Skip to main content

Red Skelton: Let’s Look at Junior

 The Milwaukee Journal – Apr 25, 1943

Let’s Look at Junior

ALTHOUGH all of the various characters Richard (Red) Skelton plays in his Tuesday night comedy show (WTMJ, 9:30 o’clock) have a following, there is no doubt that Junior is Mr. Big. Youngsters large and small never miss the doings of this pernicious moppet.
Maybe Junior comes by it all naturally. Skelton himself is nothing but a great big (6 foot 3) boy. Even after he had achieved some success in the show business one of his outstanding and most endearing characteristics was the way he’d do something impulsive and then look at the injured party like a sorry little lad with a very poor alibi. He wanted to do the child characterization long before his writers would allow it.
“You’ll sound like a sissy, Red,” they said. But Red insisted and finally when he had coined the “I dood it” phrase and made it his own, they agreed. Now all three of them, Jack Douglas, Dick McKnight and Ben Freedman, sit around talking like Junior themselves as they write the show.
Skelton averages approximately 2,500 fan letters a week and most of them come from mothers and children. The mothers offer Red ideas for his programs by telling him what their bad little boys have thought up to gray their hair. The children send Red adoring notes, cartoons of Junior and how they imagine he looks, prizes they have gotten in boxes of Cracker Jack and lately a half pound of butter via parcel post from Colorado, which arrived in Hollywood intact.
Red answers every letter he gets and keeps the outstanding ones. His personal manager, writer and former wife, Edna Skelton, and a secretary do the actual work. All servicemen and children are answered first. Other letters sometimes have to wait until a summer vacations ends to be answered, but if they have a return address and ask for a reply, Red sees they get it sometime.
Alas, so many children ask specific questions and then forget to put their names in. Red’s postman makes a weekly collection for the postage due on these letters from children who think it’s the same as writing to Santa Claus.
One reason for Red’s willingness to accommodate all autograph seekers and letters writers is the fact that he’s an autograph hound himself. He refuses to appear at benefits unless he’s given carte blanche to get any and all autographs there, and, as a result his collection is large and unusual.
Red actually hates the dark, like many another small boy, and won’t sleep unless there is a light on somewhere in the hall or near by. He will not talk on the telephone and actually no one can make him do it, no matter what. Burgundy is his favorite color and he always wears plain white shirts and burgundy ties. His clothes are as conservative as a Main st. banker’s and his tailor has to make them without fitting. Red won’t stand still. After he has worn a suit, he sends it back for alterations.
Strictly a meat and potato eater, Red does not like spinach. He likes trains, real and miniature, and gadgets of all kinds. He likes dogs, too, and once had the luck to pick up a setter that looked lost and then found out it belonged to Marlene Dietrich. Result: He got her autograph and was razzed for weeks and accused of doing the whole thing on purpose. But he didn’t “dood it” on purpose—he says.
Only one thing really scares Red Skelton. It’s when mother bring small children up to him and say, “Look, Johnnie, this is the little boy you hear on the radio. This is Junior.” Red says the youngster’s eyes start right about at his knees and travel slowly upward. By the time they reach his face way up there 6 feet 3 inches in the air, the youngster’s faces take on the dirtiest looks known to man.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"Was Jack Benny Gay?": The Amount of Weight In Jack Benny's Loafers

While doing research for an article I came across an unexpected search result: "Was Jack Benny Gay?" There was no more than the question as previously stated from the original poster, but the replies made for interesting reading, ranging from: Jack Benny Celebrating his 39th Birthday "Of course not, he was a well known skirt-chaser in his youth, and he was married to Mary Livingston for many years" "Sure he was, everyone in Hollywood with the possible exception of John Wayne was and is homosexual!" "Part of Benny's "schtick" was his limp-wristed hand-to-face gestures. He was not gay, but emphasized what his fans observed as "acting like a girl" for humor. While heterosexual Benny tried to gay it up, many really gay actors or comedians in those days tried to act as "straight" as they could muster." "... the idea behind his character was to have him a little on the ambiguous side. His charact

OLD TIME RADIO ACTORS AND THEIR ROLES, AND OLD TIME RADIO PROGRAM

Old Time Radio Actor's Name, Character Played, Program Aaker, Lee Rusty Rin-Tin-Tin Aames, Marlene McWilliams, Lauralee Story of Holly Sloan, The Abbott, Judith Lawson, Agnes Aldrich Family, The Abbott, Minabelle Sothern, Mary Life of Mary Sothern, The Ace, Goodman Ace, Goodman Easy Aces Ace, Goodman Ace, Goodman Mister Ace and Jane Ace, Jane Ace, Jane Easy Aces Ace, Jane Ace, Jane Mister Ace and Jane Adams, Bill Cotter, Jim Rosemary Adams, Bill Hagen, Mike Valiant Lady Adams, Bill Roosevelt, Franklin Delano March of Time, The Adams, Bill Salesman Travelin' Man Adams, Bill Stark, Daniel Roses and Drums Adams, Bill Whelan, Father Abie's Irish Rose Adams, Bill Wilbur, Matthew Your Family and Mine Adams, Bill Young, Sam Pepper Young's Family Adams, Edith Gilman, Ethel Those Happy Gilmans Adams, Franklin Mayor of a model city Secret City Adams, Franklin Jr. Skinner, Skippy Skippy Adams, Franklin Pierce Emcee Word Game, The Adams, Guila Mattie Step M

Old Time Radio Shows "Transcribed" Explained

What does it mean on old time radio shows when you hear the show is "Transcribed"? During the Golden Age of Radio , "transcribed" programs were recorded and sent to stations or networks on a disc running at 16 rps. The discs are larger than 33 1/3s. "Transcribed" means it was recorded on a disc. "Recorded" was a term that was known, of course, but not used very much in Radio's Golden Age. During the era, it was also considered very important to distinguish which shows went out live and which were recorded (transcribed), so if a show was transcribed it was announced as such.  "Transcribed" was a colloquialism of the era. One reason they came up with it was because there was still enough skittishness about recording that "pre-recorded" sounded a little obscene inside the industry. CBS and NBC were live through the '30s and '40s. Yet line transcriptions were made for either the sponsor or its ad agency.