Robert Sharon Allen was born in Latonia, Kentucky, July 14, 1900. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the Army and was part of General Pershing's expedition into Mexico in search of Pancho Villa. During World War I Allen was promoted to 2nd lieutenant. He graduated from the United States Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas, in 1922, and he served as a captain in the Wisconsin National Guard for six years.
Allen began his career as one of the best known and most respected news columnists of his day with graduation from the University of Wisconsin (1923), and post graduate work at the University of Munich (1923-1924) and George Washington University (1927-1928). His first reporting was for the Madison Capital Times. Thereafter he wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, the Milwaukee Journal, the United Press Association, the Christian Science Monitor, the International News Service, and the Philadelphia Record.
While working for the Washington Bureau of the Christian Science Monitor in 1931, Allen wrote several articles about government officials that appeared anonymously in the American Mercury. Allen expanded the articles for a book and recruited fellow Washington journalist Drew Pearson to write the chapters on capitol society and the military. In 1932 they anonymously published the book, Washington Merry-Go-Round; a year later they wrote a sequel. Both books were collections of news stories and gossip about government officials during the Hoover Administration. The first, which was considered scandalous by some, became a best-seller. When the identity of the authors became known, both Allen and Pearson were fired from their respective positions. In 1932 they began a syndicated column for the Scripps-Howard newspapers that was entitled “Washington Merry-Go-Round.”
The column was first based in the Washington Herald, and by 1940 it was carried in over 350 newspapers and was the nation's most widely circulated column for its numerous “scoops.” Pearson and Allen became even better known when they launched a radio version of their column. They also co-authored three books: Why Hoover Faces Defeat (1932), Nine Old Men (1936), and Nine Old Men at the Crossroads (1935). Shortly before World War II, the Herald terminated the column for its openly interventionist position. In 1941, the columnists were signed by the Washington Post.
Because he was over forty, Allen was not eligible for the draft, but he volunteered nevertheless. In July 1942, the Army called him to active duty, and he ended his association with Pearson. Thereafter Allen served as operations executive with the rank of major under General George S. Patton of the Third Army. Allen was decorated several times, wounded, and lost his arm, and he left the service with the rank of colonel in December 1946.
During the war Jack Anderson became Pearson's “Washington Merry-Go-Round” partner, and Allen re-launched his career alone as a freelance writer of books and articles and a lecturer on national and world affairs. He also signed with the North American Newspaper Alliance to write feature articles. In 1945 Allen edited Our Fair City and in 1949 he produced a similar work, Our Sovereign State; both books were collections about local politics. In 1947 he wrote Lucky Forward, a history of the Third Army. In 1950 he published the Truman Merry-Go Round (1950).
In 1949 the Post Hall Syndicate (later the Hall Syndicate, the Publishers-Hall Syndicate, and the Field Newspapers Syndicate) hired Allen to write a daily column, “Inside Washington.” Unlike the editorials written by most columnists, “Inside Washington” was a traditional news column based on traditional news reporting. In 1959, Paul J. Scott, who had worked for Allen since the early days of the column, became a partner, and the column was unofficially titled the “Allen-Scott Report.” During this partnership each man wrote separate columns, but all appeared under their joint byline. When John A. Goldsmith replaced Scott in 1968, the column became known as the “Allen-Goldsmith Report.” In July 1971, Allen again became the sole author. “Inside Washington” ended in 1977, although Allen continued to write on an occasional basis.
In 1929 Allen married Ruth Finney, one of the few women journalists who covered hard news in Washington, D.C. She continued to write under her own name for the Scripps-Howard newspapers after their marriage. After her death in 1979, Allen married Adeline Sunday, his former secretary. Allen, who was suffering from a debilitating form of cancer, died on February 23, 1981, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
