Talk:Red Skelton/GA1

GA Review[edit]

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Reviewer: Zanimum (talk · contribs) 15:31, 17 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'll review. -- Zanimum (talk) 15:31, 17 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Artwork

In the last two days, you both caught the missing period, and added an image, as I was going to suggest. Good stuff! I love the ten thousand quip. I've never heard of franchise licenses being used in the gallery world, that's fascinating.

I still can't believe we found a photo of one of Skelton's originals that's PD! We hope (talk) 21:48, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Other interests

I'm wondering if the Muzak reference at least needs a two or three word summary of what the company was? (I'd say is, but I believe the current owners have retired the name.) Many people likely have heard the term muzak being used, but never realized that it was a company.
When dealing with rolls of still negatives, wouldn't film be the plural? I think films is only used for motion pictures.

Have given a brief description of what Muzak was and changed films to film We hope (talk) 21:48, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Fraternity and honors

Keep using the 10K stat, even though it seems a little too guesstimatey.

Awards and recognition

"Skelton also has stars": what about "Skelton also has two stars" or "separate stars"? While the Hollywood Walk of Fame is world famous, I don't think that many realize that you can have more than one star on it. (Heck, I don't think many people realize that radio personalities can have stars on the Walk, but that's another issue entirely.)

Made it "has two stars". We hope (talk) 21:48, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Legacy and tributes

Perhaps wikilink Charley Chase? Quite honestly, I've never heard that name before.
There are instances where breaking up a quote is appropriate, like in the case of pausing for effect in the "I don't know why it's always clowns." quote earlier in the article. Also, if you're cutting a chunk out, it's acceptable, like the start of the Marx quote in this section. But for the most part, quotes should be used uninterrupted; we're not a magazine. Personally, I'd remove the "he said" in Bergen's quote, and move the text about Groucho witnessing a performance to before the start of that quote. I personally don't take offence to the format, but you'll likely receive criticism for the use when you nominate this for FAC (which I hope is on your radar).

Wikilinked Charley Chase, joined the Bergen quote and changed the order from Bergen-Marx to Marx-Bergen. We hope (talk) 21:48, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Filmography

Perhaps "(1944) (voice)" could be "(1944, voice)", et cetera?

Changed the voice and cameo role notations to what you suggested. We hope (talk) 21:48, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bibliography

Was Groucho And Me published by both B. Geis Associates and Random House?

Added that Random House was the distributor of the book, according to Google Books' information on it. We hope (talk) 21:48, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

More to come later. -- Zanimum (talk) 18:49, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Looking good! I'll try and get back on this, as soon as I can. -- Zanimum (talk) 01:18, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Passing lead.

The doughnut dunkers

I'm seeing the Montreal section in the LA Times article, but nothing about a "language barrier". Montreal was very anglo at the time, the it cultural and business city in Canada before Toronto took over. (Side note of curiousity, the Princess Theatre where he played was the site Houdini took his fatal punch to the stomach. The place killed one career, and made another.)

Removed language barrier. Knew Houdini's fatal punch came as part of his act, but didn't know it was in Montreal at the Princess Theatre. We hope (talk) 01:44, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Passing "Film work", "Radio, divorce and remarriage".

"I dood it!"

Pass. I sincerely hope some military history buff writes an article on this bomber.

Divorce from Edna, marriage to Georgia

Never knew that re: Ozzie and Harriet

A cast of characters

You need a space before Verna's name in the photo caption.

Done. We hope (talk) 01:56, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Did the Ziv Radio show continue for all three years?

Something quite interesting just turned up in a search re: Ziv. Turns out that Skelton owned the rights to all of his old radio shows and the three year deal was to syndicate a daily show with a "blend" of old and new material in them. This was much like Easy Aces where the Aces owned the rights and syndicated their shows through Ziv after they were no longer on the air with new ones. At that time, very few performers owned the rights to their radio shows. Skelton made statements in 1956 that he was holding off from making more films after his MGM contract completed with regard to not wanting to work simultaneously in film, television and radio again-that would leave him working in television for CBS and radio for Ziv, as his CBS show was over in 1953, when the statement was made. I've seen nothing to indicate that either Skelton or Ziv wanted to end the agreement before the three years were done in 1957. We hope (talk) 00:59, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Used ref and described more about the Ziv-syndicated radio show. Re-cited the 1956 ref where he said he would never work in film, radio and TV all at once again. We hope (talk) 20:11, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Television

"By 1959, Skelton was the only comedian with a regularly scheduled weekly television show.": I presume you mean a scheduled weekly sketch or variety television show?

There were a lot of comedians with television programs in the early days of television. Two which come to mind right away are Sid Caesar and Milton Berle. Both had highly rated shows in the early days. Somehow the programs of both were no longer getting people to tune in each week, and the shows were cancelled. Berle was under a 30 year contract to NBC as of 1951. By 1960, he was the host of Jackpot Bowling, as NBC tried to recoup at least some of their investment in him. Skelton was the only one of that early TV era who was able to keep people watching year after year for 20 years. We hope (talk) 02:32, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Tried clarifying this with a ref and an example of Danny Thomas, who was on the air at the time with Make Room For Daddy sitcom as nightclub owner Danny Williams. We hope (talk) 20:11, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Young Richard's illness and death

Was it just the troupe called "The Friends of Red Skelton", or did they bill the special as The Friends of Red Skelton?

The troupe who performed called themselves "The Friends of Red Skelton" and the show was billed as "The Friends of Red Skelton Variety Show". We hope (talk) 02:09, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Added title of special program. We hope (talk) 20:11, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Red Skelton Hour

Photo caption, isn't Freddie/Red on the right? Stage left, but it's our right, I'd say.

Skelton is dressed as a sailor (left) and Mickey Rooney is playing Skelton's wife. At right are an emcee with his dummy--this because they're doing a parody of the show Do You Trust Your Wife? where the first host of it was Edgar Bergen. We hope (talk) 01:56, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Added this detail to the photo caption. We hope (talk) 20:11, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Passing "Off the air and bitterness", "Skelton onstage", "Later years and death" (I would say to link this special to the resultant series Pioneers of Television, but we don't have an article on it, so...). -- Zanimum (talk) 00:09, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Look good! GA! -- Zanimum (talk) 20:41, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]