Basil Allen

B.M. Allen was a Birmingham attorney. He owned property on 3rd Avenue North, on the site where the Majestic Theatre was built. In 1918, he appeared before the health committee established by the Birmingham City Commission. Representing the management of the Lyric Theatre, Allen urged the commission not to take the "hasty action" of passing a shutdown ordinance during the 1918 influenza pandemic. The Lyric was well ventilated, he argued, and doing "war work" by showing news reels and honoring "the government's wishes that "the people be kept amused."