Actress Fran Allison: Iowa Time Machine November 20, 1907

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On November 20, 1907, actress Fran Allison was born in La Porte City. Best known for her starring role on the weekday NBC puppet show “Kukla, Fran and Ollie”, which ran from 1947 to 1957, Allison also hosted “The CBS Children's Film Festival,” introducing international children's films from 1967 to 1977.

During Allison’s childhood in La Porte City, her father worked as a grocery store clerk until he died of a stroke in 1913. The family moved into a house on Sycamore Street in La Porte City with her paternal grandparents. A 1927 graduate of Coe College, Allison served as a fourth-grade teacher for four years in Schleswig and Pocahontas.

Allison started her broadcasting career at WMT in Waterloo before the station moved to Cedar Rapids in 1935. In 1937, she moved again, this time to Chicago, Illinois, to work as a staff singer and personality on NBC Radio. In 1947, “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” first appeared on airwaves, and Allison was the only human to appear on the live series. She filled the role of big sister and cheery voice of reason as the puppets, known as the Kuklapolitan Players.

During the late 1950s, she hosted “The Fran Allison Show,” a panel discussion TV program in Chicago. In 1950, Allison was nominated for an Emmy Award as Most Outstanding Kinescoped Personality. In 1967, Iowa Wesleyan University awarded her an honorary doctorate of letters. #Iowa #OTD #History #Actress #Hollywood