Bob & Ray: Vintage Bob & Ray

CLASSIC COMEDY FROM THE CBS YEARS

Legendary American humorists Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, known as Bob & Ray, have influenced comedians and humorists since 1946 such as Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno, George Carlin, Al Franken, Garrison Keillor and Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut wrote:

"Their jokes turn out to be universal…because much of life presents itself as the same dilemma: how to seem lusty and purposeful when less than nothing is going on."

Vintage Bob & Ray, Volume 1 features some of their most memorable sketches from their years on CBS radio including appearances by Ace Willoughby, International Detective,, Wally Ballou , Jack Headstrong, All-American American and Interbureau Coordinator Hap Watney. Listen in as Ray predicts pictures on the radio, a cat plays the piano on theArmy Amateur Hour, Bob demonstrates the Walner Slendervoice Machine and a whole lot more.

4 hours on 4 CDs

Listen to Wally Ballou: In Bathysphere with Pierre Duvalier from Vintage Bob & Ray, Volume 1

Also available:

• Bob & Ray: A Nigh of Two Stars
• Bob & Ray: The Lost Episodes, Volume 1
• Bob & Ray: The Soap Operas, Volume 1
• Classic Bob & Ray, Volume 1
• The Best of Bob & Ray, Volume 1

Bob & Ray's 40-year career began at WHDH in Boston. Bob was a disc jockey, and Ray a newscaster. When the Red Sox games were delayed on account of rain, they began to amuse each other to fill the time. Soon they had a daily show of their own, Matinee with Bob & Ray, an improvised, madcap exercise in controlled chaos. Their first program ran daily until July, 1951 when Bob & Ray left Boston for New York. Over the next three decades, the Bob and Ray Show appeared on NBC, CBS, the Mutual Broadcasting System, and New York stations WINS, WOR and WHN. Their last series was a weekly program for National Public Radio. The Bob & Ray Public Radio Show ran on public radio until 2004.

Over their long career, they created more than a hundred characters, including Wally Ballou, the hapless journalist; Mary McGoon, whose recipe for frozen ginger ale salad prefigures Martha Stewart; Biff Burns in the sports room; Webley Webster; Barry Campbell, a third rate actor with an ego the size of the universe; and Mary Backstayge, noble wife whose pals travel the world in search of goofy adventure.

Their humor is subtle, dry, intelligent and clean. Bob & Ray have a keen ear for language and how it is used and misused by the con artists, hucksters and hustlers who populate radio and television. Their humor is timeless. Bob & Ray’s satire of soap operas, game shows, radio shrinks and other self-appointed “experts,” and commercials is as pertinent today as it was in 1946.