Red Skelton

by Wes Gehring

  1943 I Dood It (102 minutes).

  Director: Vincente Minnelli. Screenplay: Sig Herzig, Fred Saldy, a remake of Buster Keaton’s Spite Marriage (1929), with additional gags by Keaton. Stars: Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, Richard Ainley, Patricia Dane, Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra.

  1943 Whistling in Brooklyn (87 minutes).

  Director: S. Sylvan Simon. Screenplay: Nat Perrin, additional dialogue by Wilkie Mahoney. Stars: Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, Jean Rogers, “Rags” Ragland, Ray Collins, Henry O’Neill, Leo Durocher and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

  1944 Bathing Beauty (101 minutes).

  Director: George Sidney. Screenplay: Dorothy Kingsley, Allen Boretz, Frank Waldman, additional gags by Buster Keaton. Stars: Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone, Ethel Smith, Harry James and his Music Makers.

  1946 Ziegfeld Follies (110 minutes).

  Director: Vincente Minnelli. (A revue). Songs: Harry Warren, Arthur Freed, Ira and George Gershwin, Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin, Kay Thompson and Roger Edens. Stars: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Lucille Bremer, Lucille Ball, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, James Melton, Red Skelton, Esther Williams, William Frawley, Virginia O’Brien, William Powell.

  1946 The Show-Off (83 minutes).

  Director: Harry Beaumont. Screenplay: George Wells, based upon the play by George Kelly. Stars: Red Skelton, Marilyn Maxwell, Marjorie Main, Virginia O’Brien, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, George Cleveland, Leon Ames.

  1947 Merton of the Movies (82 minutes).

  Director: Robert Alton. Screenplay: George Wells, Lou Breslow, based upon the novel by Harry Leon Wilson and the play by George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, additional gags by Buster Keaton. Stars: Red Skelton, Virginia O’Brien, Gloria Grahame, Leon Ames.

  1948 The Fuller Brush Man (93 minutes).

  Director: S. Sylvan Simon. Screenplay: Frank Tashlin, Devery Freeman. Stars: Red Skelton, Janet Blair, Don McGuire, Hillary Brooke, Adele Jergens.

  1948 A Southern Yankee (90 minutes).

  Director: Edward Sedgwick. Screenplay: Harry Tugend, from a story by Melvin Frank, Norman Panama; loosely based upon Buster Keaton’s The General (1927), with additional gags by Keaton. Stars: Red Skelton, Brian Donlevy, Arlene Dahl, George Coulouris.

  1949 Neptune’s Daughter (93 minutes).

  Director: Edward Buzzell. Screenplay: Dorothy Kingsley, additional dialogue by Ray Singer, Dick Chevillat. (Buster Keaton provided additional material.) Stars: Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Richardo Montalban, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn.

  1950 The Yellow Cab Man (85 minutes).

  Director: Jack Donohue. Screenplay: Devery Freeman, Albert Belch. Stars: Red Skelton, Gloria de Haven, Walter Slezak, Edward Arnold, James Gleason.

  1950 Three Little Words (102 minutes).

  Director: Richard Thorpe. Screenplay: George Wells, based on the lives and songs of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Stars: Fred Astaire, Red Skelton, Vera-Ellen, Arlene Dahl, Keenan Wynn.

  1950 Duchess of Idaho (98 minutes).

  Red Skelton has a cameo in this Esther Williams feature.

  1950 The Fuller Brush Girl (85 minutes).

  Inspired by Red’s Fuller Brush Man, Skelton has a cameo in this Lucille Ball film.

  1950 Watch the Birdie (70 minutes).

  Director: Jack Donahue. Screenplay: Ivan Tors, Devery Freeman, a loose remake of The Cameraman (1928), with additional gags by Buster Keaton. Stars: Red Skelton (three parts), Arlene Dahl, Ann Miller, Leon Ames.

  1951 Excuse My Dust (82 minutes).

  Director: Roy Rowland. Screenplay: George Wells, with additional gags by Buster Keaton. Stars: Red Skelton, Sally Forrest, MacDonald Carey, William Demarest, Monica Lewis.

  1951 Texas Carnival (77 minutes).

  Director: Charles Walters. Screenplay: Dorothy Kingsley. Stars: Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Paula Raymond, Keenan Wynn.

  1952 Lovely to Look At (105 minutes).

  Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Screenplay: George Wells, Harry Ruby, additional dialogue Andrew Solt, based upon the musical comedy Roberta, from the novel by Alice Duer Miller, book and lyrics Otto A. Harbach (additional and revised lyrics Dorothy Fields), music by Jerome Kern. Stars: Kathyrn Grayson, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, Ann Miller, Zsa Zsa Gabor.

  1953 The Clown (91 minutes).

  Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Screenplay: Martin Rackin, a remake of The Champ (1931). Stars: Red Skelton, Tim Considine, Jane Greer, Loring Smith.

  1953 Half a Hero (71 minutes).

  Director: Don Weis. Screenplay: Max Schulman. Stars: Red Skelton, Jean Hagen, Charles Dingle.

  1953 The Great Diamond Robbery (69 minutes).

  Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Screenplay: Laslo Vadnay, Martin Rackin. Stars: Red Skelton, Cara Williams, James Whitmore, Kurt Kasznar.

  1954 Susan Slept Here (98 minutes).

  Red has a cameo in this Dick Powell-Debbie Reynolds comedy.

  1956 Around the World in Eighty Days (167 minutes).

  Skelton has a cameo, as does a who’s who of Hollywood, in producer Michael Todd’s epic version of Jules Verne’s story.

  1957 Public Pigeon No. 1 (79 minutes).

  Director: Normand Z. McLeod. Screenplay: Harry Tugend, from a teleplay by Devery Freeman. Stars: Red Skelton, Vivian Blaine, Janet Blair, Jay C. Flippen.

  1960 Ocean’s Eleven (127 minutes).

  Red has a cameo in this Frank Sinatra Rat Pack movie.

  1965 Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, or: How I Flew From London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 minutes (132 minutes).

  Skelton’s cameo steals the show in this international comedy extravaganza.

  Select Bibliography

  Special Collections

  Clarence Stout Papers. Lewis Historical Library, Vincennes University, Vincennes, IN.

  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Legal Department Records. Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.

  MGM Script Material (Red Skelton). University of Southern California Cinema-Television Library, Los Angeles, CA.

  Red Skelton Clipping Files. Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.

  Red Skelton Clipping Files. Performing Arts Library, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, New York, NY.

  Red Skelton Clipping Files. Vincennes Public Library, Vincennes, IN.

  Red Skelton Collection. Archives and Special Collections, Western Illinois University Library, Macomb, IL.

  Red Skelton Collection. Vincennes University, Vincennes, IN.

  Books

  Blair, Walter. Native American Humor. 1937. Reprint, Scranton, PA: Chandler Publishing, 1960.

  Blesh, Rudi. Keaton. 1966. Reprint, New York: Collier Books, 1971.

  Bram, Christopher. Father of Frankenstein. 1995. Reprint, New York: Plume, 1996.

  Brown, Joe E. As told to Ralph Hancock. Laughter is a Wonderful Thing. New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1956.

  Capra, Frank. The Name Above the Title. New York: Macmillan, 1971.

  Cavinder, Fred D., ed. The Indiana Book of Quotes. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2005.

  Curtis, James. James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1998.

  Day, Richard. Vincennes: A Pictorial History. St. Louis: G. Bradley Publishing, 1988.

  Dunning, John. On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

  Edwards, Larry. Buster: A Legend in Laughter. Brandenton, FL: McGuinn and McGuire, 1995.

  Ephron, Nora. And Now … Here’s Johnny! 1967. Reprint, New York: Avon Books, 1968.

  Evans, Peter. Peter Sellers: The Mask behind the Mask. 1968. Reprint, New York: Signet, 1980.

  Fein, Irving A. Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography. 1976. Reprint, New York: Pocket Books, 1977.

  Fowler, Gene. Minutes of the Last Meeting. New York: Viking Press, 1954.

  Freedman, Bene
dict, and Nancy Freedman. Lootville. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1957.

  Gable, Kathleen. Clark Gable: A Personal Portrait. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1961.

  Gehring, Wes D. Charlie Chaplin: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983.

  _____. The Charlie Chaplin Murder Mystery. Shreveport, LA: Ramble House Press, 2006.

  _____. Film Clowns of the Depression: 12 Memorable Movies. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2007.

  _____. Groucho and W. C. Fields: Huckster Comedians. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994.

  _____. Joe E. Brown: The Baseball Buffoon. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2006.

  _____. Laurel & Hardy: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990.

  _____. “Mr B” or Comforting Thoughts about the Bison: A Critical Biography of Robert Benchley. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.

  _____. Parody as Film Genre: “Never Give a Saga an Even Break.” Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.

  _____. Personality Comedians As Genre: Selected Players. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.

  _____. Seeing Red … The Skelton in Hollywood’s Closet: An Analytical Biography. Davenport, IA: Robin Vincent Publishing, 2001.

  _____. W. C. Fields: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.

  Gottfried, Martin. Nobody’s Fool: The Lives of Danny Kaye. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.

  Hiney, Tom. Raymond Chandler: A Biography. New York: Grove Press, 1997.

  Hubbard, Kin. Abe Martin of Brown County, Indiana. Indianapolis: Levey Bros., 1906.

  _____. Abe Martin’s Almanack [for 1909]. Indianapolis: Abe Martin Publishing Company, 1908.

  _____. Abe Martin’s Barbed Wire. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1928.

  Hyatt, Wesley. A Critical History of Television’s “The Red Skelton Show,” 1951–1971. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2004.

  Jenkins, Henry. What Made Pistachio Nuts? Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

  Keaton, Buster. With Charles Samuels. My Wonderful World of Slapstick. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1960.

  Kelly, Fred C. The Life and Times of Kin Hubbard: Creator of Abe Martin. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952.

  Kendall, Paul Murray. The Art of Biography. 1965. Reprint, New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1985.

  Knipfel, Jim. Quitting the Nairobi Trio. 2000. Reprint, New York: Berkley Books, 2001.

  _____. Slackjaw. 1999. Reprint. New York: Berkley Books, 2000.

  Lardner, Ring. You Know Me Al: A Busher’s Letters. 1914. Reprint, New York: Collier Books, 1991.

  Latham, Caroline. The David Letterman Story. 1987. Reprint, New York: Berkley Books, 1988.

  Lax, Eric. Woody Allen: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.

  Maltin, Leonard. The Great Movie Comedians: From Charlie Chaplin to Woody Allen. New York: Crown, 1978.

  Marx, Arthur. Red Skelton. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979.

  Marx, Groucho. Groucho and Me. 1959. Reprint, New York: Manor Books, 1974.

  Meade, Marion. Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase. New York: HarperCollins Publisher, 1995.

  Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway: Life into Art. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000.

  Miller, Frank. Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2006.

  Minnelli, Vincente. With Hector Arce. I Remember It Well. New York: Samuel French, 1974.

  Nelson, Ozzie. Ozzie. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973.

  Raphael, Frederic. Eyes Wide Open: A Memoir of Stanley Kubrick. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999.

  Riley, James Whitcomb. The Best of James Whitcomb Riley, Donald C. Manlove, ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982.

  Rogers, Ginger. Ginger: My Story. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

  Rollyson, Carl. A Higher Form of Cannibalism? Adventures in the Art and Politics of Biography. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.

  Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years. 1926, 1939. Reprint. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1966.

  Schickel, Richard. D. W. Griffith: An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.

  Skelton, Red. Gertrude and Heathcliff. 1971. Reprint, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.

  _____, ed. A Skelton in Your Closet. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1965.

  Smith, David L. Hoosiers in Hollywood. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2006.

  Smith, Ronald L. Johnny Carson. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987.

  Steinberg, Cobbett. Reel Facts: The Movie Book of Records. New York: Vintage Books, 1978.

  Strausbaugh, John. Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult and Imitation in American Poplar Culture. New York: Penguin, 2006.

  Summers, Harrison B., ed. A Thirty-Year History of Programs Carried on National Radio Networks in the United States, 1926–1956. New York: Arno Press, 1971.

  Thurber, James. My Life and Hard Times. 1933. Reprint, New York: Bantam Books, 1947.

  Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. 1889. Reprint. Scranton: Chandler Publishing Company, 1963.

  _____. The Selected Letters of Mark Twain. Charles Neider, ed. 1982. Reprint, New York: Cooper Square Press, 1999.

  Wallace, Daniel. Big Fish. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.

  Wertheim, Frank. Radio Comedy. 1979. Reprint. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

  Shorter Works, Including Script Material, Letters, and Interviews

  Adams, Jennifer. “Why the Skeltons Parted.” Movieland (March 1943).

  Agee, James. “Comedy’s Greatest Era.” Life, September 3, 1949.

  “Ailing.” Newsweek, December 22, 1952.

  Allen, Steve. “Jackie Gleason.” In The Funny Men. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956.

  _____. “Red Skelton.” In The Funny Men. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956.

  Als, Hilton. “Shining Hours.” The New Yorker, May 22, 2006.

  Arnold, Maxine. “Clown in Civies.” Photoplay (February 1948).

  Baytos, Betsy. “Interview with Red Skelton,” February 20, 1996. Dance Collection Oral History, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, New York, NY.

  Bergson, Henri. “Laughter.” In Comedy. Wylie Sypher, ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1956.

  Blum, John M. “Retreat from Responsibility.” In The National Experience: A History of the United States. John M. Blum, ed. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1968.

  Busch, Noel F. “Red Skelton—Television’s Clown Prince.” Reader’s Digest, March 1965.

  Cosby, Vivian. “Edna Skelton’s Lasting Loyalty.” American Weekly, November 13, 1949.

  Davidson, Bill. “‘I’m Nuts and I Know It.’” Saturday Evening Post, June 17, 1967.

  “Demure Du Barry.” Newsweek, June 28, 1943.

  Dudley, Janice Thompson. Letter to the author, July 10, 1991.

  Eisenhower, Mamie. Letter to Red and Georgia Skelton, May 20, 1958, “Our Dear Sweet Beloved Richard” Funeral Scrapbook (1). Red Skelton Collection, Vincennes College, Vincennes, IN.

  Engle, William. “Out of Love into Business.” American Weekly, July 27, 1947.

  “Everyone’s a Kid is Basis for Skelton’s Philosophy.” McGuire Banner [military hospital publication], February 1, 1945.

  Felton, Verna. “Love That Red-Head.” Radio Mirror, January 1948.

  Flight Command review. Film Daily, December 23, 1940.

  Franchey, John R. “Ex’s Can Be Friends.” Screenland (September 1943).

  Friedrichsen, Frank. “The Short Tragic Life of Jimmy Dean.” Movie Star Parade (December 1955).

  The Fuller Brush Man review. Time, May 31, 1948.

  Gehring, Wes D. “The Gentile Clown [Red Skelton].” USA Today Magazine, September 2006.

  _____. Interview with Anita Mykowsky, 2000.

  _____. Interview with Brenda Hopper, February 6, 1994.


  _____. Interview with Cheech Marin, January 31, 2004.

  _____. Interview with Earl Williams, September 24, 1997.

  _____. Interview with Eleanor Norris Keaton, late 1980s.

  _____. Interview with Lothian Toland Skelton, December 9, 1998.

  _____. Interviews with Marvin L. Skelton, December 12, 14, 2006, February 6, 2007.

  _____. Interview with Pandro S. Berman, June 1975.

  _____. Interview with Paul Cooley, September 21, 2000.

  _____. Interview with Red Skelton, September 18, 1986. as well as various conversations during his 1980s visits to Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana).

  _____. Interview with Sabrina Alonso, March 7, 2007.

  _____. Interviews with Valentina Skelton Alonso, February 27, March 5, 13, 14, 2007.

  _____. “The Mentor and the Clown: Clarence Stout and Red Skelton.” Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. (Fall 2000).

  _____. “The Neglected Career of Kin Hubbard’s Abe Martin: Crackerbarrel Figure in Transition.” Indiana Magazine of History (March 1982).

  _____. “Red Skelton and Clem Kadiddlehopper.” Indiana Magazine of History (March 1996).

  “Gene Fowler.” In Current Biography 1944. Anna Rothe, ed. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1945.

  Glatzer, Hal. “Red Skelton Isn’t Clowning Around When It Comes to His Paintings – They Fetch $40,000 Per.” People, April 28, 1980.

  Great Diamond Robbery review. Time, February 15, 1954.

  Greer, Gloria. “Red Skelton: At Home on the Desert.” Palm Springs Life, April 1963.

  Hall, Donald. “Simple Things: A Poet’s Poet.” House and Garden (September 2003).

  Hamburger, Philip. Three Little Words review. The New Yorker, August 26, 1950.

  Hift, Fred. A Southern Yankee review. Motion Picture Herald (August 7, 1948).