I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

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You just got home from school and it’s Channel 30 Fun Time! Or maybe Nancy Allen's Movie Matinee on Channel 24. Don’t forget the BOSS 30's #1 KYNO. If you were sophisticated, you only listened to KFIG on some new airwave called FM. We honor the late great Al Radka here at Lost Fresno whose motto was Lettuce Eat it!
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I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by Lost Fresno Guest » Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:19 am

I would get home from school around 3:30 pm, turn on the tube and promptly click the large knob on our black and white set to the channel 24. And there she would be: the lady I wish was my girl friend, Miss Nancy Allen appearing on Movie Matinee. I was 10 years old and knew it was unlikely that I would ever met her. But every weekday, she appeared to me in our living room. I was always impressed with how poised and classy she was sitting on the couch talking about the movie selection of the day. To tell the truth, the movies themselves never seemed too interesting to me, maybe they were just over my head. Back then I preferred to good monster movie over a romantic tale or detective drama. But I knew she would reappear on the couch during the commercial so I stuck around and finished whatever movie she was showing. Anyone out there ever meet Nancy Allen?

FresnoGiants

Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by FresnoGiants » Mon Jul 04, 2011 7:07 pm

Nancy Allen's real name is Lorraine Martin. She is married to Dr. John Martin, a music professor at Fresno State, a lovely gentleman who played the saxaphone in Fresno big bands for many years. As of last year, they were both in their 90s and still in Fresno, although in failing health. I worked at Fresno State in the 1980s and met her several times. The first time I saw her at a faculty event, I was stunned and almost shouted, "It's Nancy Allen!" I quietly asked one of my colleagues who she was and learned about her "real life." She was a very quiet, shy, and gracious lady. I finally talked to her and she enjoyed hearing that I grew up watching her, and was touched that she was still remembered!

Guest

Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by Guest » Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:30 pm

I also watched Nancy Allen's Movie Matinee and remember how elegant and beautiful she looked. Does anyone remember her theme song? I loved that song and I believe it's a classical number, but I can't remember the name for the life of me. If you remember please post. I would really appreciate it. Thank you.
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Fresno Bee - April 16, 1966- Nancy Allen ad

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Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by Lost Fresno » Sat Mar 31, 2018 1:42 pm

Lately I have been playing Dale Mehl's podcasts and youtube videos titled "Fresno's Past". When I find one that relates to a thread here, I have been posting them. And this one is a 3 part series interviewing Nancy Allen. It was so nice to hear her voice again and Dale does a great job speaking with her. Thank thanks again for doing this Dale!


maggiemae

Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by maggiemae » Fri Aug 10, 2018 6:30 pm

Lorraine Martin a.k.a Nancy Allen just turned 100 years old. I had the pleasure of meeting this wonderful lady. She is so lovely. May she have many many more birthdays to come..

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Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by Lost Fresno » Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:10 am

Her obituary appears below and written by our friend at the Fresno Bee, Joshua Tehee. Joshua covers breaking news for The Fresno Bee, with a focus on entertainment and a heavy emphasis on the Central Valley music scene. You can see him share the area’s top entertainment options Friday mornings on KMPH’s “Great Day.”

She blazed a trail in Fresno television. 1960s KMJ-TV movie hostess dies at 101
By Joshua Tehee July 28, 2020

Lorraine Hanna Martin hadn’t been on TV in more than four decades, but she still got recognized around town. She’d be out at Trader Joes, making her way around the store with her walker and people would stop and ask, “Are you Nancy Allan?”

“Just in the past year that happened,” her son Jeff Hanna says. Nancy Allan was the name she was given when she started working in television in Fresno in the 1950s and the name associated with her most recognizable show — “Nancy Allan’s Movie Matinee,” which aired each afternoon on channel 24 in the 1960s. Hanna Martin died July 18, 2020, in Fresno. She was weeks shy of her 102nd birthday.

Early days of KMJ

Born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1918, Hanna Martin lived in Oregon before moving to Fresno with her then-husband, who worked at Fresno State. She auditioned for a job at KMJ-TV in 1954 at the behest of a family friend. This was back when the station was owned by the McClatchy company and housed in the original Fresno Bee building on Van Ness Avenue. On the last day of auditions, she was the last person to be seen and was hired without any real experience. Not that anyone had much experience in television at the time. The station had just come on the air the previous year and the idea of TV programming was still new. “I had no stated goal, except to be entertaining,” Hanna Martin said in a podcast interview in 2015. “And they kind of left it up to me.”

She started doing book reviews and then interviews with local dignitaries and politicians along with celebrities who were passing through town. She interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt during one of her stops in Fresno in the 1950s. She interviewed Jack Benny, actress Judith Anderson and original “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke.

‘Nancy Allan’s Movie Matinee’

In the 1960s, she served as host of “Nancy Allan’s Movie Matinee,” which featured late-release and first-telecast films. She would introduce the films and give tidbits of information at the commercial breaks. She also had a weekly “Garden Clinic” show, where people would write in with questions about plants and gardening. Hanna Martin eventually retired the station — and TV — in the 1970s. “And that was the end for mom,” Jeff Hanna says. “She became a housewife for the next decades.” But then, she was never forgotten.

The website Lost Fresno has a page dedicated to Nancy Allan’s memory. Its lead post is titled “I had a ‘Crush’ on Nancy Allan of Movie Matinee.” “I would get home from school around 3:30 pm, turn on the tube and promptly click the large knob on our black and white set to the channel 24. And there she would be: the lady I wish was my girl friend, Miss Nancy Allen appearing on Movie Matinee,” the post reads. “I was 10 years old and knew it was unlikely that I would ever met her. But every weekday, she appeared to me in our living room. I was always impressed with how poised and classy she was sitting on the couch talking about the movie selection of the day. To tell the truth, the movies themselves never seemed too interesting to me, maybe they were just over my head. Back then I preferred to good monster movie over a romantic tale or detective drama. But I knew she would reappear on the couch during the commercial, so I stuck around and finished whatever movie she was showing.”

Hanna Martin is survived by her son and several stepchildren.

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Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by Lost Fresno » Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:31 pm

What could be more fittings than to see Nancy off, stage right - to the sweet by and by with her theme song from Movie Matinee. Holiday for Strings wasn't her only theme but it was indeed the most iconic.

So come back with me now, it's 2:00 pm on a lazy Friday afternoon and you've just gotten home from school and it's time to catch Nancy's movie introduction as she sits on the couch with perfect posture and her hands neatly clasped in her lap. The stage manager looks at Nancy and says, You're live in 5, 4, 3, 2 and queue theme ...


Scott-o-rama

Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by Scott-o-rama » Fri Aug 07, 2020 4:53 am

Man, you had it bad for dat chick! Anyway, that tune was also copped to promote a local Fresno radio personality at around that same time. But, instead of plucking violins, it was just this guy singing:
Robert W Robert W Robert W Robert W
Robert W Robert W Robert W Robert W
Robert W Robert W Robert W Robert W Shultz

Dork

Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by Dork » Wed Mar 23, 2022 10:48 pm

I pleasured myself while I watched her, stroking furiously, balls joggling.

Scott-o-Rama

Re: I had a “Crush” on Nancy Allen of Movie Matinee

Post by Scott-o-Rama » Thu Mar 24, 2022 12:39 pm

Lost Fresno,
Please come to the rescue of your heroine’s virtue and keep this a nice family site by deleting the previous entry on this topic. Easy to see how that dude earned his nickname…

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