Tears For A Clown: Comedian Red Skelton Dies

Red Skelton, the radio, television and movie comedian who died Wednesday at 84, once said he’d worked in “every branch of show business except carnivals.”

He died at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He’d been ill for a long time, but the nature of the illness was not disclosed.

Skelton, thrice-married, prided himself on being a clown. “It’s the height of my profession,” he said. “It means you can do everything - sing, dance, and, above all, make people laugh.”

Milton Berle, who, like Skelton, went from vaudeville to television, said, “All I can say is we lost a great entertainer, a great comedian, and I lost a very, very dear friend.” In his 20-year television career, Skelton brought to the medium characters he’d made famous on radio, such as Clem Kadiddlehopper, Freddie the Freeloader, the Mean Widdle Kid, boxer Cauliflower McPugg, drunken Willie Lump-Lump, and cross-eyed seagulls named Gertrude and Heathcliffe. A “laugh-meter” once gauged him as drawing laughter every 11 seconds.

As a performer, he was identified by his crushed porkpie hat, skewed hair, crossed eyes and crooked grin. His signature signoff was “Good night, and God bless.”

Skelton continued to perform well past retirement age, doing 75 or more shows a year. He was a major supporter of children’s charities including the Shriners Crippled Children’s Hospital.

Richard Bernard Skelton was born July 18, 1913, in Vincennes, Ind., two months after the death of his father, Joseph, a circus clown. His mother, Ida Mae Skelton raised him until he left home in the seventh grade to go o work. He told newspaper columnist Earl Wilson that as a child he lived in an attic in Mansfield, Ohio, and that he went to work because “the family was hungry.”

The only redhead in the family, he eventually adopted his nickname as his first name. He was 7 years old and selling newspapers in Vincennes when legendary comedian Ed Wynn, who was appearing there, bought all his newspapers and gave him a ticket to his show, taking him backstage. It was there Mr. Skelton fell in love with show business.

He worked professionally from age 10 as a medicine-show singer, a tent-show performer, a circus clown, a burlesque comedian, and a showboat comedian. He made his debut on radio with singer Rudy Vallee, on the Broadway stage in 1937, and in the movie “Having a Wonderful Time” with Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks a year later. In 1941, “Whistling in the Dark,” in which he played a radio detective trying to live through one of his own plays, made him a star.

His film comedies included “The Fuller Brush Man,” “Ship Ahoy,” “Merton of the Movies,” “Du Barry Was a Lady,” “Thousands Cheer,” “Bathing Beauty,” “Panama Hattie,” and “A Southern Yankee.” One of his movies, “I Dood It” (1943), took its title from the phrase he made famous in his Mean Widdle Kid characterization. In all, he appeared in 43 films. He began his TV career on NBC in 1951. His “Red Skelton Show” ran for 20 years on NBC and CBS.

Skelton’s first wife, Edna Marie Stillwell, was an usher he met at age 15. She became his vaudeville partner, writer, and manager and remained his chief writer after their divorce in 1943. “She brought me up from $50 a week to $7,500,” Skelton said.

His second marriage in 1945 to Georgia Davis ended in divorce in 1973. Three years later he wed again and is survived by Lothian Skelton. He’s also survived by a daughter, Valentine Alonso of San Diego, and a granddaughter.