Red Skelton

The man, comedian Ed Wynn, was part of the show and later took young Skelton backstage. It was then that he realized what he wanted to do with his life. (Skelton also told another version of this story, with Raymond Hitchcock as the actor.) Skelton learned when young that he could make people laugh. When Skelton was ten, he auditioned to be part of a medicine show. When he accidentally fell from the stage, breaking bottles of medicine as he fell, people laughed. The young boy realized he could earn a living with his ability. By age 14, he had left school and was already a veteran performer, working in local vaudeville and on a showboat, "The Cotton Blossom", that traveled the Ohio and Missouri rivers.

Young Skelton was interested in all forms of acting. He won a dramatic role with a stock theater company, but was unable to deliver his lines in a serious manner; the audience laughed instead. Ida Skelton, who held two jobs to support her family after the death of her husband, never said that her youngest son had run away from home, but that "his destiny had caught up with him at an early age". At age 15, he was on the vaudeville circuit and the next year spent some time with the same circus his father had also been a clown with. Skelton later copied his father's makeup for his television character, "Freddie the Freeloader". Read Less

Skelton's new sponsor was Procter & Gamble's Tide laundry detergent. He changed networks the next year, going from NBC to CBS. The Paley plan that offered stars significant tax savings if they incorporated, then sold their shows to CBS, covered radio shows only. Skelton's radio show was on CBS until May 1953. After Skelton's network radio contract was over, he signed with Ziv Radio for three years for a syndicated radio program in 1954. Read Less

Later the show was moved to the new NBC television studios in Burbank. Procter & Gamble remained unhappy with the filming of the television show, and insisted that Skelton return to live broadcasts. The situation caused him to think about leaving television at that point. Read Less

The day the young boy was buried, Skelton was scheduled to do his weekly television show. Though there were some recordings of some older Skelton shows available which the network could have run, Skelton asked that guest performers be used instead. Richard Jr.'s death profoundly affected Red and Georgia. By the early 1960s, the Skelton family had moved to Palm Springs while Red used the Bel Air mansion only on the two days when he was in Los Angeles for his television show taping. Read Less

Skelton, now 60, married a secretary 25 years his junior, Lothian Toland, daughter of famed film cinematographer Gregg Toland. Read Less