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
Variety show honed their skills in music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, George Formby, Gracie Fields, Dan Leno, Gertrude Lawrence and Marie Lloyd. Most of the early top performers on British television and radio did an apprenticeship either in stage variety, or during World War II in Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). In the UK, the ultimate accolade for a variety artist for decades was to be asked to do the annual Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium theatre, in front of the monarch. Later known as the "Royal Variety Performance" (from 1919), it continues today. In the 1940s,