From Approximately Coast to Coast...

[jeffcrom]

For many years, I've been a fan of the comedy team of Bob and Ray. Like a lot of folks my age, I suppose, I discovered them on a Saturday night in 1979. I was 20 years old, and turned on the TV at 11:30 PM to watch "Saturday Night Live." Only it wasn't on - something called "Bob and Ray, Jane, Lorraine and Gilda" was on. At first I was baffled - the show purported to be a broadcast of the Finley Quality Network, and featured commercials for the Bob & Ray Hotel and Friedolf and Sons Shoelace Wash ("Shoelace washing is the only thing we do.") By the end of the show, I was a confirmed fan of B & R's dry/absurdist style of humor.

Shortly afterwards, I found a copy of Write if You Get Work: The Best of Bob & Ray, a collection of their routines, on my mom's bookshelves. I devoured it, so I read many of their classic routines before I heard them. In 1982, I faithfully recorded the Bob and Ray Public Radio Show every Friday night I didn't have a gig. This past Christmas, my wonderful wife gave me a USB thumb drive (available from bobandray.com) which has all the public radio shows, as well as countless hours of B & R from 1946 to 1982.

Bob Elliott (born 1923) and Ray Goulding (1922–1990) were primarily radio performers. Their banter on Boston's WHDH, where Bob was a disc jockey and Ray read the news, impressed the management of the station so much that they were given their own show, Matinee With Bob and Ray. (The rhyme is why they weren't Ray and Bob.) They had shows on NBC, CBS, and Mutual radio and television in the 1950's and 60's, and had a four-hour afternoon radio show on WOR in New York in the 70's, in a period when there was nothing else like them on radio. In 1970 they had a Broadway show - Bob and Ray: The Two and Only. Later in their career they appeared fairly frequently on The Tonight Show and David Letterman's show.

All Bob & Ray fans have their favorite routines and characters. A favorite of many is the roving reporter Wally Ballou, who invariably started his reports before the signal from the engineer: "...ly Ballou here." Wally was proud of his 16 diction awards (two of which were cufflinks). I always liked the sign-off lines by their two sports reporters; Biff Burns ended every report with "This is Biff Burns saying this is Biff Burns saying so long," and Steve Bosco's reports ended with "This is Steve Bosco rounding third and being thrown out at home."

Many of their regular features were parodies of old-time radio shows, but you didn't have to be familiar with the source to enjoy Bob & Ray's parodies. Their soap opera "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife" ran daily on WOR in the 70's; few listeners could have known that it was loosely based on "Mary Noble, Backstage Wife," a radio soap opera from 30 years earlier. "Mary Backstayge" was truly bizarre; it was improvised each day based on a loose outline. At the end of each episode, Bob would say, "Tune in tomorrow, when you'll hear [one of Ray's character's] say..." The next day's episode would be based on whatever Ray decided to say.

Their "sponsors" included Einbinder Flypaper ("The flypaper you've gradually grown to trust over the course of three generations"), Coogan's Ball Bearings ("Remember, it's Coogan's: B-A-L-L-B-E-A-R-I-N-G-S - Coogan's"), and The United States Mint ("One of the nation's leading producers of genuine U.S. currency").

And I love the names they came up with. Bob would frequently interview an interesting guest or audience member, played by Ray. One was Illegal Left Turn Bronson. He changed his name because the drivers license bureau typed his traffic violation where his name should go, and it was easier to just change his name. Ethel Merman Strunk was a man who was so named because his parents had only heard Ethel Merman on the radio, and assumed that she was a man.

I hope there are some other Bob & Ray fans out there. I'll end with their usual signoff:

This is Bob Elliott reminding you to write if you get work,
And this is Ray Goulding reminding you to hang by your thumbs.

Edited September 7, 2013 by jeffcrom

[JSngry]

Big fan here...so dry, so absurd, yet so wholly believable in some parallel universe that wasn't quite completely parallel.

Think I first saw them on the old Dick Cavett late-night ABC show...either there or on Carson when he was still in NY. Only specific I remember was that these guys didn't look like they should be funny at all, at least until they started riffing. They tood their time, weren't at all frantic, just built the insanity, let it develop slowly but inevitably..

[jeffcrom]

Here's one of their all-time best routines, from The Two and Only. It's as well-paced as a Steve Lacy solo.

[jeffcrom]

Only specific I remember was that these guys didn't look like they should be funny at all, at least until they started riffing.

Andy Rooney once said that there was Bob, there was Ray, and there was Bob & Ray, and that "Bob and Ray are interesting to meet separately because two duller people you never talked to." He then went on to describe a chance meeting with the pair that sounded as funny as anything I've ever heard from them.

[Jazzmoose]

I first heard Bob and Ray back in the early seventies on LP and thought they were okay, but a bit dated. Not hip like Firesign Theater. Oh yeah, and in the sixties I thought Duke Ellington was pretty much the same thing as Lawrence Welk. You can see why I'm nervous; I've only got one strike left...

I never became a big fan of them. I mean, I wish I had more stuff by them, but apparently not enough to go out and get it. Don't know why.

[jazztrain]

Jeff,

I'm a big Bob & Ray fan as well. I first was exposed to them on their 1970s radio show on WOR in New York, I remember not quite getting their humor at first but learning to appreciate their rather low key humor. Off the top of my head, a few of my favorites:

- the Komodo dragon routine, where the clueless radio interviewer persists in asking questions about matters that had just been answered or discussed

- the Times Square man in the streets interview where the reporter is oblivious to gunfire occurring in the background

- the interview with the rare light bulb collector where the precious collectors' items get dropped one at a time as the interview proceeds

- the interview of the collector of vegetables that resemble the faces of famous people (but which have evidently have become rotten and rather smelly over time)

I remember attending an exhibit/program at the Museum of Broadcasting (which now has a different name) devoted to Bob & Ray.

Then there's their show's theme song ("Mention My Name in Sheboygan").

I was featuring them on my radio show many years ago after one of them died. A nasty storm passed through, the station antenna was struck by lightning, and the station was knocked off the air.

Jon

[Pete C]

Love 'em. Lots of free Bob & Ray downloads at archive.org:

http://archive.org/search.php?query=%22bob%20and%20ray%22

[Dave James]

Absolutely love these guys. Great deadpan...taking themselves so seriously when everyone else around them was dissolving in laughter. Rooney's point about the pair is right on the mark. The whole being greater than the sum of its parts. It's unfortunate that this sort of subtle, well-considered, non-scatological humor seems to have run its course. I'll bet if you played a couple of B&R routines for a twenty something, they'd look at you like you'd taken leave of your senses.

[Larry Kart]

I remember a Monitor spot or series of them about Bob and Ray's Trophy Train. Much laughter. I've got some of their stuff on CD and cassettes. I remember being disappointed when Martin Williams (he was something of a comedy guru, too) dismissively referred to their work as "college-boy funning," or something of the sort. But then Martin didn't get Albert Brooks either, told me that he thought that "Modern Romance" wasn't at all funny but an attempt to justify Albert's own self-indulgent behavior. I admit that the space between Albert himself and the characters he portrays is often a narrow one, but come on! That's inseparable from why his work works. OTOH, Martin was big against self-indulgence, could detect it with alarming zeal. I've told the story of his reaction when, sitting next to him in an audience, I began to chew a piece of gum.

[Pete C]

Besides the likely Goon Show and Beyond the Fringe influences, I think B&R were big influences on Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie.

[Jazzmoose]

Love 'em. Lots of free Bob & Ray downloads at archive.org:

http://archive.org/search.php?query=%22bob%20and%20ray%22

Excellent! Thanks.

[Chuck Nessa]

Love 'em since the Monitor days, at least.

[alocispepraluger102]

in the late 50s, bob and ray were hosts of the long running nbc monitor sustaining weekend program.

on weekends, they were all over the am dial, day and night.

wnur, a chicago college station, broadcasts a weekly monday morning 2 hour eclectic music program, hosted by Peter Kostakis and Art Lange. every monday, for as long as i can recall, they have featured at least one bob and ray recorded skit.

the program was originated many years ago by jon corbett.

Edited May 5, 2012 by alocispepraluger102

[Larry Kart]

FWIW, that's Peter Kostakis and Art Lange.

[alocispepraluger102]

thx.

[jeffcrom]

This came out in March, apparently, but I just became aware of it: Bob and Ray: Keener Than Most Persons, a biography of the duo by David Pollack. I ordered a copy, of course.

Points to the first fan who can name the Bob and Ray character who was "keener than most persons." Double points if you can identify the show Bob and Ray were parodying with that character.

[GA Russell]

I remember that it was a parody of Martin Keene, Finder of Lost Persons.

Edited September 7, 2013 by GA Russell

[jeffcrom]

I remember that it was a parody of Martin Keene, Finder of Lost Persons.

Close enough! Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons, was based on Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons.

Edited September 8, 2013 by jeffcrom

[BERIGAN]

Here's one of their all-time best routines, from The Two and Only. It's as well-paced as a Steve Lacy solo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktYwuw9Mnjo

Here's one of their all-time best routines, from The Two and Only. It's as well-paced as a Steve Lacy solo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktYwuw9Mnjo

Always loved that routine! My Dad had some of their LPs and I swear it was even slower on that LP(But, that was in the 70's and to my pre teen ears and mind, it may have seemed longer) there was a very funny Carson clip with Bob as a bird expert , showing photos of some very rare bird, photographed in the desert, that you can't see at all, but that seems to have been deleted awhile back...too bad. But this clip, of the winner of the most beautiful face contest, it's pretty good!

[John Litweiler]

I remember that it was a parody of Martin Keene, Finder of Lost Persons.

not to be mistaken for Martin Kane, Private Eye, from the same era of network radio

[GA Russell]

Ha! You guys have me beat!

[BruceH]

I happened to come by a book of theirs back in the 70's sometime, a compilation with in introduction of Kurt Vonnegut. It was that intro that made me look twice and give the thing a chance, and that book pretty much made me a fan. "Write If You Get Work: The Best of Bob & Ray" that was the one.

Edited September 8, 2013 by BruceH

[patricia]

My favourite Bob and Ray was the interview that Wally Ballou did with the farmer selling baskets of cranberries from a roadside stand. When Wally commented that everybody would be pleased to buy some to make jelly, jam, and other things, the farmer didn't know you could do that with them. His customers just ate them out of the baskets and, yes, they were "bitter as anything."

Delivered straight, like all Ballou's interviews were, this was hilarious.

[Mike Schwartz]

My favourite Bob and Ray was the interview that Wally Ballou did with the farmer selling baskets of cranberries from a roadside stand. When Wally commented that everybody would be pleased to buy some to make jelly, jam, and other things, the farmer didn't know you could do that with them. His customers just ate them out of the baskets and, yes, they were "bitter as anything."

Delivered straight, like all Ballou's interviews were, this was hilarious.

I loved Bob & Ray.....a quick detour as I couldn't figure where to post this as hockey is still in hibernation until October.

Patricia,

You can borrow my hankie if you wish as I saw that *YOUR* Kipper decided to retire and hang up his smelly goalie's gear......awwwwwwww