© COURTESY OF RED SKELTON MUSEUM
The Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy celebrates an American era when families gathered around a single television set—or a radio glowing softly in the corner—and laughed together at silly, gentle, and kind humor.
MEET THE CHARACTERS THAT MADE AMERICA LAUGH
The museum celebrates comedian and clown Red Skelton, who epitomized the golden age of television with characters like Freddie the Freeloader with his battered hat; Clem Kadiddlehopper with his sideways logic; the Junior, the Mean Little Kid with his innocent grin; and then Red Skelton just being his silly self as he hosted his variety show.
The museum is located in his hometown of Vincennes, and a statue graces the location where he sold newspapers as a child to local theater-goers—where legend has it, he met comedian Ed Wynn and was inspired to go into comedy.
The museum is just minutes from a riverfront downtown, a presidential mansion, a national historical park, and a town that hosts frequent military reenactments.
STEP INSIDE THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY
Inside the museum, visitors see vintage movie posters, costumes worn thin by decades of pratfalls, photographs, and Red Skelton’s actual Emmys, all nestled among interactive exhibits that allow visitors to add their own sound effects to a radio show or pantomime on a green screen into a Skelton sketch.
One of the museum’s highlights is its collection of video and audio clips. Listening stations and viewing areas let you hear Red exactly as audiences did in the 1940s and ’50s, when his radio show reached millions, and later on television, where his physical comedy and expressive face made him a household name.
These clips help explain why Skelton remained on the air for more than two decades. Hearing Red’s voice, visitors remember laughing with their parents in the living room, or reciting Red’s version of the Pledge of Allegiance.
A SOFTER SIDE OF SKELTON
In the recently completed Lothian and Red Skelton Gallery of Fine Art wing of the museum, visitors explore a more contemplative side of Skelton through the art he created after trading the comedy and slapstick gags of the spotlight for a more introspective life.
This beautiful gallery showcases many of Red’s original works of art, and there are also plans to open a Japanese meditation garden this summer, featuring some of the statues Red brought back from Japan in the 1950s.
The Red Skelton Museum is about reconnecting with a version of America before shock comedy—one that believed a person could be kind and still be funny.
Visitors leave thinking the world could use a little more Red Skelton!
Plan your visit and add the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy to your next road trip.
Learn more: redskeltonmuseum.com
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The Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy honors the legacy of a man who touched numerous lives through his comedic talent, great works, compassion and commitment to public service.
As a museum, the RSMAC reflects history, ideas, innovation, discovery, diversity, creative expression and democracy in celebration of the exceptional man whose greatest ambition was to bring joy to countless audiences.