Word: skeltons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Deep into the night, every night, Red sits up and writes a short story. He has them bound in red morocco leather, with the words "By Red Skelton" lettered on each volume in gold. None has been published or even read by any but his closest friends. The late Gene Fowler ("my only father"), who was to have been Skelton's biographer, once reported that every Skelton story was about a redhead-redheaded boys, redheaded men, even redheaded old ladies. He likes to paint, too, committing to canvas an endless series of clowns...
...When Red Skelton does a nightclub or television show, a man with a towel stands by at all times in case Red's stomach suffers one of its frequent reactions to the strain. Throughout the performance, whether he is Clem Kaddiddlehopper or Cauliflower McPugg, his characters have at least one thing in common: they are all but afloat in nervous perspiration. Red trembles and his eyes are alight with tears as, in the end, he inhales his grand ration of applause; and the people who swarm backstage for his autograph find an obliging man, usually dressed...
...such experience would be enough to tire the average light-heavyweight longshoreman, but Skelton does it-and needs it-night after night in clubs, week after week on television. While that feared acetylene torch called overexposure has singed, seared or crisped one comedian after another, Red Skelton's popularity has never really stopped growing. At 47 he is the only comedian left on TV who has, year in and year out, sustained a live weekly program, and this week The Red Skelton Show (CBS) begins its seventh season, during which he will also do two specials...
...shuffling, pratfalling, rubber-faced, cross-eyed Skelton characters are as familiar to audiences as their own neighborhood eccentrics, but Richard Bernard Skelton himself is more eccentric than any of them. In an age of canned biographies and prefabricated flamboyance, he is one Hollywood character that no pressagent yet born could possibly have invented...
...When Skelton finally turns in, he lies down-usually with two or three of his dogs-on something that suggests a discount house with springs. His 49-square-foot bed has a control panel hooked up with three television sets (plus a portable for emergencies), an air purifier to combat his asthma, a tape recorder, and gadgets that close curtains and regulate the air conditioning. Two secretaries arrive for breakfast, and while Red eats they play a newspaper "Brain Game" with him, firing general information questions at him. If the phone rings, he shudders. He has such a phobia...