Red Skelton Page 6
8. “Memories by Red” folder, [undated], in “Private Papers Box,” Skelton Collection.
9. State of Indiana vs. Ella Cochran: Indictment for “receiving and concealing stolen goods, May 1894, “Personal Legal Documents/Papers” box, Skelton Collection.
10. State of Indiana vs. William Cochran: Indictment for “premeditated malice … to kill and murder, December 7, 1900, ibid.
11. Ella Cochran vs. William Cochran (divorce granted), January 1903, ibid.
12. State of Indiana vs. Joseph Eheart and Ella Cochran: Indictment for “assault and battery,” March 1901, ibid.
13. State of Indiana vs. Joseph Eheart: Found guilty of “obstructing the view of his saloon room,” March 1901, ibid.
14. Various sources, including interviews with Valentina Alonso (February 27, March 5, 13, 2007) and Marvin Skelton (December 12, 14, 2006, and February 6, 2007).
15. “Autobiography by Red Skelton,” transcribed October 8, 1975, in “Autobiography” file, in Writing Box 9, A-B-C, Skelton Collection.
16. Ibid.
17. Eileen Creelman, “Red Skelton of ‘Having Wonderful Time,’ Discusses His Hollywood Debut,” New York Sun, July 6, 1938.
18. Wesley Hyatt, A Critical History of Television’s “The Red Skelton Show,” 1951–1971 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2004), 6.
19. “North End Grocer Dies Suddenly,” Skelton Collection.
20. Glen Elsasser, “We Remember Red,” Indianapolis Star Magazine, August 26, 1962.
21. Edward L. Sebring, “Birth Records Index Says Ehart but World Knew Him As Skelton,” Vincennes Sun-Commercial, September 18, 1997.
22. Brenda Hopper, interview with author, February 6, 1994, Indianapolis, Indiana.
23. Andy Soltis, “Good Night and God Bless,” New York Post, September 18, 1997.
24. Wes Gehring, Joe E. Brown: The Baseball Buffoon (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2006).
25. Ruth Prigozy, F. Scott Fitzgerald (New York: Overlook Press, 2001), 15.
26. Wes Gehring, Charlie Chaplin: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983).
27. Daniel Wallace, Big Fish (New York: Penguin Books, 1998), 22.
28. Joe E. Brown, as told to Ralph Hancock, Laughter is a Wonderful Thing (New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1956), 7.
29. Arthur Marx, Red Skelton (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979), 7.
30. “Red Skelton,” Current Biography 1947, Anna Rothe, ed. (New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1948), 580.
31. Red Skelton, “I’ll Tell All” (part 1), Milwaukee Journal, December 8, 1941.
32. David W. Jackson, “Vincennes’ Famed Comedian Drops in for Visit to His Old Home Wednesday,” Vincennes Sun Commercial, October 30, 1962.
33. Robert Schultheis, “Stark Account of Skelton’s Life in Vincennes Rings True,” Vincennes Valley Advance, October 9, 1979.
34. Red Skelton, interview with author, September 18, 1986.
35. Ross Wetzsteon, “Red, the Renaissance Goof,” Village Voice, March 14, 1977.
36. Ibid.
37. “Tribute by Red Skelton Would Embarrass Teacher,” Indianapolis News, March 18, 1969.
38. Hopper interview.
39. Wes Gehring, “Red Skelton and Clem Kadiddlehopper,” Indiana Magazine of History 92 (March 1996): 46–55.
40. Wes Gehring, Laurel and Hardy: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990).
41.Wes Gehring, W. C. Fields: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984) and Groucho and W. C. Fields: Huckster Comedians (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994).
42. See especially, Walter Blair, Native American Humor (1937; reprint, Scranton, PA: Chandler Publishing, 1960).
43. Ring Lardner, You Know Me Al: A Busher’s Letters (1914; reprint, New York: Collier Books, 1991).
44. Ben Yagoda, Will Rogers: A Biography (1993; reprint, New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 224.
45. Wes Gehring, “Kin Hubbard’s Abe Martin: A Figure of Transition in American Humor,” Indiana Magazine of History 78 (March 1982): 26–37.
46. Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin’s Barbed Wire (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1928), 17.
47. Fred C. Kelly, The Life and Times of Kin Hubbard: Creator of Abe Martin (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952), 167.
48. John Crosby, “Radio and Television,” New York Herald Tribune, January 6, 1952.
49. “Red Skelton, TV Clown, Dead at 84,” Microsoft Internet Explorer site visited September 30, 1997.
50. Hal Humphrey, “Red Skelton Comes Back to TV and Brings Along an Old Buddy [Ed Wynn],” Los Angeles Mirror, March 15, 1961.
51. Red Skelton, “I’ll Tell All” (five parts), Milwaukee Journal, December 8–12, 1941.
52. “Red Skelton,” 580.
53. Wes Gehring, Seeing Red … The Skelton in Hollywood’s Closet: An Analytical Biography (Davenport, IA: Robin Vincent Publishing, 2001).
54. Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin’s Almanack [for 1909] (Indianapolis: Abe Martin Publishing Company, 1908), 39.
55. Janice Thompson Dudley, letter to the author, July 10, 1991, Evansville, Indiana.
56. Dudley letter to the author, January 20, 1998, Evansville, Indiana.
57. Ibid.
58. Hopper interview.
59. David L. Smith, Hoosiers in Hollywood (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2006), 87.
60. Marcus Stuckey, interview with the author, December 8, 2006.
61. George McCormack, “Red Skelton Started Clowning in Vincennes,” Evansville Sunday Press, August 26, 1962.
62. “Skelton, Ida” (1923) and “Albia, Ida” (1924), Vincennes Public Schools (RHC #370), Enumeration–District 2 (May 1 each year).
63. Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin of Brown County, Indiana (Indianapolis: Levey Brothers, 1906), 48.
64. Elsasser, “We Remember Red,” 33.
65. Donald C. Manlove, ed. The Best of James Whitcomb Riley (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982), 69.
66. Kelly, Life and Times of Kin Hubbard, 52.
67. Hubbard, Abe Martin’s Almanack [for 1909], 103.
68. Brown, Laughter is a Wonderful Thing, 30.
69. Bruce Handy, “Bad Vibrations,” New York Times, July 23, 2006.
2
Clarence Stout and Other Early Skelton Mentors
“If that boy [Red Skelton] ever gets his foot inside the gates of Hollywood, they’ll never get him out.”1
Clarence Stout, circa 1929
A popular perspective on the catalyst for young Red Skelton wanting to be an entertainer posits either the influence of a father (Joseph Skelton), who was a clown, and/or the chance encouragement of comedian Ed Wynn during a stop in Vincennes, Indiana. Both of these “facts,” however, are of dubious origins. When the elder Skelton died (1913) shortly before Red’s birth, he had long been a grocer and a former lineman for the telephone company. Equally vague is Wynn’s alleged early 1920s Vincennes visit, which has yet to be documented, though it is quite possible that some touring vaudevillian showed a kindness to young Red.
What is clearly on record, however, is the encouragement Skelton received from three Vincennes natives: Father Henry Doll, local YMCA director Ray Beless, and musician/songwriter Clarence Stout. Doll was for many years the assistant pastor of the Saint Francis Xavier Old Cathedral parish, for which he staged an annual Boy Scout Circus. Costumed youngsters doubled as all the animals, while other boys, such as Skelton, played the clowns. Beless also produced a seasonal YMCA circus that both showcased the acrobatic gym skills of Y members, and allowed comic kids such as Skelton to play clowns. Stout put on local minstrel shows and variety programs, always reserving a featured spot for the young Skelton.
The encouragement and performing opportunities provided by these three men meant the world to Skelton. Decades later a childhood classmate of Skelton’s, Dorothy West Hagemeier, remembered an unexpected encounter with him when the comedian had made an impromptu visit to Vincennes to see Doll. Hagemeier was a
cting as a guide at the historic Old Cathedral when Skelton suddenly appeared in the doorway. The comedian was then headlining at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis and had impulsively decided to visit the priest. But this went beyond mere reminiscing. It was shortly after the 1958 cancer death of his son, Richard, and Skelton wanted some special time with the supportive priest from his youth. Unfortunately, Doll was gone. When Hagemeir asked Skelton if he wanted to see another priest, the comedian replied simply, “No I just came to see Father Doll.”2
Though this favored hometown religious leader had immediately come to mind in Skelton’s time of grief, the Vincennes entertainment mentor who had the greatest effect on his show business career was Stout. There are four good reasons to give Stout this unique status.3 First, while Doll and Beless simply dabbled in the arts, Stout was a bona fide performer who wore various hats: musician, composer, producer, and director. And it was important for young Skelton to actually see someone actively engaged in show business. (Plus, Skelton’s later drive to compose music was probably inspired by Stout’s example.) Second, though choosing to maintain his Hoosier home base such as Indiana humorist Kin Hubbard, Stout had had success at a national level. One of his compositions, “O Death Where Is Thy Sting?” had been featured on Broadway in the celebrated Ziegfeld Follies (1919). The acclaimed black entertainer Bert Williams had elected to perform this song. A friendship developed between the two men, with Williams nicknaming Stout “Hoosier Boy.”4 Unfortunately, Williams’s unexpected death from pneumonia ended their plans for later collaborations. But with relationship to Skelton’s future in comedy, one should add that the Williams-Stout pairing on “O Death Where Is Thy Sting?” was rooted in humor. That is, the song title comes from a satirical member of a congregation quizzing his pastor. After hearing in the sermon that hell is full of vampish women, whiskey, gin, and dice, he comically asks, “O Death Were Is Thy Sting?”
Clarence Stout (center) at the Vincennes, Indiana, premiere of Skelton’s Whistling in the Dark (1941). (Wes D. Gehring Stills Collection)
Still, despite the loss of a well-placed connection in Williams, Stout continued to sell songs to such major music publishing houses as Mills Music Company, Leeds, Bob Miller Company, and the Handy Brothers.5 Though no famous standards were forthcoming, Stout’s tunes were reliable sellers that earned him a living. His other show-business friendships included singer/songwriter W. C. “Father of the Blues” Handy and comedian/singer Jimmy “Schnozzola” Durante, who later featured a Stout song on his television program, The Jimmy Durante Show.
A third reason for the significance of Stout’s mentorship to Skelton involved the professionalism of Stout’s productions. Though Skelton greatly appreciated his clowning opportunities in Doll’s annual Boy Scout Circus and Beless’s seasonal circus, these entertainments had the more amateur ambience of a school play. In contrast, Stout’s elaborately produced minstrel shows were on a par with the vaudeville acts that regularly visited Vincennes. Although minstrels have long since become politically incorrect, this particular variety show format was a cornerstone of American popular entertainment from shortly after the Civil War until the Great Depression. Thus, as with Skelton’s medicine show background, this minstrel tie had the boy experiencing the last hurrah of a staple from a bygone era.
A fourth, and final, reason for the importance of Stout’s assistance embraces fatherly ramifications. According to Stout’s widow, Inez, young Skelton first came to her husband’s attention when he saw the boy performing at Vincennes’s Fifth and Main streets, “dancing and clowning to coax nickels from passersby.”6 The address was fitting for a budding young performer, since it was the site of the Pantheon Theatre, where Stout played in the pit band. The Pantheon, which opened in 1921, was a most imposing period structure. The theater had seating for 1,200 people and featured a motion picture screen, an elaborate stage, and a $16,000 Wurlitzer organ in the orchestra pit.7 Across from the Pantheon was the more modest Moon Theatre, where Skelton later worked as an usher and all-around troubleshooter for the owner.
Whether Stout was most moved by young Skelton’s poverty, the quiet desperation in his “dancing and clowning,” or a combination of the two, is unclear. Regardless, the boy became like a son to this Vincennes entertainer. When the newly famous Skelton later made his triumphant 1939 hometown return, local press coverage documented the comedian’s closeness to Stout. The Vincennes Post, after noting that Skelton and his first wife, Edna Stillwell, would be houseguests of the Stouts, added that the comedian “will need no directions from his hostess as to how to find the light in the hall when he goes up to bed because many hours were spent in the Stout home when he was a boy. He [also] picked up his first dancing steps from the Stout’s daughter, Miss Frankie Stout, now a popular dancing teacher here.”8
The Skeltons’ thank-you letter to the Stouts, following this 1939 homecoming, revealed an obvious sense of family. Written by Edna, who handled all the couple’s correspondence, it reads like a bride’s first nervous encounter with her mother and father-in-law: “I was scared to death of what you were going to think of me—maybe when you knew me better [they’d already been corresponding] you wouldn’t think I was a suitable person for Red—and since Red thought so much of all you … that would have been a calamity … I was counting on you folks.”9
Clarence and Inez’s appearance at the Vincennes train station, however, immediately put Edna at ease. She described the Stouts as “the sweetest, kindest faces I have ever seen,” and called the visit “one of the happiest times of our lives—and that isn’t just a lot of talk—I seemed closer to being home than I’ve been in years—I’ve added my love (and I’m sure it’s equal) to Red’s for all of you.”10
The Skeltons’ 1939 homage to the Stouts was not limited to private letters. During Vincennes’s official reception for the comedian, Skelton went out of his way to honor this surrogate father. As the town’s toastmaster added Skelton’s name to a list of illustrious homegrown heroes, Skelton stopped the proceedings: the comedian “reminded the toastmaster that he had omitted mention of another Vincennes boy who had achieved fame. He introduced Clarence A. Stout … [and] declared that he [Red] owed to Stout much of his success, for it was he who encouraged him to develop his talents as an entertainer.”11
So how was the young Skelton used in Stout’s productions? The veteran entertainer chronicled his discovery of Skelton to an MGM (Skelton’s home studio) official in a 1947 letter: “I started Red out and gave him his [initial] chance on any stage back in 1929, when he was 15-years-old, and I was producing shows. His very first stage appearance was as one of the end men in a minstrel show and I had him do an impersonation of [Jazz Age legend] Al Jolson doing ‘Rainbow ’Round My Shoulder.’”12
Refreshingly, period publications back up Stout’s claims, as well as representing Skelton’s earliest known critical notices. The Vincennes Commercial’s rave review (May 14, 1929) of Stout’s Minstrel-Revue had the following praise for his protégé: “Red Skelton got a big hand with [his spoof of Jolson’s] ‘There’s a Rainbow ’Round My Shoulder’; he had to come back for three encores.”13 But even this was not enough for the audience. The local critic added, Skelton did an encore “and imitated Al Jolson with [another of his signature songs] ‘Sonny Boy.’ He really got a hand for the number; Red may not be God’s gift to Vitaphone [the preeminent sound system of the day] but he can certainly do some high-powered impersonating.”14 The Vincennes Sun reviewer was in agreement, calling the teenager’s Jolson spoof one of the revue’s “highlights.”15
Though today Skelton’s comedy genius is not associated with impressions, like most comics (from young Stan Laurel doing Charlie Chaplin to a beginner Jim Carrey doubling as everyone), Skelton excelled early at mimicking. Jolson’s over-the-top demonstrative performing style would have been an impressionist’s fantasy, from his footlight singing intimacy with an audience to belting out “My Mammy” (yet another Jolson standard) on one knee with his white gloved h
ands clenched before him. While Jolson was best showcased in the 1920s on the Broadway stage, period film fans around the world had been mesmerized by his musical numbers in the groundbreaking Jazz Singer (1927). This influential first talkie, though essentially a silent film with sound/singing sequences, briefly escalated Jolson to the status of show business’s highest profile performer. Consequently, Skelton’s spoofing of Jolson made good entertainment sense, given that he was then the most topical of targets. In addition, the Jazz Age Jolson often sang in blackface, given the frequent minstrel nature of his music, such as the aforementioned “My Mammy,” and the Stephen Foster composition “Old Folks at Home,” popularly known as “Swanee River.” Jolson later even starred in 1939’s Swanee River, a biography film of Foster, whose music (including “O Susanna,” “Camptown Races,” and “My Old Kentucky Home”) was often featured in minstrels. Since Skelton’s first show business appearance was in Stout’s minstrel show, this was yet another reason for young Skelton to mimic Jolson.
Skelton’s proclivity to do imitations of specific personalities had all but disappeared by the time of his long-running television show. But Skelton’s 1940 MGM screen test featured a performer who still spoofed entertainers. The movie was a casual compilation of the comedian’s best vaudeville material, including his career-making donut sketch. But for MGM viewers, the hit routine in the test was Skelton’s impression of how various period stars die in their movies, such as James “Cagney still running after he had been shot, running on his buckling legs, on hands and knees and finally on his chin.”16
Skelton’s Cagney spoof only modestly caricatured the actor’s major critical and commercial hit The Roaring Twenties (1939), in which Cagney’s fatally wounded gangster somehow keeps running and staggering away from a shoot-out. Just as Jolson was a good first impression for young Skelton, Cagney was an inspired choice, too. Cagney’s dying Roaring Twenties gangster was already bordering on self-parody; Skelton brilliantly embraced what seemed like an open invitation to comically derail Cagney. Skelton’s other “dying” parody targets in this MGM test included the swashbuckling Errol Flynn and the grandfatherly Lionel Barrymore, then an MGM star. Conveniently, Skelton’s success on the top rung of 1930s vaudeville had given him an ongoing cinema tutorial, since his stage work was in support of first-run movie houses throughout metropolitan America. (As a final footnote to the screen test, this in-house MGM movie was so popular with VIP guests and studio insiders that one period article about the phenomenon was titled, “Skelton Out of the Closet: Red Skelton’s Film Masterpiece Has Never Grossed a Dollar.”17)