Gracie Allen "effortlessly" kept pace with the most famous dancer in films, as many did not know either of them could dance. The legend was born of their vaudeville routine and carried over to both radio and television. As the show wrapped up, Burns would look at Allen and say "Say good night, Gracie", to which she would usually simply reply "Good night." Popular legend has it that Allen would say, "Good night, Gracie." According to George Burns, recordings of their radio and television shows, and several histories of old-time radio (John Dunning's "On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio", for
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show a wisecrack: "The boy was produced by Burns and Allen." Starting in the fall of 1955, Burns and Allen often reappeared after the end of the episode, before a curtain decorated with the names and locations of the various theaters where they headlined in their vaudeville days. They would perform one of their signature "double routines", often discussing one of Gracie's fictional relatives (including "Death Valley Allen" the prospector, "Florence Allen" the nurse, "Casey Allen" the railroad man). Burns always ended the show with, "Say goodnight, Gracie", to which Allen simply replied, "Goodnight." She never said, "Goodnight, Gracie", as legend