-Capades

1941

No artwork available
6.0

Through redubbed footage of The Coyote's Lament, the coyote's relationship with man and dog is shown from the coyote's point of view, as seen in various Disney cartoons.

Disney’s Coyote Tales

1991