Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was born on July 18, 1913, and died September 17, 1997.
Red Skelton
Starting on October 7, 1941, Red starred in his own show - "The Raleigh Cigarette Program" (also known as "The Red Skelton Show") on the NBC radio network. However this show was discontinued on June 6, 1944 after he was drafted into the military. After Red had a nervous breakdown in Italy, he was discharged. "The Raleigh Cigarette Program" resumed on December 4, 1945 and ran to May 20, 1949 on NBC. Shortly afterward, Red's show moved to CBS, running there until 1953.
The Red Skelton show usually started with a bit of commentary between Red and Rod O'Connor - the announcer. The topic of this commentary was often some issue of the day, or a supposed episode in Skelton's life. After this opening and the commercial, the show highlited two or three episodes from "The Skelton Scrapbook of Satire" featuring the various characters Red portrayed (see below). The show was punctuated by two songs from composer David Rose and his orchestra. Usually one song was vocal, and the other strictly instrumental.
Red Skelton's specialty was his portrayal of various humorous characters - the subjects of episodes in "The Skelton Scrapbook of Satire." Some of his most famous characters included:
Below are some Skelton shows for download.
You can also listen to the first show in the above series without downloading, using the player below.