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Bob And Ray, Keener Than Most Persons by Pollock, David(March 1, 2013) Hardcover
(Applause Books). By the established comedy conventions of their era, Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were true game changers. Never playing to the balcony, Bob and Ray instead entertained each other. Because they believed in their nuanced characters and absurd premises, their audience did, too. Their parodies broadcasting about broadcasting existed in their own special universe. A complete absence of show-biz slickness set them apart from the very institution they were mocking, yet were still a part of. They resisted being called comedians and never considered themselves "an act." Bob and Ray, Keener Than Most Persons traces the origins and development of the pair's unique sensibility that defined their dozens of local and network radio and TV series, later motion picture roles, Carnegie Hall performances, and hit Broadway show Bob and Ray The Two and Only . Together for 43 years (longer than Laurel and Hardy, Burns and Allen, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis), the twosome deflected all intrusions into the personalities behind their many masks and the dynamics of their relationship, and rarely elaborated on their career trajectory or methodology. Now, with the full cooperation of Bob Elliott and of Ray Goulding's widow, Liz, together with insights from numerous colleagues, their craft and the culture that made them so relevant is explored in depth.
Hardcover
First published March 1, 2013
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About the author
David Pollock
26 books2 followersDavid Pollock lives in Edinburgh and has reviewed over 1,000 festival shows in the city. He is an arts writer whose work has appeared in The Scotsman, The List, The Guardian, The Independent, The Herald, The Times, The Courier, The Stage and The Big Issue, and in music magazines including Mixmag, Electronic Sound and Record Collector. He is a judge for the Fringe Firsts and the annual Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS).
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 4, 2017
I was around back when AM Radio was the only choice and Comedy Time was a regular feature the hourly broadcast cycle. Later I was lucky enough to hear a few of the last Bob and Ray WOR New Your Broadcasts. I count myself as a fan, if not one of their best or most loyal. Part of my admiration for these men was based on their unique, totally dead pan delivery.
The gag grew out of the fact that their vocalizations were minimal. Newsman Wally Ballou doing an interview or dealing with the sudden arrival of a herd of elephants carried almost the exact same vocal inflection. Their female characters, most famously Mary Backstage were not portrayed in falsetto again a slight change in intonation was all these comedians needed to invoke their Soap Opera starlet.
The second aspect of their humor was the ridiculous situations they created. Having begun in radio, these situations rarely required too many visuals or other special effects. They would learn to use them, but never to depend on them.
David Pollock's Bob and Ray Keener than Most People, introduces us to the men: Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding and helps us to see the people who became the stars Through Pollock we meet the many others who would co-star, write and help to manages the businesses that grew around them. Many members of their large family contributed to this book and provide a deep appreciation of the home lives and habits of their deliberately non-celebrity life styles.
As Bob and Ray's lived careers from post-World War Two (they both served in uniform) radio , moved into television, ultimately live stage performances meantime forming a highly successful advertising production company. Yes B and R were Mad Men with all the drinking, but apparently none of the womanizing. Speaking of Mad, the chapter detailing how they helped to provide Mad Magazine with some of its earliest material makes for some of the most unlikely reading. What most surprised me was the fact that the fine actress and comedian Chloris Leachman (Miss Chicago 1947, -well the picture show she had great legs) moved up in her career up from performing on Broadway by replacing Audrey Meadows (The Honeymooners) on TV with B&R. Ultimately this book documents that B&R touched the lives of many of the entertainers who would be well known in later generations. It is never said that the two were foundational leaders in television but is it made clear that they helped to create modern advertising by moving the form away from a strictly hard sell approach into one that used humor and storytelling.
What is largely missing from this book is a real feel for the humor. There is a shortage of comedic scripts. Almost no jokes or bits are quoted until the second half of the book. We are told, too often about their ability to pick up and top each other's deliberate ad libs, but almost nowhere is the reader told about their dry delivery. This is a book about two great comedians, but it lacks comedy.
The target audience is B&R fans. They are best able to read while remembering why they liked these men. Historians of post WWII American Media will appreciate the quality of the scholarship. Fans of Mad Magazine or any of the dozens of stars and writers would enter the orbit of B&R will enjoy reading about their favorites and these two men. Readers who come to this book without some knowledge and appreciation of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding may never get why they should care. I liked Bob and Ray, Keener than Most People, I cannot recommend it to a wide audience
The gag grew out of the fact that their vocalizations were minimal. Newsman Wally Ballou doing an interview or dealing with the sudden arrival of a herd of elephants carried almost the exact same vocal inflection. Their female characters, most famously Mary Backstage were not portrayed in falsetto again a slight change in intonation was all these comedians needed to invoke their Soap Opera starlet.
The second aspect of their humor was the ridiculous situations they created. Having begun in radio, these situations rarely required too many visuals or other special effects. They would learn to use them, but never to depend on them.
David Pollock's Bob and Ray Keener than Most People, introduces us to the men: Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding and helps us to see the people who became the stars Through Pollock we meet the many others who would co-star, write and help to manages the businesses that grew around them. Many members of their large family contributed to this book and provide a deep appreciation of the home lives and habits of their deliberately non-celebrity life styles.
As Bob and Ray's lived careers from post-World War Two (they both served in uniform) radio , moved into television, ultimately live stage performances meantime forming a highly successful advertising production company. Yes B and R were Mad Men with all the drinking, but apparently none of the womanizing. Speaking of Mad, the chapter detailing how they helped to provide Mad Magazine with some of its earliest material makes for some of the most unlikely reading. What most surprised me was the fact that the fine actress and comedian Chloris Leachman (Miss Chicago 1947, -well the picture show she had great legs) moved up in her career up from performing on Broadway by replacing Audrey Meadows (The Honeymooners) on TV with B&R. Ultimately this book documents that B&R touched the lives of many of the entertainers who would be well known in later generations. It is never said that the two were foundational leaders in television but is it made clear that they helped to create modern advertising by moving the form away from a strictly hard sell approach into one that used humor and storytelling.
What is largely missing from this book is a real feel for the humor. There is a shortage of comedic scripts. Almost no jokes or bits are quoted until the second half of the book. We are told, too often about their ability to pick up and top each other's deliberate ad libs, but almost nowhere is the reader told about their dry delivery. This is a book about two great comedians, but it lacks comedy.
The target audience is B&R fans. They are best able to read while remembering why they liked these men. Historians of post WWII American Media will appreciate the quality of the scholarship. Fans of Mad Magazine or any of the dozens of stars and writers would enter the orbit of B&R will enjoy reading about their favorites and these two men. Readers who come to this book without some knowledge and appreciation of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding may never get why they should care. I liked Bob and Ray, Keener than Most People, I cannot recommend it to a wide audience
October 8, 2013
A well-researched, well-written biography of my favorite comedy team of all time. Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were, separately, totally ordinary, even boring, young men with no higher ambitions than to be radio announcers. Together, they created an amazing comedic alternate universe, understated and absurd, and peopled with characters unable to see past their own delusions and mental limitations.
I learned a lot about two of my favorite performers. I had known that they were busy when the first came to New York from Boston, but their work schedule was mind-boggling, with early morning and late night radio and television slots. I didn't know that their very successful Broadway show, The Two and Only, came about only after years of urging by producer Joseph Levine; B & R were so uncomfortable with the idea that they accepted only after all other work had dried up. And I didn't know that, for the last twelve years of Ray Goulding's life, he suffered from kidney failure, and depended on exhausting dialysis treatments to stay alive.
The detailed account of the duo's various radio and television shows might be tedious to some readers, but fans will want to know these details. There were enough short excerpts from B & R's routines included to keep me laughing.
I will refrain from quoting any of those routines, but I can't help recounting one wonderful little detail I learned from Pollock's book. I have the "original cast album" of The Two and Only, so I knew that the classic "Slow Talkers of America" routine was the high point of the show and brought down the first act curtain. But I didn't know (it's not on the album) that when the curtain came up for the second act, Harlow P. Whitcomb, the Slow Talker, was still talking, although by that point Ray was asleep.
I learned a lot about two of my favorite performers. I had known that they were busy when the first came to New York from Boston, but their work schedule was mind-boggling, with early morning and late night radio and television slots. I didn't know that their very successful Broadway show, The Two and Only, came about only after years of urging by producer Joseph Levine; B & R were so uncomfortable with the idea that they accepted only after all other work had dried up. And I didn't know that, for the last twelve years of Ray Goulding's life, he suffered from kidney failure, and depended on exhausting dialysis treatments to stay alive.
The detailed account of the duo's various radio and television shows might be tedious to some readers, but fans will want to know these details. There were enough short excerpts from B & R's routines included to keep me laughing.
I will refrain from quoting any of those routines, but I can't help recounting one wonderful little detail I learned from Pollock's book. I have the "original cast album" of The Two and Only, so I knew that the classic "Slow Talkers of America" routine was the high point of the show and brought down the first act curtain. But I didn't know (it's not on the album) that when the curtain came up for the second act, Harlow P. Whitcomb, the Slow Talker, was still talking, although by that point Ray was asleep.
July 6, 2016
Considering the limitations David Pollock faced in writing this impressive biography of the highly influential comedy team of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, his book is a godsend for fans. Bob Elliott sat for interviews, while even if still alive, Ray would have been more reticent. Always introduced as "Bob and Ray," the comedians had a career that spanned five decades, ending only with Ray's passing in 1990. Radio was where they first met, and served as their home for decades, well past the "end" of radio with the advent of television. And while their best material appeared in the radio forum, they also had their own on again and off again television show in the 1950s. They appeared in several films, had a hit two-man Broadway show, enjoyed being illustrated in several of their radio routines for Mad Magazine, showed up on The Tonight Show repeatedly (Johnny Carson was a huge fan), along with guest shots on Late Night with David Letterman. They were skilled practitioners of the art of the humorous advertisement, and found radio again via NPR in the last decade of their work together. Bob and Ray were, in every sense of the word, a comedian's pair of comedians. Criminally unknown by the general American populace (I was reading the book at two different restaurants, and was asked several times what I was reading - when I told them, their faces were befuddled since they'd never heard of Bob or Ray (much less BobandRay). This show business biography comes with my highest recommendation for B&R aficionados, or those interested in the world of radio and how once a fan could enjoy hours of Bob and Ray daily. How lucky those listeners were!
September 15, 2014
A little clumsy in it's telling (events out of order), but I still enjoyed this chronicle of the careers of radio's great gentle satirists Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding. This covers about everything you can imagine about the two and their broadcast career plus a few film appearances and many television achievements. They even appeared for 5 months on Broadway in their own two man sketch show. THe duo was a great influence on major comedians of the time and later such as Bob Newhart, David Letterman, George Carin and writers of the original Saturday Night Live and Second City TV.
AS a kid, I heard these two on a local New York radio station at afternoon drive time (this was actually toward the end of their broadcast career) and would try to record their bits on tape to listen to over and over again. I have to say that Bob and Ray were the greatest influences on my love of gentle everyday observational humor and my love of eccentric character comedy. Their fantastically name characters and alliterative skills in writing were incredibly funny. They were so dry and so on point with their satire of radio shows, TV and the news. And to discover that a lot of this stuff was ad-libbed on air and that each worked with what the other threw at them is even more impressive to my mind.
I wish more people today knew about Bob and Ray and listened to their archival material and appreciated how humor can be so intelligent, witty and so so funny without the crutch of vulgarisms and mean spirited attacks. These guys were geniuses.
AS a kid, I heard these two on a local New York radio station at afternoon drive time (this was actually toward the end of their broadcast career) and would try to record their bits on tape to listen to over and over again. I have to say that Bob and Ray were the greatest influences on my love of gentle everyday observational humor and my love of eccentric character comedy. Their fantastically name characters and alliterative skills in writing were incredibly funny. They were so dry and so on point with their satire of radio shows, TV and the news. And to discover that a lot of this stuff was ad-libbed on air and that each worked with what the other threw at them is even more impressive to my mind.
I wish more people today knew about Bob and Ray and listened to their archival material and appreciated how humor can be so intelligent, witty and so so funny without the crutch of vulgarisms and mean spirited attacks. These guys were geniuses.
June 28, 2013
If you're a fan of Bob & Ray, or of comedy in general, you'll love this book. B&R were probably the least show-business of anyone in show business, just two normal guys who looked at the world in a slightly off-kilter fashion. This biography follows the boys from the beginning of their careers to today. (Ray passed away in 1990; Bob just celebrated his 90th birthday.) It's a fascinating journey, with lots of their best bits sprinkled throughout and many, many comments and complements from others in the world of comedy. It doesn't get any better than Bob & Ray, and this book explains why. Recommended.
March 22, 2013
David Pollock's story of these seminal comedians is fascinating. I haven't laughed so much in a long time. Pollock makes sure to sprinkle reminders of the comedy routines and pranks the two comedians pulled off.
If you remember Bob and Ray, you will find this investigation of them and the long list of other performers they inspired a worthy read.
Read more at Book Keeping
If you remember Bob and Ray, you will find this investigation of them and the long list of other performers they inspired a worthy read.
Read more at Book Keeping
May 26, 2015
Excellent biography of one of the great comedy teams! Well-written, well-researched ... with plenty of anecdotes and background on Bob and Ray's multifaceted career. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes radio, classic comedy, or, of course, Bob and Ray!
July 31, 2025
I very much enjoy reading about the earlier days of radio and TV. Bob and Ray were involved with many more shows and ideas (Mad Magazine--who knew?) than I realized and worked with more of the great actors and writers than I knew. A very enjoyable read, although there were times the line between the characters they created and actual people was not always clear simply because some names were unfamiliar. But all in all, a very good read.
March 30, 2022
Interesting if you're already a fan, but their lives were (no way to put this gently) boring. Lots of info I didn't know about their writer Tom Koch, though. And there's a photo of them hanging out with fellow WOR personality Jean Shepherd in which you can almost hear them praying, "Won't this guy *ever* shut up?"
August 14, 2023
If you have listened to a Bob and Ray comedy sketch or seen them on TV in the past then you will enjoy this book. It gives some great insight into the lives of the comedy genius of Bob and Ray.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews