Mel Allen (February 14, 1913-June 16, 1996, originally Melvin Allen Israel) was an American sportscaster. During the peak of his career in the 1940s and 1950s, Allen was arguably the most prominent member of his profession, his voice familiar to millions.
Allen was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He was educated as a lawyer, but boyhood love for baseball led him to become first a sports columnist and then a radio announcer. However, his first broadcast was not a baseball game but a football game, between Tulane University and the University of Alabama. As a law school alumnus of Alabama, this game had a special significance to him.
In 1937 Allen was invited to join the CBS radio network as an announcer, and often did non-sports announcing such as big band remotes or game show announcements. Among the game shows, he did Truth or Consequences.
In 1939 Allen started doing play-by-play for both the New York Yankees and the then-New York Giants. Ultimately he became the main broadcaster for Yankees' games, though he also did Giant games until 1943. He was known for his "How about that?" exclamation on Yankee home runs.
In 1943 (in World War II) he entered the United States Army, and while in the service changed his name legally to Mel Allen; he broadcast on The Army Hour and Armed Forces Radio Service programs.
After returning to civilian life, Allen resumed baseball announcing, doing 24 All-Star Game broadcasts for Major League Baseball as well as Yankee games (including World Series broadcasts when the Yankees were in it, which was most of the years, a total of 20 World Series). In 1968 he worked Cleveland Indians games. He also did a number of football bowl games: 14 Rose Bowls, 2 Orange Bowls, and 2 Sugar Bowls. For many years Allen also provided voiceover narration for Fox Movietone newsreels.
In 1978 Allen was one of the first winners of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award. (The other was Red Barber, who for some of the time served alongside Allen as the Yankees' announcer.) He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988. In his later years, he was exposed to a new audience as the host of the syndicated highlights show This Week in Baseball , which he hosted from its inception in 1977 until his death.
Upon his death in 1996, Allen was buried at Temple Beth El Cemetery in Stamford, Connecticut.
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Last updated: 05-16-2005 14:17:24
