Discreet Silence

In the 30-minute weekly broadcasts of Burns & Allen, Comedian Gracie Allen gives her radio listeners many a rib-tickling account of her mythical family. Since these relatives, invented for her by the Burns & Allen gagmen, are either nitwits, convicts or a blend of the two, they are frequently identified by their places of residence--Alcatraz for father, such other Federal and State penitentiaries as San Quentin, Joliet, Sing Sing, Leavenworth for brothers, uncles, cousins.

Last week the joke turned sour. After her microphone partner and husband, George Burns, pleaded guilty in Manhattan to two Federal indictments for smuggling (TIME, Dec. 19), with the case still pending, he flew to Hollywood to ready their radio program. Last Friday they took to the air. Gracie prattled gaily about her fictional family, but on their criminal careers and residences in jail, as well as on the troubles of her real family, she was mumchance.

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