Avalon Time — 1939
52 episodes broadcast in 1939.
Rudy Vallee's vaudeville discovery Red Skelton joins the cast as a regular for the first time -- his first steady radio job -- while Red Foley and Janette carry the songs.
January 14, 1939
Tunes Of Tomorrow
January 21, 1939
Dinner With Edna
January 28, 1939
Cotton Pickets Congregation
February 4, 1939
Title Unknown
February 11, 1939
Mexicali Rose
'Pharaoh Skelton' opens Red's running burlesque of bumbling Skelton ancestors dropped into history, this week ruling ancient Egypt between the Foley Revue's numbers.
Red plays Aladdin and a barely-airworthy magic carpet in another historical send-up, with 'The Glory of Love' among the songs.
Red's comedy heads to the racetrack and the horses (the newspaper log lists a Santa Anita Handicap sketch for the date), backed by Foley and the Avalon orchestra.
Tax season meets ancient Rome as Red clowns through 'Julius Caesar Skelton,' the show newly shifted to a 7:30 slot.
Sir Skelton takes Camelot as 'King Arthur Skelton'; a same-week trade review pans the young comic as under-rehearsed even as the show gains listeners in Fred Waring's old time slot.
Red explores the Orient as 'Marco Polo Skelton'; the week's press catches him touting his mock-scientific 'six classes of laughs.'
An April Fools' romp of gags and pranks, backed by the Foley Revue's swing numbers.
Red runs a flea circus -- with a side of spring cleaning and the Emperor Nero -- in one of the season's broader novelty sketches.
'Leif Skelton' sails off to discover America in another of Red's historical-ancestor burlesques.
Red robs from the rich as 'Robin Hood Skelton,' with detours into prizefighting and golf.
Red bumbles the night-watchman beat at a bank (plus a swimming bit), with 'Boots and Saddles' among the songs.
Red meets his Waterloo as 'Napoleon Bonaparte Skelton' in another historical send-up.
'Chief Skelton' haggles away the island of Manhattan, with a modern-day bit on Sunday drivers and their cars.
May 20, 1939
King Henry the 8th Skelton
A birthday-party sketch for Edna Stillwell, Red's wife and co-writer (the newspaper log for the date instead lists a 'purchase of a lake' premise).
'Ace Skelton' cracks the case of the stolen plans in a detective spoof; this is the surviving East Coast feed of the twice-broadcast show.
Red takes the whole cast out to dinner, with a summer detour into swimming and bathing suits.
Red is made 'Dean for a Day' at mythical Nertzta University; yodler Lorraine Brady guests.
Comedy and songs at the policeman's ball, including 'Begin the Beguine.'
Red weighs a vacation and dreams himself alone in the north woods; Fibber McGee's Bill Thompson guests, trotting out his Horatio K. Boomer and other voices.
A Fourth of July picnic sketch that marks Curt Massey's arrival as the show's vocal soloist, replacing Red Foley.
July 15, 1939
Madamoiselle Levy
Red inherits -- and mismanages -- a summer mountain hotel; Massey sings 'My Little Buckaroo.'
A burlesque of 'The Shooting of Dan McGrew,' with Red as an anti-social activities director at the Chalet Toupee.
The first 'Send-Out Skelton' sketch casts Red as a hapless mountain guide on a trip up Mount Baldy; Massey sings 'Mexicali Rose.'
'Send-Out Skelton' turns matchmaker, with a side sketch on the gloomy Moody Brothers.
Red plays a district attorney in the 'Send-Out Skelton' series, with a trip to the movies.
Red babysits and chaperones a high-school dance in the 'Send-Out Skelton' run.
'Send-Out Skelton, Glamour Boy' tangles with a pair of killer hitchhikers.
Red hawks houses as a real-estate agent and copes with a nagging wife; songs include 'Red Sails in the Sunset.'
Red the golf pro pops the question and takes Edna to dinner, bridging the 'Send-Out' and domestic sketches.
The 'Slice of Life' series opens with Red screwing up the courage to ask his boss for a raise, played before an American Legion audience.
Newlyweds Red and Edna meet the in-laws; the show moves to 7:30 and adds carrot-topped Dick Todd as vocalist.
A young couple's payday money woes in the domestic 'Slice of Life' vein.
Red takes in a World Series ballgame; Richard B. Gilbert guests.
Red frets through the jitters of an expectant father.
Department-store workers and a new publicity agent drive the week's 'Slice of Life' comedy.
Red squirms in the chair of a lady barber.
Red tries to hide a dog in a small apartment and runs afoul of the landlady.
November 15, 1939
Title Unknown
November 22, 1939
Title Unknown
November 29, 1939
Title Unknown
Red and Edna play newlyweds bumbling through their honeymoon.
A Christmas shopping tour and a catering mix-up in the holiday-season 'Slice of Life.'
The season's Christmas show flips the roles -- Red the house husband, Edna the working wife -- with holiday tunes.
December 27, 1939
Guest Star: 'Grandpappy' Cliff Arquette
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