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ent001327-019
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I agree.~ 7 - that not too many years before his weekly stipend had been $10 and subsequently $15. The vaudeville field opened up to Red in Kansas City when he substituted for a missing act. He was a hit and went on from there to the Roxy in New York. Next came the Lido Club in Montreal. Red's succeks there wasn't startling at first and the hecklers had a field day. The honors moved from the audience to Skelton when he decided to answer the hecklers back and he wound up with a six-week engagement at $150 for a seven-day stanza, a new high for him. For a period of time, Skelton played vaudeville dates with mixed success, then returned to Montreal for a year's engagement at Loew's. It was during this run that Skelton came up with his famed "doughnut dunker's routine" which has since become a classic. Between 1935 and 1937, Red's stock in vaudeville continued to climb. Although 1935 found him a distinct flop at the Chez Paree in Chicago where the management paid his hotel bill of $300 to get him off the stage, he was back not long afterward at $1,250 per week. Skelton's fame as a vaudeville show stopper resulted in his first picture, "Having a Wonderful Time," in 1937. For whatever the reason,** Red reminisces, "I couldn*t get a job after I checked off the RKO lot. So I became an impressario," /more