Retrovision Radio

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 “Willy Lump-Lump” and “‘Mean Widdle Kid’ Junior,” whose favorite phrase (“I dood it!”) became part of the American lexicon. That, along with, “He bwoke my widdle arm!,” or other body part, and, “He don’t know me vewy well, do he?,” all found their way into various Warner Bros. cartoons. Skelton himself was referenced in a Popeye cartoon in which the title character enters a haunted house and encounters a “red skeleton.” There was also, “Con Man San Fernando Red,” with his pair of cross-eyed 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 would later consider court action against the apparent usurption of this character by Bill Scott, for the voice of Bullwinkle.

Tags: Comedy, Old Time Radio, Red Skelton

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