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Richard "Red" Skelton (July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997) was an American comedy entertainer. He was best known for his national radio and television acts between 1937 and 1971, and as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio and television, and also appeared in burlesque, vaudeville, films, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist.
Skelton began developing his comedic and pantomime skills from the age of 10, when he became part of a traveling medicine show. He then spent time on a showboat, worked the burlesque circuit, then entered into vaudeville in 1934. The "Doughnut Dunkers" pantomime sketch, which he wrote together with his wife, launched a career for him in vaudeville, radio, and films. His radio career began in 1937 with a guest appearance on The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour which led to his becoming the host of Avalon Time in 1938. He became the host of The Raleigh Cigarette Program in 1941 where many of his comedy characters were created, and he had a regularly scheduled radio program until 1957. Skelton made his film debut in 1938 alongside Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Alfred Santell's Having Wonderful Time, and he went on to appear in numerous musical and comedy films throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, with starring roles in Ship Ahoy (1941), I Dood It (1943), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), and The Clown (1953).
Skelton was most eager to work in television, even when the medium was in its infancy. The Red Skelton Show made its television premiere on September 30, 1951 on NBC. By 1954, Skelton's program moved to CBS, where it was expanded to one hour and renamed The Red Skelton Hour in 1962. Despite high ratings, the show was cancelled by CBS in 1970, as the network believed that more youth-oriented programs were needed to attract younger viewers and their spending power. Skelton moved his program to NBC, where he completed his last year with a regularly scheduled television show in 1971. He spent his time after that making as many as 125 personal appearances a year and working on his art.
Skelton's artwork of clowns remained a hobby until 1964 when his wife Georgia convinced him to have a showing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas while he was performing there. Sales of his originals were successful, and he also sold prints and lithographs of them, earning $2.5 million yearly on lithograph sales. At the time of his death, his art dealer believed that Skelton had earned more money through his paintings than from his television work.
Skelton believed that his life's work was to make people laugh; he wanted to be known as a clown because he defined it as being able to do everything. He had a 70-year career as a performer and entertained three generations of Americans. His widow donated many of his personal and professional effects to Vincennes University, including prints of his artwork. They are part of the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy at Vincennes.
Skelton began developing his comedic and pantomime skills from the age of 10, when he became part of a traveling medicine show. He then spent time on a showboat, worked the burlesque circuit, then entered into vaudeville in 1934. The "Doughnut Dunkers" pantomime sketch, which he wrote together with his wife, launched a career for him in vaudeville, radio, and films. His radio career began in 1937 with a guest appearance on The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour which led to his becoming the host of Avalon Time in 1938. He became the host of The Raleigh Cigarette Program in 1941 where many of his comedy characters were created, and he had a regularly scheduled radio program until 1957. Skelton made his film debut in 1938 alongside Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Alfred Santell's Having Wonderful Time, and he went on to appear in numerous musical and comedy films throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, with starring roles in Ship Ahoy (1941), I Dood It (1943), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), and The Clown (1953).
Skelton was most eager to work in television, even when the medium was in its infancy. The Red Skelton Show made its television premiere on September 30, 1951 on NBC. By 1954, Skelton's program moved to CBS, where it was expanded to one hour and renamed The Red Skelton Hour in 1962. Despite high ratings, the show was cancelled by CBS in 1970, as the network believed that more youth-oriented programs were needed to attract younger viewers and their spending power. Skelton moved his program to NBC, where he completed his last year with a regularly scheduled television show in 1971. He spent his time after that making as many as 125 personal appearances a year and working on his art.
Skelton's artwork of clowns remained a hobby until 1964 when his wife Georgia convinced him to have a showing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas while he was performing there. Sales of his originals were successful, and he also sold prints and lithographs of them, earning $2.5 million yearly on lithograph sales. At the time of his death, his art dealer believed that Skelton had earned more money through his paintings than from his television work.
Skelton believed that his life's work was to make people laugh; he wanted to be known as a clown because he defined it as being able to do everything. He had a 70-year career as a performer and entertained three generations of Americans. His widow donated many of his personal and professional effects to Vincennes University, including prints of his artwork. They are part of the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy at Vincennes.
Red Skelton - Wikipedia
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Comedy - Red Skelton - Two Highway Patrolmen & Two Texans & Frogs imasportsphile.com
http://imasportsphile.com/comedy/ where 100s of vintage comedy videos currently post that will make you laugh....unless you have no sense of humor
Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that July 18 is the anniversary of the birth of WWII US Army drafted private American comedy entertainer Richard "Red" Skelton.
He as a wonderful and gifted entertainer IMHO.
Red Skelton was drafted in March 1944, and the popular series was discontinued June 6, 1944. Shipped overseas to serve with an Army entertainment unit as a private, Red Skelton had a nervous breakdown in Italy, spent three months in a hospital and was discharged in September, 1945.
Images: Comedian Red Skelton as Hobo Freddie the Freeloader; George Burns and Red Skelton at the 10th Annual of American Guild of Variety Artists Awards; Red Skelton holding his daughter Valentina
A. Background from redskelton.com/biography
"While performing in Kansas City in 1930, Red Skelton met and married his first wife, Edna Stillwell. They met while "Walkathon" dance partners. Red and Edna had a vaudeville act and traveled throughout the midwest and Canada. The couple divorced 13 years later, but they remained cordial enough that Stillwell remained one of his chief writers. Seven years after their marriage, Red Skelton caught his big break in two media at once: radio and film. Beginning with Having a Wonderful Time (1938), Red Skelton appeared in more than 30 MGM films during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, he married Georgia Davis, and the couple had two children, Richard and Valentina. Richard's childhood death of leukemia devastated the household. Red and Georgia divorced in 1972, and he married Lothian Toland in 1973, daughter of Gregg Toland, Academy Award winning cinematographer.
After appearances on The Rudy Vallee Show in 1937, Red became a regular on NBC's Avalon Time, sponsored by Avalon Cigarettes. On October 7, 1941, Red Skelton premiered his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, developing routines involving a number of recurring characters, including punch-drunk boxer Cauliflower McPugg, inebriated Willie Lump-Lump and Junior the "mean widdle kid" , whose favorite phrase ("I dood it!") became part of the American lexicon. There was con man San Fernando Red with his pair of crosseyed seagulls, Gertrude and Heathcliffe, and singing cabdriver Clem Kadiddlehopper, a country bumpkin with a big heart and a slow wit. Clem had an unintentional knack for upstaging high society slickers, even if he couldn't manipulate his cynical father: "When the stork brought you, Clem, I shoulda shot him on sight!" Red Skelton also helped sell WWII war bonds on the top-rated show, which featured Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in the supporting cast, plus the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra and announcer Truman Bradley. Harriet Nelson was the show's vocalist.
Born in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard (Red) Skelton was the son of a Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus clown named Joseph who died in 1913 shortly before the birth of his son. Red Skelton himself got one of his earliest tastes of show business with the same circus as a teenager. Before that, however, he had been given the show business bug at age ten by entertainer Ed Wynn, who spotted him selling newspapers in front of the Pantheon Theatre, in Vincennes, Indiana, trying to help his family. After buying every newspaper in Red Skelton's stock, Wynn took the boy backstage and introduced him to every member of the show with which he was traveling. By age 15, Red Skelton had hit the road full-time as an entertainer, working everywhere
from medicine shows and vaudeville to burlesque, showboats,
minstrel shows and circuses.
Red Skelton was a man of deep faith and staunch patriotic fervor, extremely proud of his 58 year membership in the Masons and the Shriners. Major changes were rapidly taking place in our society that threatened to undermine the very founding principles upon which our great nation was built. Prayer was banned from our schools. Tens of millions of Americans were rendered speechless. Red Skelton became their voice.
Red Skelton was drafted in March 1944, and the popular series was discontinued June 6, 1944. Shipped overseas to serve with an Army entertainment unit as a private, Red Skelton had a nervous breakdown in Italy, spent three months in a hospital and was discharged in September, 1945. He once joked about his military career, "I was the only celebrity who went in and came out a private." On December 4, 1945, The Raleigh Cigarette Program resumed where it left off with Red Skelton introducing some new characters, including Bolivar Shagnasty and J. Newton Numbskull. Lurene Tuttle and Verna Felton appeared as Junior's mother and grandmother. David Forrester and David Rose led the orchestra, featuring vocalist Anita Ellis. The announcers were Pat McGeehan and Rod O'Connor. The series ended May 20, 1949 andRed moved to CBS to continue his radio career.
In 1951 (the same year the network introduced I Love Lucy), CBS beckoned Red Skelton to bring his radio show to television. His characters worked even better on screen than on radio; television also provoked him to create his second best-remembered character, Freddie the Freeloader, a traditional tramp whose appearance suggested the elder brother of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown Emmett Kelly. Annoucer/voice actor Art Gilmore who voiced numerous movie trailers in Hollywood in the 1950s became the annoucer on the show with David Rose and his orchestra providing the music. Red Skelton's weekly signoff -- "Good night and may God bless" -- became as familiar to television viewers as Edward R. Murrow's "Good night and good luck." Red Skelton was the first CBS television host to begin taping his weekly programs in color, in the early 1960s, after he bought an old movie studio and converted it for television productions.
Red Skelton was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989, but as Kadiddlehopper showed, he was more than an interpretive clown. One of his best-known routines was "The Pledge of Allegiance," in which he explained the pledge word by word. Another Red Skelton staple, a pantomime of the crowd at a small town parade as the American flag passes by, reflected Red Skelton's rural, Americana tastes. Red returned to live performances after his television days ended. He played nightclubs, casinos, resorts, and performed such venues as Carnegie Hall. Many of those shows yielded segments that were edited into part of the Funny Faces video series on HBO's Standing Room Only. He also spent more time on his lifetime love of painting, usually of clown images, and his works began to attract prices in the high five figures.
Near the end of his life, Red Skelton said his daily routine included writing a short story a day. He collected the best stories in self-published chatbooks. He also composed music which he sold to background music services such as Muzak. Among his more notable compositions was his patriotic "Red's White and Blue March." Red Skelton died in a hospital in Palm Springs, California of pneumonia on September 17, 1997. At the time of his death, he lived in Anza, California, and was married to Lothian Skelton, his wife of 25 years. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Red and Lothian Skelton loved horses and actually bred quarter horses at their ranch outside Palm Springs. Below is a photo of Red with his favorite stallion AQHA "Cutter's Smoke".
In 2002 during the controversy of the phrase "Under God" in the US Pledge of Allegiance, a recording of a monologue he performed on his 1969 radio show resurfaced. In the speech, he commented on what each line of the pledge symbolizes. At the end, he commented that "Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that would be eliminated from schools too?" With the pledge under attack as being "religious", he suddenly regained popularity among those who opposed the lawsuit.
The Red Skelton Bridge spans the Wabash River and provides the highway link between Illinois and Indiana on Highway 50, near his hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. TheRed Skelton Performing Arts Center on the Vincennes University campus was constructed in 2006. On May 17, 2006, the Vincennes Sun-Commercial reported that a non-profit group in Red's hometown of Vincennes, began to renovate the historic Pantheon Theater. According to the article, the stage at the Pantheon will be named in honor of Red Skelton."
B. Trademarks, Trivia and Quotes from
"Trade Mark (5)
1. His wide variety of characters such as Sheriff Dead Eye, Clem Kadiddlehopper, etc.
2. Performs and does characters with his brown hat. He performs different characters by changing the way the hat looks and how he wears it
3. Always ended his TV show and specials with, "Good night and may God bless."
4. Red hair
5. Dimples
Trivia (38)
1. Used his "Guzzlers Gin" comedy sketch as his successful 1940 screen test for MGM. It was later filmed in Ziegfeld Follies (1945).
2. Clowns were his lifelong trademark. His clown paintings have sold for upwards of $80,000.
3. Skelton earned over $2.5 million annually at one time as an artist, after the cancellation of his variety show The Red Skelton Hour (1951).
4. His first wife, a former usher, negotiated his 1951 $5 million, seven-year Hollywood contract.
5. His father used to be a circus clown.
6. Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Benediction.
7. In 1986, as Clem Kaddiddlehopper, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Foolology from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
8. He insisted on getting his television skits done on the first take, even if it meant ad-libbing around blown lines and failed props. In one famous incident on live television, he managed to ad-lib while a cow defecated on stage ("Not only does she give milk, but also Pet-Ritz pies!").
9. Inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989.
10. Inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994.
11. He was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
12. Served in the United States Army during World War II (1944-1945).
13. Star of "The Red Skelton Show" on NBC Radio (1941-1949) and CBS Radio (1949-1953).
14. Was the 1961 recipient of the prestigious Connor Award given by the brothers of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also an honorary brother of the fraternity.
15. A bridge was built and named after him that spans the Wabash River separating Indiana and Illinois on US 50, just outside his hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. Vincennes University is also building a Performing Arts Center in his memory.
16. He often made reference to his second wife, Georgia, as "Little Red."
17. In 1971, following a successful 30 year run on CBS (often placing among the top ten shows) his ratings finally slipped and The Red Skelton Hour (1951) was quickly canceled by the network. He never forgave them. Television historians have long suspected that he was a victim of the 1971 television purge that took place after the success of All in the Family (1971) wherein CBS rid itself of all "nice shows" and "rural shows" in favor of shows with edgier subject matter.
18. His daughter Valentina Marie Skelton was born on May 5, 1947. His son, Richard Freeman Skelton was born on May 20, 1948 and died on May 10, 1958 of leukemia, just 10 days before his 10th birthday.
19. He was extremely offended by "blue humor" and publicly made note of any comedian who used it because he felt that it cheapened the art of comedy. He very closely observed every skit that went on his show to make sure that it could not be twisted into a double entendre.
20. One of Red's writers filled in for him one night when he took a serious fall, injuring himself. That writer's name was Johnny Carson.
21. In 1960, he purchased the old Charles Chaplin Studios on La Brea Avenue, where he produced his weekly television shows. He established Red-Eo-Tape (Red-Tape) Video Productions. His three RCA TK-41 camera mobile units became the first live color production company in Hollywood.
22. Although famous for his "drunk" comedy sketches, he never drank and was, in fact, allergic to alcohol.
23. Got his first taste of the stage at "The Pantheon Theatre" in downtown Vincennes, Indiana, which is now being remodeled and the stage being named in his honor.
24. He became well-known as an outspoken proponent for the addition of the phrase "Under God" to the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
25. His brother Paul Skelton worked as an uncredited prop man on Irwin Allen series such as Lost in Space (1965).
26. In a People Magazine interview late in his life, Skelton admitted that he fudged his officially accepted birth year, but did not elaborate. The year 1910 is sometimes given instead of 1913, but Skelton's biographer Arthur Marx claims that the comedian told close associates he was really born in 1906.
27. He was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6650 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Radio at 6763 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
28. Appears as the character Freddie the Freeloader on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Early TV Memories issue honoring The Red Skelton Hour (1951). The stamp was issued 11 August 2009.
29. Originally he had hoped to become a circus lion tamer, but gave up on that when he saw a man mauled to death by one of the big cats.
30. He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party.
31. On May 10, 1976, his ex-wife Georgia Davis committed suicide by gunshot on the 18th anniversary of their son's Richard Freeman Skelton's death.
32. The day after his wedding on March 9, 1945, Skelton checked into the hospital for a tonsillectomy.
33. The pressures of entertaining troops, and fulfilling his duties as a soldier, resulted in Skelton's hospitalization for a nervous breakdown in 1945.
34. Often said that of all the characters he'd played, Freddie the Freeloader was by far his favorite. When asked why, he said that Freddie was the purest soul of his characters and that he was a tribute to the clowns that he knew and treasured.
35. Grandfather of Sabrina Alonso.
36. According to Skelton, in his appearance with Johnny Carson rebroadcast on TCM 7/19/14, his real name was Richard Red Skelton -- Red was really his middle name. When a teacher insisted he come up with a "real" middle name, he chose "Bernard" from the name of a local clothier, and the teacher was satisfied. He was surprised many years latter when FBI director J Edgar Hoover addressed him as "Bernard". It turned out that Bernard was in his FBI dossier.
37. His third wife, and widow, the former Lothian Toland, was the only daughter of preeminent cinematographer Gregg Toland.
38. In 1944 when Red Skelton was stationed at Camp Roberts in California his fellow soldiers, upon his arrival, tacked a sign on his barracks door that read: "Tour a Movie Star's Home -- Twenty-Five Cents.".
Personal Quotes (10)
1. My mother told me something I've never forgotten: 'Don't take life too seriously, son, you don't come out of it alive anyway.
2. His traditional TV sign-off: "Good night, and may God bless."
3. All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner.
4. When Harry Cohn, the notorious - and much despised - head of Columbia Pictures died, seeing the crowd at his funeral prompted this famous Skelton riposte: "It just goes to show you, Harry was right -- If you give the public what they want, they'll always show up."
5. As a longtime painter, I carry around snapshots of my favorite paintings the way other old geezers my age carry around pictures of their grandkids. Grandchildren are wonderful, but a good painting can help support you in your old age.
6. I think most of today's comedians are victims of laughter...they get nervous and resort to an insult or a four-letter word for a quick, cheap laugh. That goes on night after night until the whole act is cheapened. But that doesn't last. Usually, a couple of years later they are remembered only as the old what's-his-name who used all the dirty words.
7. I'm nuts and I know it. But so long as I make 'em laugh, they ain't going to lock me up.
8. I always believed God puts each one of us here for a purpose and mine is to try to make people happy.
9. If I can make people smile, then I have served my purpose for God.
10. [on the large attendance at producer Harry Cohn's funeral] Well, it only proved what they always say - give the public something they want to see, and they'll come out for it."
Comedy - Red Skelton - Two Highway Patrolmen & Two Texans & Frogs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSFucXg-FzQ
FYI CPT Don KempSFC Greg Bruorton CPT (Join to see) 1stSgt Eugene Harless MSgt Ken "Airsoldier" Collins-Hardy 1SG Carl McAndrews SPC Douglas Bolton Debbie Pomeroy Cloud Kathlean KeeslerSGT Tim Fridley (Join to see) Michael Horne SSG David Andrews Sgt John H. Sgt David G Duchesneau SGT Mark Halmrast CW5 Jack Cardwell Cynthia Croft
He as a wonderful and gifted entertainer IMHO.
Red Skelton was drafted in March 1944, and the popular series was discontinued June 6, 1944. Shipped overseas to serve with an Army entertainment unit as a private, Red Skelton had a nervous breakdown in Italy, spent three months in a hospital and was discharged in September, 1945.
Images: Comedian Red Skelton as Hobo Freddie the Freeloader; George Burns and Red Skelton at the 10th Annual of American Guild of Variety Artists Awards; Red Skelton holding his daughter Valentina
A. Background from redskelton.com/biography
"While performing in Kansas City in 1930, Red Skelton met and married his first wife, Edna Stillwell. They met while "Walkathon" dance partners. Red and Edna had a vaudeville act and traveled throughout the midwest and Canada. The couple divorced 13 years later, but they remained cordial enough that Stillwell remained one of his chief writers. Seven years after their marriage, Red Skelton caught his big break in two media at once: radio and film. Beginning with Having a Wonderful Time (1938), Red Skelton appeared in more than 30 MGM films during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, he married Georgia Davis, and the couple had two children, Richard and Valentina. Richard's childhood death of leukemia devastated the household. Red and Georgia divorced in 1972, and he married Lothian Toland in 1973, daughter of Gregg Toland, Academy Award winning cinematographer.
After appearances on The Rudy Vallee Show in 1937, Red became a regular on NBC's Avalon Time, sponsored by Avalon Cigarettes. On October 7, 1941, Red Skelton premiered his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, developing routines involving a number of recurring characters, including punch-drunk boxer Cauliflower McPugg, inebriated Willie Lump-Lump and Junior the "mean widdle kid" , whose favorite phrase ("I dood it!") became part of the American lexicon. There was con man San Fernando Red with his pair of crosseyed seagulls, Gertrude and Heathcliffe, and singing cabdriver Clem Kadiddlehopper, a country bumpkin with a big heart and a slow wit. Clem had an unintentional knack for upstaging high society slickers, even if he couldn't manipulate his cynical father: "When the stork brought you, Clem, I shoulda shot him on sight!" Red Skelton also helped sell WWII war bonds on the top-rated show, which featured Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in the supporting cast, plus the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra and announcer Truman Bradley. Harriet Nelson was the show's vocalist.
Born in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard (Red) Skelton was the son of a Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus clown named Joseph who died in 1913 shortly before the birth of his son. Red Skelton himself got one of his earliest tastes of show business with the same circus as a teenager. Before that, however, he had been given the show business bug at age ten by entertainer Ed Wynn, who spotted him selling newspapers in front of the Pantheon Theatre, in Vincennes, Indiana, trying to help his family. After buying every newspaper in Red Skelton's stock, Wynn took the boy backstage and introduced him to every member of the show with which he was traveling. By age 15, Red Skelton had hit the road full-time as an entertainer, working everywhere
from medicine shows and vaudeville to burlesque, showboats,
minstrel shows and circuses.
Red Skelton was a man of deep faith and staunch patriotic fervor, extremely proud of his 58 year membership in the Masons and the Shriners. Major changes were rapidly taking place in our society that threatened to undermine the very founding principles upon which our great nation was built. Prayer was banned from our schools. Tens of millions of Americans were rendered speechless. Red Skelton became their voice.
Red Skelton was drafted in March 1944, and the popular series was discontinued June 6, 1944. Shipped overseas to serve with an Army entertainment unit as a private, Red Skelton had a nervous breakdown in Italy, spent three months in a hospital and was discharged in September, 1945. He once joked about his military career, "I was the only celebrity who went in and came out a private." On December 4, 1945, The Raleigh Cigarette Program resumed where it left off with Red Skelton introducing some new characters, including Bolivar Shagnasty and J. Newton Numbskull. Lurene Tuttle and Verna Felton appeared as Junior's mother and grandmother. David Forrester and David Rose led the orchestra, featuring vocalist Anita Ellis. The announcers were Pat McGeehan and Rod O'Connor. The series ended May 20, 1949 andRed moved to CBS to continue his radio career.
In 1951 (the same year the network introduced I Love Lucy), CBS beckoned Red Skelton to bring his radio show to television. His characters worked even better on screen than on radio; television also provoked him to create his second best-remembered character, Freddie the Freeloader, a traditional tramp whose appearance suggested the elder brother of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown Emmett Kelly. Annoucer/voice actor Art Gilmore who voiced numerous movie trailers in Hollywood in the 1950s became the annoucer on the show with David Rose and his orchestra providing the music. Red Skelton's weekly signoff -- "Good night and may God bless" -- became as familiar to television viewers as Edward R. Murrow's "Good night and good luck." Red Skelton was the first CBS television host to begin taping his weekly programs in color, in the early 1960s, after he bought an old movie studio and converted it for television productions.
Red Skelton was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989, but as Kadiddlehopper showed, he was more than an interpretive clown. One of his best-known routines was "The Pledge of Allegiance," in which he explained the pledge word by word. Another Red Skelton staple, a pantomime of the crowd at a small town parade as the American flag passes by, reflected Red Skelton's rural, Americana tastes. Red returned to live performances after his television days ended. He played nightclubs, casinos, resorts, and performed such venues as Carnegie Hall. Many of those shows yielded segments that were edited into part of the Funny Faces video series on HBO's Standing Room Only. He also spent more time on his lifetime love of painting, usually of clown images, and his works began to attract prices in the high five figures.
Near the end of his life, Red Skelton said his daily routine included writing a short story a day. He collected the best stories in self-published chatbooks. He also composed music which he sold to background music services such as Muzak. Among his more notable compositions was his patriotic "Red's White and Blue March." Red Skelton died in a hospital in Palm Springs, California of pneumonia on September 17, 1997. At the time of his death, he lived in Anza, California, and was married to Lothian Skelton, his wife of 25 years. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Red and Lothian Skelton loved horses and actually bred quarter horses at their ranch outside Palm Springs. Below is a photo of Red with his favorite stallion AQHA "Cutter's Smoke".
In 2002 during the controversy of the phrase "Under God" in the US Pledge of Allegiance, a recording of a monologue he performed on his 1969 radio show resurfaced. In the speech, he commented on what each line of the pledge symbolizes. At the end, he commented that "Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that would be eliminated from schools too?" With the pledge under attack as being "religious", he suddenly regained popularity among those who opposed the lawsuit.
The Red Skelton Bridge spans the Wabash River and provides the highway link between Illinois and Indiana on Highway 50, near his hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. TheRed Skelton Performing Arts Center on the Vincennes University campus was constructed in 2006. On May 17, 2006, the Vincennes Sun-Commercial reported that a non-profit group in Red's hometown of Vincennes, began to renovate the historic Pantheon Theater. According to the article, the stage at the Pantheon will be named in honor of Red Skelton."
B. Trademarks, Trivia and Quotes from
"Trade Mark (5)
1. His wide variety of characters such as Sheriff Dead Eye, Clem Kadiddlehopper, etc.
2. Performs and does characters with his brown hat. He performs different characters by changing the way the hat looks and how he wears it
3. Always ended his TV show and specials with, "Good night and may God bless."
4. Red hair
5. Dimples
Trivia (38)
1. Used his "Guzzlers Gin" comedy sketch as his successful 1940 screen test for MGM. It was later filmed in Ziegfeld Follies (1945).
2. Clowns were his lifelong trademark. His clown paintings have sold for upwards of $80,000.
3. Skelton earned over $2.5 million annually at one time as an artist, after the cancellation of his variety show The Red Skelton Hour (1951).
4. His first wife, a former usher, negotiated his 1951 $5 million, seven-year Hollywood contract.
5. His father used to be a circus clown.
6. Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Benediction.
7. In 1986, as Clem Kaddiddlehopper, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Foolology from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
8. He insisted on getting his television skits done on the first take, even if it meant ad-libbing around blown lines and failed props. In one famous incident on live television, he managed to ad-lib while a cow defecated on stage ("Not only does she give milk, but also Pet-Ritz pies!").
9. Inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989.
10. Inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994.
11. He was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
12. Served in the United States Army during World War II (1944-1945).
13. Star of "The Red Skelton Show" on NBC Radio (1941-1949) and CBS Radio (1949-1953).
14. Was the 1961 recipient of the prestigious Connor Award given by the brothers of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also an honorary brother of the fraternity.
15. A bridge was built and named after him that spans the Wabash River separating Indiana and Illinois on US 50, just outside his hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. Vincennes University is also building a Performing Arts Center in his memory.
16. He often made reference to his second wife, Georgia, as "Little Red."
17. In 1971, following a successful 30 year run on CBS (often placing among the top ten shows) his ratings finally slipped and The Red Skelton Hour (1951) was quickly canceled by the network. He never forgave them. Television historians have long suspected that he was a victim of the 1971 television purge that took place after the success of All in the Family (1971) wherein CBS rid itself of all "nice shows" and "rural shows" in favor of shows with edgier subject matter.
18. His daughter Valentina Marie Skelton was born on May 5, 1947. His son, Richard Freeman Skelton was born on May 20, 1948 and died on May 10, 1958 of leukemia, just 10 days before his 10th birthday.
19. He was extremely offended by "blue humor" and publicly made note of any comedian who used it because he felt that it cheapened the art of comedy. He very closely observed every skit that went on his show to make sure that it could not be twisted into a double entendre.
20. One of Red's writers filled in for him one night when he took a serious fall, injuring himself. That writer's name was Johnny Carson.
21. In 1960, he purchased the old Charles Chaplin Studios on La Brea Avenue, where he produced his weekly television shows. He established Red-Eo-Tape (Red-Tape) Video Productions. His three RCA TK-41 camera mobile units became the first live color production company in Hollywood.
22. Although famous for his "drunk" comedy sketches, he never drank and was, in fact, allergic to alcohol.
23. Got his first taste of the stage at "The Pantheon Theatre" in downtown Vincennes, Indiana, which is now being remodeled and the stage being named in his honor.
24. He became well-known as an outspoken proponent for the addition of the phrase "Under God" to the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
25. His brother Paul Skelton worked as an uncredited prop man on Irwin Allen series such as Lost in Space (1965).
26. In a People Magazine interview late in his life, Skelton admitted that he fudged his officially accepted birth year, but did not elaborate. The year 1910 is sometimes given instead of 1913, but Skelton's biographer Arthur Marx claims that the comedian told close associates he was really born in 1906.
27. He was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6650 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Radio at 6763 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
28. Appears as the character Freddie the Freeloader on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Early TV Memories issue honoring The Red Skelton Hour (1951). The stamp was issued 11 August 2009.
29. Originally he had hoped to become a circus lion tamer, but gave up on that when he saw a man mauled to death by one of the big cats.
30. He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party.
31. On May 10, 1976, his ex-wife Georgia Davis committed suicide by gunshot on the 18th anniversary of their son's Richard Freeman Skelton's death.
32. The day after his wedding on March 9, 1945, Skelton checked into the hospital for a tonsillectomy.
33. The pressures of entertaining troops, and fulfilling his duties as a soldier, resulted in Skelton's hospitalization for a nervous breakdown in 1945.
34. Often said that of all the characters he'd played, Freddie the Freeloader was by far his favorite. When asked why, he said that Freddie was the purest soul of his characters and that he was a tribute to the clowns that he knew and treasured.
35. Grandfather of Sabrina Alonso.
36. According to Skelton, in his appearance with Johnny Carson rebroadcast on TCM 7/19/14, his real name was Richard Red Skelton -- Red was really his middle name. When a teacher insisted he come up with a "real" middle name, he chose "Bernard" from the name of a local clothier, and the teacher was satisfied. He was surprised many years latter when FBI director J Edgar Hoover addressed him as "Bernard". It turned out that Bernard was in his FBI dossier.
37. His third wife, and widow, the former Lothian Toland, was the only daughter of preeminent cinematographer Gregg Toland.
38. In 1944 when Red Skelton was stationed at Camp Roberts in California his fellow soldiers, upon his arrival, tacked a sign on his barracks door that read: "Tour a Movie Star's Home -- Twenty-Five Cents.".
Personal Quotes (10)
1. My mother told me something I've never forgotten: 'Don't take life too seriously, son, you don't come out of it alive anyway.
2. His traditional TV sign-off: "Good night, and may God bless."
3. All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner.
4. When Harry Cohn, the notorious - and much despised - head of Columbia Pictures died, seeing the crowd at his funeral prompted this famous Skelton riposte: "It just goes to show you, Harry was right -- If you give the public what they want, they'll always show up."
5. As a longtime painter, I carry around snapshots of my favorite paintings the way other old geezers my age carry around pictures of their grandkids. Grandchildren are wonderful, but a good painting can help support you in your old age.
6. I think most of today's comedians are victims of laughter...they get nervous and resort to an insult or a four-letter word for a quick, cheap laugh. That goes on night after night until the whole act is cheapened. But that doesn't last. Usually, a couple of years later they are remembered only as the old what's-his-name who used all the dirty words.
7. I'm nuts and I know it. But so long as I make 'em laugh, they ain't going to lock me up.
8. I always believed God puts each one of us here for a purpose and mine is to try to make people happy.
9. If I can make people smile, then I have served my purpose for God.
10. [on the large attendance at producer Harry Cohn's funeral] Well, it only proved what they always say - give the public something they want to see, and they'll come out for it."
Comedy - Red Skelton - Two Highway Patrolmen & Two Texans & Frogs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSFucXg-FzQ
FYI CPT Don KempSFC Greg Bruorton CPT (Join to see) 1stSgt Eugene Harless MSgt Ken "Airsoldier" Collins-Hardy 1SG Carl McAndrews SPC Douglas Bolton Debbie Pomeroy Cloud Kathlean KeeslerSGT Tim Fridley (Join to see) Michael Horne SSG David Andrews Sgt John H. Sgt David G Duchesneau SGT Mark Halmrast CW5 Jack Cardwell Cynthia Croft
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On top of being a great comedian he was a great patriot. His rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance I feel is proof of that. I also distinctly remember he ended his show with the words "May God Bless."
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Maj Marty Hogan I grew up watching The Red Skelton Show on a B/W 3-channel TV. Thanks for the memories.
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SSG William Jones
Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan
Same here, brother! (Early 1948 model... me, not the television!!!)
Same here, brother! (Early 1948 model... me, not the television!!!)
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