Our inspiration (1).

“This drugery, this sham, this goldmine.” —Fred Allen
From a xerox hanging on Fred’s door during our first five years.

In 1983, we (Alan and Fred) were in the lobby of the then-hot ad agency Scali, McCabe, and Sloves, having endured another excruciatingly boring presentation for our employers, The Movie Channel (MTV’s sister channel at Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company); that is, the advertising was painful and dull.

“We could start our own agency. Obviously, it’s not that hard.”

“We could call it Fred Alan, that would be funny.” We barely had an idea who Fred Allen was, but we knew he’d been a superstar of radio and that he was hilarious.

We started laughing and looked over at the receptionist who’d heard the entire exchange. Stonfaced.

“I guess our clients would have to be old enough to remember him.”

—Fred

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Our inspiration (2).

“Treadmill to Oblivion,” by Fred Allen

Alan found a first edition somewhere and gave it to me with double meaning. The first was that I’d started an indie record company in the 70s called Oblivion Records. The second was that Fred Allen had some stunningly relevant quotes. My favorite?

“Advertising is 15% commission and 85% omission.”

—Fred