W8USR - Special Events

Red Skelton Museum Festival – K9R Activation

The W8USR Logbook Entry & Event Overview

On June 4, 2022, station W8USR tracked and logged a unique connection with special event station K9R. This on-air milestone directly coincided with the Red Skelton Museum Festival, parade, and the special "Laughing Stalks" exhibit hosted at the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy. Operating from May 29 to June 11, 2022, in Vincennes, Indiana—the comedian's historic birthplace—local coordinators and guest operators activated the station directly from the community, putting Vincennes' rich heritage on global frequencies across the 80, 40, and 20-meter bands using CW and SSB phone.

Station Note: Radio amateurs who successfully logged a contact with K9R were invited to exchange physical QSL confirmation cards via Mark Steven Williams (K9GX) at P.O. Box 5973, Elizabeth, IN 47117. However, the W8USR station log was confirmed purely via electronic tracking networks, and I did not send for a physical QSL card for this event.

The Biography of Red Skelton

Red Skelton was one of America's most beloved comedians, transitioning from medicine shows to radio, television, and film over a career that spanned seven decades. Born Richard Bernard Skelton on July 18, 1913, in Vincennes, Indiana, he grew up in poverty after his father passed away two months before his birth. He left home at age 10 to work with a traveling medicine show, learning pantomime, physical comedy, and showmanship on the road. By his late teens, he was a regular in vaudeville and burlesque, eventually partnering with Edna Marie Stillwell, who became his wife, manager, and chief writer.

Skelton successfully transitioned to national radio in 1941, introducing iconic characters like "Junior, the Mean Wwul Kid" and his famous catchphrase, "I dood it!" A decade later, he launched The Red Skelton Show in 1951 on NBC, a massive broadcast success that ran for 20 consecutive years and became a Tuesday night staple across America. Red Skelton was an absolute master of character-driven slapstick and pantomime. While his weekly show featured hundreds of variations, these top five comedy sketches and routines are universally remembered as his most legendary pieces of television history:

• 1. The Doughnut Dunkers: This was Skelton's signature vaudeville routine that he adapted for television. In this entirely visual pantomime, Red would act out the highly distinct, hilarious ways different personalities dunked a doughnut into a cup of coffee—ranging from a nervous, shifty man trying to hide his dunking, to a wealthy, aristocratic snob making an absolute mess of it.
• 2. Freddie the Freeloader’s Park Picnic: Freddie was Red's most iconic television creation—a silent, lovable hobo with a heart of gold who lived in city parks. In his most famous sketches, Freddie would attempt to live a life of high luxury on zero dollars, such as crashing an unsuspecting family's park picnic, using his expressive, clown-like mime face to outsmart police officers and secure a free meal.
• 3. Gertrude and Heathcliff (The Two Seagulls): Red frequently opened his monologue with a running bit featuring two crossed-eyed seagulls named Gertrude and Heathcliff. He would tuck his thumbs into his armpits to simulate wings, cross his eyes, and tell absurd, rapid-fire bird jokes using high-pitched, squawking voices. It became one of the most requested recurring bits on the show.
• 4. Clem Kadiddlehopper's Clever Inventions: Clem was Red's beloved, slow-witted country bumpkin character. The best Clem sketches featured him attempting to execute an everyday, simple chore—like building a trap, doing the dishes, or fixing a house—which inevitably collapsed into pure, chaotic slapstick and physical destruction due to his clumsy nature.
• 5. Cauliflower McPugg in the Ring: Portraying a dizzy, punch-drunk veteran boxer, Red played Cauliflower McPugg with absolute physical commitment. The funniest routines followed McPugg during training sessions or locker room interviews where he would vividly see invisible birds, mistake his trainer for his mother, or completely forget which direction he was supposed to face to fight his opponent.

The Pledge of Allegiance Monologue

Red Skelton's talents went far beyond just character comedy. He was a prolific painter, earning millions from his artwork of sad clowns, and his emotional rendition of the "Pledge of Allegiance" is one of the most famous and enduring non-comedic moments in American broadcast history. He performed the monologue on January 14, 1969, during an episode of The Red Skelton Hour on CBS. Rather than a simple political statement, the routine was delivered as a warm, nostalgic recollection from his childhood in Vincennes, Indiana.

In the monologue, Skelton recalled his childhood schoolteacher, Mr. Lasswell. The teacher noticed that the students were rushing through the morning Pledge, letting the words become monotonous and hollow. Mr. Lasswell sat the class down and broke down the literal, profound meaning of every single word. Red repeated that lesson for his millions of television viewers, providing a profound, personal definition for each word or phrase, from "I" as an individual to "for All" meaning the country belongs to everyone.

At the very end of his speech, Skelton noted that since he was a schoolboy, two states (Alaska and Hawaii) had been added to the union, and two words had been added to the Pledge: "Under God". He concluded with a warning that continues to circulate widely today: "Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said 'That is a prayer' — and that be eliminated from our schools, too?" The response to the 1969 broadcast was overwhelming; CBS was flooded with mail, the speech was twice read into the United States Congressional Record, and Red was invited to perform it at the White House. Skelton passed away on September 17, 1997, leaving behind a legacy as a comic genius who insisted on family-friendly clean comedy.

Station Log: Contact History

Special Event Call	Station Logged	Date Logged	Time Logged	Frequency Band	Operation Mode	Signal Report	On-Board Operator
K9R	W8USR	June 4, 2022	00:51 UTC	40 Meters	SSB Phone	Sent 59 / Recv 59	Club Op