Martha Raye

For those of you too young to remember, Martha Raye was a singer who morphed into a comedic actress starting back in the 1930’s.  As a child, I remember seeing her on television, usually performing some slapstick routine that cracked everyone up.

One particularly funny bit was during the Academy Awards presentation years ago, when she was a “presenter.”  She was supposed to walk across the stage dressed very regally in a gown.  Instead, she took several steps and then appeared to “trip” on something left onstage.  That phony stumble broke the solemnity of the occasion and had the audience in stitches.

I got to know Maggie (as her friends knew her) when I worked in Summer Stock.

We spent several weeks together on different shows in different summers.  She also contacted me when I was serving in Vietnam and she was touring to entertain the troops.  (The full story is in my book "SWING.")

I found out after she passed away that she and my birth father, Louis Prima, had an affair back in the 1930’s.   Maggie and I had such an affinity and shared so much in common that I have often wondered if she somehow “sensed” my connection to my birth father.

This video is from a REHEARSAL of "The Red Skelton Show" in 1963.