Customer Reviews

Red Skelton: The Mask Behind the Mask

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No other comedian brought as much laughter nor reigned longer on television than Red Skelton. Skelton's stable of silly yet oddly touching characters, his childlike demeanor and even his heartfelt "God Bless" benediction at program's end endeared him to boob tube viewers. Skelton had been a great success on radio and in films as well. Behind the lovable public persona, however, lurked an individual whose obsessive needs produced two failed marriages. Wes Gehring dissects the life and career of America's Clown Price of Television in this 2008 Indiana Historical Society Press release.

To his credit, Gehring, a Professor of Film at Ball State University, did an incredible amount of research to uncover the facts behind Skelton's great successes in radio, films and television and his equally fractured personal life. Possessing a natural gift to amuse, Skelton's hardscrabble childhood produced a man-child who needed a devoted wife to manage his career and give him the emotional support and love he never received as a child. Yet those needs often worked against each other, producing yet another broken marriage. Likewise, Skelton endlessly embellished his life story throughout the years, not only playing fast and loose with facts but also downplaying the efforts of those who helped him along the way. Yet, given his childhood and the private demons it produced, Skelton's enduring legacy of laughter and joy is truly inspiring.

As I read RED SKELTON, THE MASK BEHIND THE MASK, I sometimes got the impression it was less a biography and more a psychological dissection of a troubled if gifted comedian. Gehring's academic background made the book hard slogging at times due to endless literary allusions, digressions, etc. that, I thought, undercut the storyline's momentum. For that reason and the fact that Gehring did not include an index, I gave the book four stars.

Those criticisms aside, readers wanting to know the 'real' Red Skelton will want to latch on to a copy of RED SKELTON, THE MASK BEHIND THE MASK. While it does bring back some long-treasured memories of laughter at Skelton's comic antics, it also reveals the man behind the clown's mask. Recommended.
*******

For all those hours of laughter and joy you brought me and my family every Tuesday night, thank you Mr. Skelton!

If you read the author's other book on Red Skelton, you may have walked away a tad disappointed, because for the main part, it was a review of the performance-related aspects of the Skelton career. The current book more than makes up for it. While there is some "review material", as appropriate, this is very much a journey into the psyche of Red Skelton. And, it's balanced and fair. It's not a hatchet job, nor does it attempt to pretty everything up as a fan-writer might do. This tells it like it was, as much as one can do when writing about events and people that took place and lived in the early and mid-1900s. Skelton has been a hero to me since I was a boy...and, after reading this biography, still is...but as I suspected (and has been hinted at in countless magazine articles and other books), he was a flawed person who brought trauma into the lives of those closest to him. But then again, they hooked their fortunes to the star, so I won't feel too sorry for them. As the author points out, Red damaged and nearly destroyed his own legacy by locking away his television treasures and by his long-standing public bitterness toward CBS (not that they didn't deserve it), but -- for the most part -- he banished himself from television and our living rooms. To some extent, the author makes up for that by chronicling just how big a start Red Skelton was. In the 2010s, it's easy for us to forget that. I recall an article written at the time Skelton was dropped by CBS, and one line said something to the effect of, "Who's bigger? Dean Martin? Lucy?" Thanks to the author for reminding us. A very good read.

One of the icons of early television comedy, Red Skelton was man of many layers. Mostly masks. "Red Skelton: The Mask Behind the Mask" tells the story of the man who brought joy to millions, and how there wasn't much joy for him growing up. While he was all smiles when the camera was on, Red was anything but when the cameras were off. Telling his life story in a charming tribute to one of the greats, "Red Skelton: The Mask Behind the Mask" is a must for those who want to finally get to who the man really is.