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6/ unsurpassed record for so fickle a medium as TV. ?╟≤ Skelton is as successful with his personal appearances as he is with TV and has been with motion pictures. He has played to audiences of more than 100,000 in a single day at State fairs. In his engagements at Las Vegas' famed Sands Hotel according to that hostelry's president Jack Entratter, "He has more turnaways than most performers play to." Whatever his magic, Skelton arouses more interest than the ticker tape in a bull market. A perfectionist, Skelton is never satisfied with second best. He hones his imcomparable pantomimes to the sharpest possible edge; he rewrites and polishes his gag routines until every word has a little meaning all its own. This striving for the ultimate is part Skelton and part others. When he wanted out of his first medicine show because he couldn't learn any more ih about that type of activity, the impressario, one Doctor R.E. Lewis, allowed him to leave if young Red would promisefaithfully "always to go forward." This Red has always tried to do. Years later, George M. Cohan came to see a vaudeville bill including an act titled "Woods and Skelton". After the show, Cohan came backstage to advise Red to leave the act. "I have to eat," explained Skelton. "Do you want to eat now and starve later?" Cohan asked. Red left. Many of the top stars of show business, no mean performers themselves, marvel at Skelton's talent for change-of-pace which can put an audience, roaring with laughter, into an instantly sober and meditative (and always tearful when seeing his unforgettable "Old Man Watching a Parade" windup) mood. Beyond question, the Red Skelton of today is the product of a hard and grueling lifetime of yesterdays. The Skelton saga began in Vincennes, Indiana on July 18 1913. He never knew his fafceh father - a onetime circus clown, student of law, college speech instructor - who died two months before Red was bora, leaving a penniless wife with three sons.