Skelton was, at the time, an up-and-coming comedian who made it big with an appearance on The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour (a.k.a.
The Rudy Vallée Show), in 1937 and for hosting Avalon Time on NBC for several months after the departure of country singer Red Foley in 1939.
[1] Other principal performers on the program included actors Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and comedian Wonderful Smith.
[4] The Raleigh Cigarette Program premiered on October 7, 1941, on the Red Network of the National Broadcasting Company.
Skelton had already established himself as a professional comedian and radio personality as a guest star on Rudy Vallée's Royal Gelatin Hour and as host of Avalon Time.
Brown & Williamson were also the manufacturers of several other popular brands of cigarettes including Kool, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall.
"He grouped his jokes on 3-by-5 index cards under one-word categories– "Birds", "Hotels", "Tennis" and so forth– and updated some over the years to make references more contemporary.
"[7] Also serving on the writing staff of the program were Jack Douglas, Benedict Freedman and John Fenton Murray.
Hilliard also provided the voice of several of the female characters on the program and occasionally served as Skelton's comic foil.
Red Skelton introduced two characters the first season of this radio program that would stay with him as crowd pleasers well into his years on television.
Carl Hopper was one of Skelton's childhood friends and old next-door neighbor in his hometown of Vincennes, Indiana.
In order go get into character as Kadiddlehopper, Skelton would draw in his lower lip, adopt a somewhat bewildered look on his face and wear a hat with a turned up brim.
The second of the two long-running characters introduced to listeners on The Raleigh Cigarette Program was a troublesome young lad named Junior.
The film also starred alongside Skelton actress Eleanor Powell with musical interludes from Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra.
[13] The character of Junior was so popular that during the beginnings of America's involvement with World War II in 1942 that the U.S. Army was able to raise enough funds to pay for a new much-needed bomber plane all simply by asking child listeners of the program to save and donate their spare change.
After Skelton left the air in 1944, Nelson moved to CBS where he developed and produced his own radio series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
[14] The show went on the air with their sons played by actors until 1949, and in 1952 it moved over to television (the radio version continued for another two years).
[16] She frequented the Cotton Club, began smoking at age 13, was briefly married to an abusive comedian and lived what has been described as "a high-flying life".
[16] She left high school before graduating and joined the Corps de Ballet at the Capitol Theater, later dancing in the Harry Carroll Revue and working as a straight woman for comedians Ken Murray and Bert Lahr.
Hilliard provided voices to most of the female characters heard on the program most notably Daisy June, Clem Kadiddlehopper's girlfriend, and Junior's mother.
She later went on to co-star with her husband on the radio and eventual television incarnation of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet before dying of congestive heart failure in 1994 at the age of 85.
Upon returning to radio, Skelton brought with him many new characters that were added to his repertoire: Bolivar Shagnasty, described as a "loudmouthed braggart"; Cauliflower McPugg, a boxer; Deadeye, a cowboy; Willie Lump-Lump, a fellow who drank too much; and San Fernando Red, a conman with political aspirations.
Wonderful Smith was the only member of the original Skelton supporting cast to reprise his roles on the new program.
[a] Skelton forged on with his lines for his studio audience's benefit; the material he insisted on using had been edited from the script by the network before the broadcast.
Several of those "talents" included Amos 'n' Andy, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Burns and Allen and Jack Benny.
Wentworth, who had worked with fellow cast member Verna Felton on the radio program The Cinnamon Bear in 1937, portrayed the role of Polly the Panhandler.
Skelton died September 17, 1997, at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 84 after what was described as "a long, undisclosed illness".
[31] He was interred in the family's private room in The Great Mausoleum's Sanctuary of Benediction at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California, where his son, Richard, and former wife, Georgia, are also buried.