Thursday, June 04, 2009

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Raleigh Cigarette Red Skelton Show "Barbers" (09-17-46)


Barbers (Aired September 17, 1946)


After 1937 appearances on The Rudy Vallee Show, Skelton became a regular in 1939 on NBC's Avalon Time, sponsored by Avalon Cigarettes. On October 7, 1941, 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 "mean widdle kid" Junior, 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!" 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. It was during this period that Red divorced his first wife Edna and married his second wife Georgia. Red and Georgia's only child, son Richard, was born in 1945. Georgia continued in her role as Red's manager until the 1960s.


THIS EPISODE:

September 17, 1946. NBC network. Sponsored by: Raleigh, Sir Walter Raleigh Tobacco. The Skelton Scrapbook of Satire: Brothers. Volume 2, Chapter 3, "The Store Haircut," with Clem Kadiddlehopper. Chapter 5, "The Little Boy and The Barber," with "The Mean Widdle Kid." Red Skelton, Rod O'Connor, Anita Ellis, David Forrester and His Orchestra, GeGe Pearson, Pat McGeehan, Verna Felton, Wonderful Smith. 29:22.

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