Cafe Paree [The Red Skelton Show]

Cafe Paree – The Red Skelton Show season 1, originally aired November 11, 1951

Red Skelton, Clem Kadiddlehopper, and Cauliflower McPugg sing. As do musical guests The Sportsmen. And then, Red tries to track down a spy at the Cafe Paree — which turns into a Tide commercial.

Monologue | Mockingbird Hill | Music | Cafe Paree | Skelton Scrapbook

Monologue

• I had a lot of fun this week. I saw Mervyn LeRoy’s “Quo Vadis“. It’s really a wonderful picture. It goes for about three … About close to three hours. I enjoyed every hour of it, though. I didn’t see all the picture, the kid in front of me grew up.
• Speaking of kids, my little boy, Richard, came in this week and he had a black eye. And I says, “Who gave you the the black eye?” And he says, “Nobody! I had to fight for it.”
• I said, “What’ve I told you about fighting?” He says, “Evidently, not enough.”
• He says, “But it wasn’t my fault. This Ira Hawkins, this little boy, he’s much bigger than I am. He come over and he did [crying] he hit me, smacked me around.” I says, “I wouldn’t cry like that if I were you,” and he says, “Well you cry your way buster, this is mine.”
• He wanted to take his tricycle to school with him the other day. I said, “What for?” He says, “Well I let little girls ride on the rumble seat, it’s easier to pick up girls that way, you know.” I said, “There’s no rumble seat on your tricycle.” He says, “I know that, you know that, but some of them little girls are pretty stupid.”

Mockingbird Hill song

A funny routine, where David Rose has a running joke of going to a music store to buy his own album.

Shirley Mitchell: They’ve been selling like hotcakes!
David Rose: I wish they’d sell like records.

The set up allows Red as himself, then as Clem Kadiddlehopper and then Cauliflower McPugg, to sing Mockingbird Hill. A funny segment.

Music segment

Musical segment – The Sportsmen quartet perform “Let’s Do It Again“. Next, they imitate Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys, singing “Mississippi Mud“.

Skelton’s Film Scrapbook – Cafe Paree

Red Skelton plays a G2 espionage agent, in post World War II Paris. He’s trying to track down a French spy. The femme fatale is played by Lucille Knoch. It’s a funny skit, as Red’s lack of French comes into play. He uses the help of a French gendarme to help translate. At first, this is strict comedy. But later, Lucille’s boyfriend comes in … He thinks that Red is hitting on his girlfriend, and tears Red’s waiter costume apart! After, the boyfriend has a secret coded message that the gendarme translates … into a Tide commercial. The skit ends with Red opening a bottle of the “good stuff” for the foursome … spraying them all!

Skelton Scrapbook – If Adults Acted Like Kids

Red and Shirley Mitchell play parents acting the way their children act. At the time, television was heavily into Cowboy shows.

Shirley Mitchell: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!
Red Skelton: I could use a helping of Trigger myself! With a side order of Roy Rogers! [to the audience] Tongue got wrapped around my eye tooth — I couldn’t see what I was saying!