The host of Bravo’s ‘Watch What Happens Live’ show has deep roots in O’Fallon

With nothing but a pack on his back, Polish peddler Louis Allen settled in O’Fallon in the late 19th century and built a grocery and apparel empire before eventually moving his family company, Allen Foods, to St. Louis in 1949.

The pioneering merchant is media personality Andy Cohen’s maternal great-grandfather. On the PBS documentary series, “Finding Your Roots,” Cohen is the subject of Season 7’s second episode, “Against All Odds,” which also features Nina Totenberg of NPR.

Season 7 is geared towards immigrant stories, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. said, and Cohen will find out surprising information about his family lineage.

“Andy’s piece features one of the largest family trees we’ve ever constructed for a guest of Ashkenazi Jewish descent,” Gates said.

Ashkenazi Jews are from Eastern Europe.

The show already aired twice.

Next, on Nine PBS World 9.3 over the air, Spectrum Channel 185, it will be at 8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31; midnight Monday, Feb. 1 (Sunday overnight) and at 8 a.m. Monday, Feb. 1.

“The episode will also be on the free PBS video app for a couple of weeks after broadcast,” said Matt Huelskamp, vice president and chief marketing officer of Channel 9.

The gregarious Cohen, host of Bravo’s late-night talk show “Watch What Happens Live,” executive producer of “The Real Housewives” franchise and author, grew up in St. Louis. His parents are Louis and Evelyn (Allen) Cohen of Clayton, Missouri, and he has one sister, Emily Rosenfeld.

During a phone interview, his mother, Evelyn, the daughter of Benjamin Allen, one of Louis’ four children, said she attended school up to eighth grade in O’Fallon.

“At the time, there were 3,000 people in O’Fallon,” she said. “The town had one mailman.”

‘I loved O’Fallon’

She recalled fond memories of her youth.

“I loved O’Fallon. I had so many opportunities there that I didn’t have elsewhere. I twirled a baton in the Homecoming Parade,” she said. “I had a pony, then a horse, and I rode him all over town. It was the best time. It really informed who I am.”

While she was at the “Finding Your Roots” taping in November 2019, Evelyn said she doesn’t know what they will include during the half-hour segment featuring Andy. She is looking forward to seeing what aspect of her ancestry is included.

“I love the show. I’ve been watching for six years. I couldn’t believe it when Andy said they asked him. I told him that he better do it,” she said.

Coming to America

Her grandfather’s rags-to-riches success epitomizes the American Dream.

A native of Poland, Louis Allen arrived in the U.S. in 1894. He was 23 years old.

“He couldn’t speak English,” Evelyn said. “He came over without his wife and new son. His son had never seen his father until he was 3 years old.”

According to his obituary in the O’Fallon Progress, while in St. Louis, Allen purchased goods he placed in a pack and walked across the Eads Bridge. He figured he might have a better shot in the countryside, rather than the big city. At the train depot in East St. Louis, he asked how far 50 cents would take him — and it was to the O’Fallon Station.

Selling household, clothing door-to-door

As he started going door-to-door, a town marshal demanded $1.75 for a peddler license — which he didn’t have — but they allowed him to sell his merchandise with the hope of getting the money later. That evening, he gave the town clerk $1.75 for a three-month license.

He sold household goods and clothing by walking from farmhouse to farmhouse in Shiloh, Lebanon, Summerfield and other towns in the O’Fallon area. After four years, he was able to purchase a horse and wagon.

In 1901, he opened a general store, L. Allen and Sons Co., on West First Street. He expanded delivery service of his retail grocery store in 1912, gaining customers throughout the community and later from Scott Field, which opened in 1917.

During the Depression, Allen opened Stop and Shop markets in Belleville, East St. Louis, Trenton, Breese and O’Fallon.

The 1940s

In the 1940s, his brother, Harry, had a tailor shop, and would sell uniforms to Scott Air Force Base personnel. During World War II, the wholesale grocery business grew as they acquired more Army bases as customers.

With a larger operation, it became difficult to ship from O’Fallon, so Allen relocated the company to a warehouse in St. Louis in 1949. Ben Allen, Evelyn’s father, eventually became chairman of the board.

Before then, though, Louis had moved to University City, Missouri, so he could be close to a Jewish synagogue, she said. Everyone in the family gathered at her grandparents on Sunday afternoons.

After a fire destroyed Allen’s department store in downtown O’Fallon in 1953, the family did not replace the 52-year-old business.

Manufacturing business, selling Allen Foods

While Allen Foods flourished in Midwest distribution, they took over a manufacturing business, renaming it Lasco Foods (initials of L. Allen and Sons Co.). It sold about 300 food and beverage products to restaurants, hotels, military contracts and other locations.

“All the kids worked there, the brothers Harry, Ben and Al,” Evelyn said.

The family sold Allen Foods 20 years ago, Evelyn said. In 2002, U.S. Foodservice purchased the company, which at that time, distributed about 11,000 items to 5,400 customers from southern Illinois and St. Louis to Kansas City.

Besides the Allen family story, her mother’s father has an interesting tale, too.

“There were seven brothers, and one would come over, then send for each other,” she said. “They settled in Granite City. One had a clothing store, another a food market, one had a hardware store, one was a doctor. They all came with nothing.”

O’Fallon Historical Society

Brian Keller, president of the O’Fallon Historical Society, said he is eager to see if anything he submitted on Louis to the show’s producers will be included.

“I was contacted two summers ago in August 2019 by a researcher with McGee Media, the producers of the show. Apparently, the O’Fallon Historical Society’s name popped up as a source multiple times and I suppose they thought they ought to talk to the source. I sent them a variety of information,” Keller said.

“Louis Allen was one of the most successful and well-known businessmen in O’Fallon in his day. His flagship clothing store was on West First Street, next door to the east of where Wood Bakery is now,” Keller said.

“The researcher never said which celebrity they were focusing on, but I assumed it had to be Andy. I really don’t know what direction they’re going with Louis Allen and how he will play into the episode with Andy,” Keller said.

“I suppose I’ll find out when it airs like everyone else. I never heard back since their acknowledgment of the information, so I don’t know how helpful it was or to what extent they used any of it,” he said

Keller shared a fun fact related to the Allens.

“Even though Allen’s store was destroyed by fire in 1953, its footprint still exists. The brick walls survived the fire and part of them still stand. They were incorporated into 107 and 109 West First, adjacent to Wood Bakery on the east. If you notice that part of the strip is different from the rest, especially the back facing Second Street,” he said.

Andy Cohen’s Career

After spending 22 years behind the scenes, it is only in recent years Cohen has become a recognizable face on camera.

Known for his energy and enthusiasm, Cohen also speaks candidly, a trait he shares with his mother.

“He’s just an honest person. He tells it like it is,” Evelyn said, laughing. “He gets along with everybody.”

He has involved his parents on his weeknight talk show.

“He’ll have us on, acting as bartenders. He asks us questions. We go along with it,” Evelyn said.

In the early years, Evelyn used to text him with a review of his show, letting him know what she thought after each episode.

His parents also make an appearance on the CNN New Year’s Eve show, live from St. Louis.

‘An intuitive child’

They are used to his ribbing. Evelyn said she knew Andy was naturally funny at an early age.

“He was an intuitive child when he was very young. He would do something wrong and I would yell at him, and he would wink at me. Wink at me! He had a very sweet character,” she said.

“He’s been at this for a long time. In college, he interned at CBS, then they hired him full-time as a producer,” she said.

Besides his Bravo shows, Cohen has a SiriusXM channel he personally curates to focus on pop culture, celebrities, lifestyle, relationships and the dish on all topics deep and shallow. He launched “Radio Andy” in fall 2015.

More about Andy’s career

In 2016, he started Andy Cohen Books. He is a New York Times best-selling author, and his books include his first memoir “Most Talkative: Stories from the Frontlines of Pop Culture,” in 2012; “Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries”; and “The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look At a Shallow Year.”

Since 2017, Cohen has joined Anderson Cooper for the CNN New Year’s Eve live show. The pair have toured the country with a show “AC2: An Intimate Evening with Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen” since 2015.

In his 10 years as an executive at Bravo, he helped develop “Project Runway,” “Top Chef,” “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” “The Millionaire Matchmaker,” “Million Dollar Listing,” “Kathy Griffin My Life on the D List,” the Real Housewives franchises and more.

Bravo, awards

He started at Bravo in 2004 as vice president, original programming, and from November 2011 to January 2014, he served as executive vice president of development and talent.

He has been nominated for 19 Emmy Awards as an executive producer, winning one when season six of “Top Chef” won the Outstanding Reality Competition Program at the 2010 primetime Emmy Awards.

He has two Peabody Awards as executive producer of “The N Word” and “Project Runway.”

In 2019, Cohen was awarded the Vito Russo Award by GLAAD for making a significant difference in accelerating LGBTQ acceptance.

Additionally, Cohen was announced as one of the Class of 2020 to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Andy Cohen file

After his college internship at CBS News, he worked as a producer on “CBS This Morning” and “48 Hours.” He spent 10 years at CBS, 1990-2000, before joining the pop culture and arts cable channel Trio in July 2000, where he ran original programming and development.

He graduated from Clayton High School in 1986, then earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism at Boston University.

Cohen, 52, lives in New York City with his son, Benjamin Allen Cohen, who is named after his maternal grandfather, and will turn 2 on Feb. 4.

This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 11:59 AM.