Legendary comedian Richard Red Skelton arrived at Camp Roberts for his Army Basic Training in 1944, after being in-processed at Fort MacArthur down in San Pedro. He had already starred in a dozen major motion pictures and had his own national radio program when he got drafted for World War II. He went from a mansion in Beverly Hills to a Camp Roberts barracks. He arrived to find that an enterprising fellow trainee had tacked a note on the barracks door that read Tour a Movie Stars Home -- 25 cents. He was trained as a cannon cocker at our Field Artillery Training Center, but the powers that be later sent him to a 2-week Special Services school in Virginia, and he spent his whole time entertaining at Camp Roberts. He said he wanted to remain a private during his entire enlistment so the trainees at Camp Roberts could better relate to him, and he did. After his Army hitch, he returned to radio and films, and later had his own popular and long-running TV show. Hats off to the memory of Camp Roberts Most Famous Private! Now, as for this photo of Red and his buddies at the Monkey Bar, we dont know where this was--it may have been a bar in one of the recreation center on camp or somewhere totally different. We do know that he often used to take his buddies to the bar thats still upstairs in the Paso Robles Inn. In fact, he liked it so much that he used to bring his wife back to the Paso Robles Inn each year.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 03:42:01 +0000
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