Jimmy Hoffa means of leveraging union strength at one company, to then move to organize workers, and finally to win contract demands at other companies. This process, which took several years starting in the early 1930s, eventually brought the Teamsters to a position of being one of the most powerful unions in the United States. Trucking unions in that era were heavily influenced by, and in many cases controlled by elements of, organized crime. For Hoffa to unify and expand trucking unions, he had to make accommodations and arrangements with many gangsters, beginning in the Detroit area. Organized crime influence on the
Portland Hoffa main reason why he ceased hosting his own show after 1949, but Hoffa often joined him as a semi-regular on Tallulah Bankhead's radio variety show, "The Big Show" (1950–52). She also appeared as the "mystery guest" on one episode of television's "What's My Line", on which Allen had become a panelist from 1954 until his death in early 1956. Hoffa and Allen had also appeared in such films as "Is Everybody Listening?" (1947) and the Jack Benny vehicle "Buck Benny Rides Again" (1940). In 1959, after Allen's death, Hoffa married bandleader Joe Rines, later an advertising executive. Hoffa and Rines