Red Skelton collage

Red Skelton's grave

Lobby of proposed Skelton Center at VU

Red Skelton

Red Skelton was historically significant to the city of Vincennes in the state of Indiana . Red Skelton was born July 18, 1913 . His birthplace was amazingly right here in Vincennes , Indiana . His parents’ names were Joseph and Ella Skelton. He had a very small family with two brothers, named Chris and Paul. Skelton’s father had many different hobbies during his life. Surprisingly, some of his jobs were a grocer, a comedian, and a circus clown. When Red was a boy, he went to Riley Elementary School . He married Edna Stillwell when he was eighteen, and she was sixteen. It wasn’t a happy marriage, and it ended in a divorce. Afterwards, he married two more times. Skelton enjoyed many different hobbies, such as, painting, writing poetry, designing china plates, gardening, and, most of all, his comedy.

Red Skelton was an actor, comedian, and an artist. In 1923, while selling newspapers, an actor named Ed Wynn approached ten year old Red. Wynn bought all of Red’s newspapers and gave him a free ticket to a Vaudeville Show. This was when Red Skelton fell in love with show business. At the age of fifteen, he left home to join a traveling medicine show and circuses. In 1936, he was heard on the radio and had his own radio show in 1941. Many of his characters were developed during this time, such as, Clem Kadiddlihopper and the mean Widdle Kid. Red also began starring in many movies. However, it was his television career that made us love him the most. The Red Skelton Show began on NBC in 1951. Unfortunately the show was cancelled in Italy for twenty- two months. After the war, he performed over 2,500 shows in Korea and Japan .

In Vincennes you would find two memorials dedicated to Red Skelton. The first one is the Red Skelton Memorial Bridge . It is located north of the George Rogers Clark Memorial. This bridge spanes across the Wabash River . The second one is still in the planning stages. It will be called the Red Skelton Museum and Performing Arts Center . Proposed plans for the building include auditorium, museum, classrooms, rehearsal and dressing rooms, and an art gallery. Special events, convocations, conventions, theater and musical produticons are events that will be held in this Vincennes University center.

America lost one of its best clowns ever on Wednesday, September 17, 1997 . Red Skelton died at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California from an undisclosed, lingering illness at the age of eighty-four. His third wife, Lothian, survived him; a daughter, Valentino Algae, and a granddaughter. He loved to act and was recognized as a softhearted man who made people laugh. In the words of Red Skelton, “Good night, and God bless”.