While we get up to speed and do our level best to help get your mind off things, a 45 minute dose of Bob & Ray, broadcast on November 20, 1956.
Bob And Ray were a staple in the diets of most Americans throughout the 1950s. Kings of droll humor and deadpan delivery, Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding poked relentless fingers in the sides of American institutions of the period.
About 99% of the references are obscure today, and some might not make any sense, but they delivered gems of satire during their tenure. They perfected the art of The Spoof and they have inspired countless comics over the years.
Bob Elliott was a disk jockey at Boston’s WHDH when he met newscaster Ray Goulding in 1946. The two men discovered an instant rapport, a gift for improvisation, and a keen understanding of the absurd. So began a radio partnership that would last for forty years.
Almost immediately, WHDH gave the new team a daily show, Matinee With Bob & Ray. In July 1951, they left Boston for New York. Over the next three decades, They appeared on NBC, CBS, the Mutual Broadcasting System, and New York stations WINS, WOR and WHN. Their last series, a weekly program for National Public Radio, ran from 1982 to 1987.
Bob and Ray created and gave voice to a universe of wonderful, offbeat characters, including domestic advisor Mary McGoon, adenoidal reporter Wally Ballou and incompetent showman Barry Campbell. The duo also parodied radio and television with spoofs that often outlasted the original source material, including Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons; Jack Headstrong, The All-American American and the soap operas One Fella’s Family and Mary Backstage, Noble Wife.
If you aren’t already familiar, here’s a 45 minute slice of what Bob and Ray were all about on this typical show as first broadcast on November 20, 1956. And for more, there are a number of sources on the Internet offering the almost complete output of Bob and Ray which should keep you busy a good six months.
In the meantime . . .
