Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Teresa Heilevang on July 23, 2008, 01:14:03 AM
Title: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: Teresa Heilevang on July 23, 2008, 01:14:03 AM
Amen.............................
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: tombogan03884 on July 23, 2008, 01:20:26 AM
The socialists have tried to make his closing comment come true. And he is right , it is a pity.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: unique on July 23, 2008, 04:58:36 AM
Thanks, M'ette.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: jaybet on July 23, 2008, 06:02:42 AM
I watched that guy every week and loved him. It was a sad day when he passed.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: Rastus on July 23, 2008, 06:41:26 AM
Red Skelton was a patriotic man and is to be admired. He was a core of decency amidst a rising tide of irreverant, foolish, crass and selfish entertainers.
His example is that of a rock...highlighting and outlighting the sea of foolishness all the while withstanding it's incessant waves. I feel that we, too, are those people in the midst of a faultering nation.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: tman on July 23, 2008, 06:43:31 AM
Isn't it amazing how God can make the most uncommon people, the greatest the world has known.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: Rastus on July 23, 2008, 06:46:28 AM
Isn't it amazing how God can make the most uncommon people, the greatest the world has known.
Yes.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: CurrieS103 on July 23, 2008, 07:36:42 AM
Some time during the late 1960s, my grandmother cut Red's pledge out of a magazine and had it mounted on a plaque. She gave it to me when I was about 4 or 5. It hangs over my desk to this day.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: shooter32 on July 23, 2008, 08:20:05 AM
Another great one M'ette!!! Red was the best. :)
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: dj454 on July 23, 2008, 07:16:30 PM
Thanks for the post M'ette. I know I can come to this forum and look for your posts to cheer me up.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: twyacht on July 23, 2008, 08:37:22 PM
+1 Maybe that version could make it into some of today's schools.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: atmiller on July 23, 2008, 09:33:20 PM
Thank you.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: gunman1911 on July 24, 2008, 08:54:52 PM
Well stated from a man with so much wisom Thank you Mam, I will pass this one on to others.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: Hazcat on July 24, 2008, 09:08:01 PM
I must be an old fart cause I remember seeing him do this on his show.
Can yoy imagine hime being "allowed" to do that today> Sad thought, but I'm afaraid true.
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: MikeBjerum on July 24, 2008, 10:04:31 PM
Haz, your making me feel old with your comment. I can remember this and a few others he did as if it were yesterday. However, I remember the 60's better than I remember ... I remember ... that meal I ate ... breakfast ... that's it ... breakfast.
I remember Red and his reflections like this and his prayers, and I also remember John Wayne with the same. Sure there were others, but at any time in any place you could count on these two to stand up and speak their mind.
Like was said earlier, can you imagine any talk show host today bringing these guys on knowing they could and would stand up and give a message like this?
Title: Re: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Post by: k39noodles on July 29, 2008, 05:32:29 PM
Hi M'ette,
You're certainly taking me down a few trips to Memory Lane. This posting jogged lose a recollection of this recitation from one of the classic comics of the past Century. You also reminded me of two of the best kept secrets in Hollywood. One is the fact that there was an award that was much more rare and certainly more coveted than an Oscar. The second was that the hottest ticket in town, was to attend the DRESS rehearsal for Red's TV show. I made it in only once, and that was because I was working with a man by the name of Sy Bartlett, and he got me in.
Sy was born somewhere in Eastern Europe, and like so many naturalized citizens, was extremely patriotic. He was a young producer at 20th Century Fox when WWII broke out. He immediately enlisted in the Army Air Corps., and ended up, in the 8th Air Force, as an aide to Curtis LeMay, and was the one who planned the raids on the Schweinfurt. Sy wrote a book about the experience, and when he returned to Hollywood, after the war, produced the movie - based on his book - "Twelve O'Clock High".
I hate to repeat myself, but to relate, once again, how a-political Hollywood used to be, LeMay remained a good friend, and stood as GodFather to Sy's son, and had no problem with Sy writing speeches for JFK.
I was "loaned" to Sy for a couple of months to help organize tons of material, he had obtained from his many Government contacts, regarding the last months of Che Guevara's life in Bolivia. It resulted in a dreadful movie, with Richard Harris, Jack Palance and Omar Sheriff. I don't think many people saw it.
But . . .
We would work long into the evening, but, lots of folks used to drop by Sy's office after sundown for drinks so the last few hours weren't too grueling. One evening we knocked off early and a bunch of us went to the Skelton dress rehearsal. Now, like almost all comics of his day, Red had come up through burlesque. This was in the mid-sixties and before one heard much public profanity. From the first table read of the script, through the Tech rehearsal, Red would work doggedly on the show - as it was written. But the dress rehearsal was all Red's. This was for his people, and he knew that the "in" audience that grew over the years, was there by choice. It was a very BLUE show. Not raunchy, shock-value blue, but hilarious, brilliant sky blue, delivered at a machine gun pace. I saw Jonathan Winters there that night, actually sitting in the aisle with tears running down his face.
He was one of only a couple of people I've known who could say anything - WITHOUT BEING OFFENSIVE. He didn't have the happiest life, in some areas, but was made more perfect by troubles.
Many years later, I shared my life with a woman who was one of the dancers on Red's show. That dress rehearsal was the highlight of her week for a few years.