Red Skelton, Christmas Radio Show 1946

Historic Voices: Global History and Culture

S03-E19 We feature Red Skelton and a 1946 Christmas episode from his long-running radio program. Red Skelton was a dominating performer on radio, film, and television during the second half of the 20th century. While most of his work was comedy, he also had several dramatic performances. One of his most memorable dramatic pieces was his reading of the Pledge of Allegiance. He would read the document phrase by phrase, and then provide a short interpretation for what the words meant. I will feature that short piece on a future Historic Voices podcast episode. I grew up listening and watching Mr. Skelton perform. He is the only performer that would finish each season of his radio or TV program with a short apology to any famous people or politicians who he and his cast would tease during their shows. He was a gentleman and a kind person.

In addition to this audio episode, I also provide several PDF documents: first, a biography of Mr. Skelton, second, an overview of his TV show that ran for two decades, and finally an overview of his radio show that ran for more than a decade previously. It was common for radio shows to be named for the advertising sponsor; hence the name of the radio show was the Raleigh Cigarette Program.

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