Elliott and Goulding began on Boston radio. Each was
a disc jockey with his own program on radio station WHDH-AM, and
each would visit with the other while on the air. Their informal
banter was so appealing that WHDH would call on them, as a team,
to fill in when Red Sox baseball broadcasts were rained out. Elliott
and Goulding (not yet known as Bob and Ray) would improvise comedy
routines all afternoon, and joke around with studio musicians.
Elliott and Goulding's brand of humor caught on, and WHDH gave
them their own weekday show in 1946. Matinee with Bob and Ray was
originally a 15-minute show, soon expanding to half an hour. This
is why Elliott and Goulding became known as Bob and Ray: it rhymed
with "Matinee." Goulding later quipped, "If the word
had been Matinob, we would have been Ray and Bob."
Elliott and Goulding lent their voices to a variety of recurring
characters and countless one-shots. Those played by Elliott included
Wally Ballou, an inept news reporter whose opening transmission
was invariably cut off ("–lly Ballou here"); snappy
sportscaster Biff Burns ("This is Biff Burns saying this is
Biff Burns saying goodnight"); Tex Blaisdell, a drawling cowboy
singer who also did rope tricks on the radio; Arthur Sturdley, an
Arthur Godfrey take-off; Johnny Braddock, another sportscaster,
with an obnoxious streak; and a host of others. In addition, any
script calling for a child's voice would usually go to Elliott.
Goulding played mushmouthed book reviewer Webley Webster (who was
also an "actor," portraying Calvin Hoogavin on one of
Bob and Ray's soap opera parodies); farm editor Dean Archer Armstead
(his low, slurring delivery was unintelligible and punctuated by
the sound of his spittle hitting a cuspidor); Charles the Poet,
who recited soppy verse (parodying the lugubrious late night broadcaster
Franklyn MacCormack) but could never get through a whole example
of his bathetic work without breaking down in laughter; serial characters
such as Matt Neffer, Boy Spot-Welder; crack-voiced cub reporter
Arthur Schrank, and all female roles. While originally employing
a falsetto, Goulding generally used the same flat voice for all
of his women characters—perhaps the most memorable of these
was Mary Margaret McGoon (satirizing home-economics expert Mary
Margaret McBride), who offered bizarre recipes for such entrees
as "ginger ale salad" and "mock turkey." In
1949, Goulding, as Mary, recorded "I'd Like to Be a Cow in
Switzerland", which soon became a novelty hit and is still
occasionally played by the likes of Dr. Demento. On radio, Goulding
also played the females in the various soap opera spoofs, but for
the television series, first Audrey Meadows and then Cloris Leachman
appeared on camera in these roles (usually either Mary Backstayge
or Linda Lovely).
This collection of Bob and Ray Greats includes 244
different shows and appearances for a total of 83+ hours of listening
enjoyment.
This product is a DVD collection of Old Time Radio mp3s. It is
designed to be played on your computer DVD drive with standard mp3
software - like Windows media player or its equivalent on Macintosh
computers. The mp3 files on the DVDs can be copied onto CDs for
play in your car stereo, home entertainment center, etc so you can
take your favorite shows with you anywhere you go.
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