When I Met Red Skelton (Almost) ...

I never met Red Skelton, although I waited near the doorway of his room and overheard what he said. While I was studying at the university, I worked as a freelance illustrator. Often, I stood at the elbows of celebrities and sketched their portraits while such stars of stage, screen, and television were on campus. When I learned that Skelton was to visit, I decided to create a drawing in advance of his arrival.

I had grown up watching Skelton on TV. Each member of my family had a favorite character that Skelton brought to life: Clem Kadiddlehopper, Freddie the Freeloader, and San Fernando Red were only a few of the portrayals that charmed us during the Red Skelton Hour on CBS. Skelton’s boyhood in Vincennes, Indiana, and his ingenuity at finding work at a terribly young age were the stuff of legend in my home. My mother told me that Skelton had performed in vaudeville and on showboats. As my mother explained, Skelton patiently worked his way up the entertainment ladder until he starred in Hollywood movies, but, across America, he was perhaps best known through his radio program. He became a beloved guest in country living rooms as he joked from radios surrounded by farm families, and city dwellers likewise laughed in appreciation of his antics. Skelton was adept at touching the heartstrings of unpretentious people everywhere.

My Caricature of Red Skelton

I spent a long time on my India ink caricature of Skelton. I wanted it to be perfect. When it was finished, I gave it a title in fine print: America’s Clown, Red Skelton. I could hardly wait to present my art to him.

In the late afternoon of the day when Skelton’s show was to be performed before a packed theater, his university host and I approached his room. I was told to wait in the hallway. The host, who was a staff member in charge of hospitality for noted visitors to the university, quietly knocked, and Skelton answered the door. Skelton was asked if he would be willing to meet with someone for a few minutes. I thought the question was far too vague. I was not just “someone.” I was a student and an artist with a caricature of Skelton in my hand. I peeked through the door. A dim lamp lit the room. Skelton was much taller than I had imagined he would be. I recall his square jaw and his hair waving up and back from the middle of his head. He was not smiling. He said he felt tired and he would prefer not to be interviewed. I think he had leapt to the false conclusion that I was a newspaper reporter. He never saw me standing just beyond his door. The host excused himself, and the door closed. I gave the staff member my drawing to give to Skelton later, and I attached a note that I hurriedly penned on a second sheet of drawing paper. I forget what I wrote, but I am confident that I told him how much I had enjoyed his television show over the years.

The performance that night was a vintage Skelton extravaganza from beginning to end! If he were still tired, he gave no indication of weariness! His energy was that of a teenager, and his friendliness reached across the footlights to every patron in the house.

While I walked back to my dormitory room that night, I wistfully thought that Skelton might never receive my art, but I had stood within a few feet of one of the greatest entertainers of all time.

Letter to Robert T. Rhode from Red Skelton

Imagine my surprise when I received a letter from Skelton a few days later! It was addressed simply to the Department of English. Skelton wrote, “Thank you, for share-ing you tatent with me. . Your work is indeed outstanding. The sketch is wonderful. I thank you, for your letter . too—I am sorry we did not meet but then there is alway’s another day. I will hang the sketch and with pride show it off. Thank you again. Always Red Skelton.” Best of all, the letter was decorated with a clown drawn by Skelton himself!

I think, when Skelton received my caricature, he remembered the knock on the

door and only then realized that a student, not a reporter, had wanted to see him, and I believe he felt genuinely sorry that he had missed meeting me. His letter certainly made me think so.

Clown Drawn by Red Skelton for Robert T. Rhode

While another day has not yet come for me to meet Skelton, there is always a day made in heaven, where, I say with considerable confidence, Skelton is making the winged angels roar with laughter at his portrayals of those hilarious seagulls, Gertrude and Heathcliff.