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Bilim RED KELT ON Richard (Red) Skelton is returning to Texas by popular demand, making his second tour for the J. David Nichols Revues. Red Skelton was born in Vincennes, Indiana, on July 18th. His father, Joe, was a lawyer, author, taught elocution at Valparaiso University, was a master electrician and was a circus clown with the Hagenbeck and Wallace Circus. He died in May, 1913. Red was born two months later. In 1926, at the age of 13, Red's destiny caught up with him. Show business overtook his ambition. He attended school during the day and worked at night at amateur theatrics. In 1928 he adopted the theatre as his home. He traveled with medicine shows, tent shows, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The River Queen Showboat on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, he then joined Clarence Stouts Minstrels as a black-faced comedian. Al G. Fields, the famous Minstrel man, was his mother's uncle. He then went into small time vaudeville and burlesque and was featured as "the youngest comedian in show business." Walkathons started to gain in popularity, so Skelton joined this phase of show busi- ness as a master of ceremonies. Then came big time vaudeville. Skelton was booked 52 weeks out of the year, and has never stopped working since then. In 1937 Rudy Vallee introduced him to radio. In 1938 he was the star of his own coast-to-coast radio program. On numerous occasions he acted as official master of ceremonies at the White House functions and gridiron dinners. During a Washington, D.C. celebration Mickey Rooney caught the comedy antics of Red Skelton and induced Louis B. Mayer, head of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, to give Skelton a screen test. Frank Borzage, the noted director, sow the test and imme- diately cast the comely Skelton for a featured part in a picture called^Flight Command." He remained at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the next 15 years. He entered the Army during World War II as a private and was discharged as a private. During his hitch for Uncle Sam he did over 3,500 camp shows here and overseas. In 1945 he married Georgia Davis and they had two children, Valentina Marie and Richard. Tragedy struck the Skeltons in 1958 when the entire world mourned the loss of his son. On his recent vacation trip to Japan, Skelton requested to entertain our troops stationed in Japan and Korea. He has starred in over 36 motion pictures and has held high ratings in radio and television. He is the proud owner of two Emmys. He recently signed a five year contract with the Columbia Broadcasting System, and is under exclusive sponsorship to Johnson's Wax and the Pet Milk Com- pany. In February of 1960 Skelton played two one-nighters in Houston and Dallas to packed houses. He established an attend- ance record which still stands on the Nichols Revues. Playing two shows nightly to capacity audiences, he appeared before over 17,000 people in two nights. "The man's drawing power is incredible," stated J. David Nichols, Jr., producer of the Nichols Revues. Skelton's hobbies are clocks, bookbinding, miniature trains, cameras, oil paintings, writing, art collections, ivory, carvings, Lincoln, birds, dogs, guns, hats, music boxes, crystal, autoqraphs, and collector of joke books. He has but one aim in life and that is to make people laugh. m mBmji |||||||||1I||H 111|||||| ?ç '........