Friday, March 27, 2009

Clowns From Red Skelton

We loved The Red Skelton Show. Watched it all the time when we were growing up. I think we kind of watched what Daddy watched - but he happened to like some pretty great programs! And, you know, we didn't have nearly as much to choose from back then. I'm glad Red was one of the ones he chose. I was happy to find this book at a library book sale years ago. And I love that it has an Al Hirschfeld caricature on the cover, too :

My mother-in-law used to send for Mr. Skelton's signed clown prints. I'm not sure how many of them she bought. Here is one example:
And another:

You can see on the framed print, above , that he signed it , and then the original signature from when he painted it is barely visible at the very bottom right. I even found one of the mailing tubes from 1975!
I loved Red Skelton, he was a wonderful and talented man - but I'm sorry, I have to draw the line at having clown pictures hanging in my house.
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7 comments:

  1. yosemite faithMarch 27, 2009 at 8:01 AM

    my dad watched very little tv - he was always busy! but when he did red was one of the shows - so was make room for daddy. but he really did love the red skelton show. so him on pbs recently - twice - one was his old shows and another was on a pioneers of tv and he was quite old but still sharp and happy! i would not hang a clown picture either heidi.

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  2. Tina DawnMarch 27, 2009 at 8:45 AM

    Hi Faith. We watched Make Room for Daddy too! I always liked Red Skelton, loved his Clem Kadiddlehopper the best, however, I couldn't stand it when he laughed at his own antics. I don't mind it in other people, but for some reason with him it bothered me. But other than that I enjoyed him. No clown pictures here at this gold country girl residence either! Love T

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  3. AnonymousMarch 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM

    Didn't your house (before you moved in) have a kind of scary room in the basement where all of these were kept? If memory serves, there was red shag carpet on the floor, and pink wall paper, and all of those clown prints hanging up... kinda freaky man! I am sure hubby's mum just wanted to express her love of these works of, um ... art?- but still ... scary.

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  4. Heidi AnnMarch 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM

    Kari - Memory serves you well- the basement was/is indeed scary. In HeidiLand, the house is The House, and that basement is it's own entity - The Basement. So - like I said - no clown pictures in The House!

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  5. yosemite faithMarch 27, 2009 at 4:56 PM

    hi annette - in an interview with red - he said as long as everyone else was in on the joke he wanted to be too - he couldn't help himself. i shared with heidi recently that in another interview red shared how fred wynn got him 'bitten' to be in front of the audience. have heidi share it with you - i had never heard it and thought it was fascinating.

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  6. Twyla and LindseyMarch 29, 2009 at 8:18 AM

    I loved the Red Skelton show. It used to be on Mon. nights and I remember telling me mom they did that to cheer kids up because they had to go back to school on Mondays. Twyla

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  7. AnonymousApril 1, 2009 at 9:55 AM

    I want to live in HeidiLand!

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