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Reviewer: potwasher - - May 9, 2009
Subject: Simple is better
I have been given almost every "Bob and Ray" tape/ cd recording in existence by somebody. It has gotten so bad that I just have to read the title of the skit on the jacket and I start to laugh. The absurd sound effects, lousy voice disguises, and rediculous situations are beyond compare. I am a rejuvinated 50 year fan. NPR recently featured a rifle drill team on the radio and I almost drove off the road laughing, remembering Bob and Ray doing the military drills in a radio competition. I don't think NPR saw the humor in having a drill team on the radio on ten Garrison Keilor show from Chicago!

Reviewer: Pitt Cairn - - April 30, 2009
Subject: Bob and Ray
Dear Mert 401 -

Just a clarification - in the copies I have it was Word Carr who announced Mary Backstage.

By the way - how's every little thing, Mert?

Pitt Cairn

Reviewer: mert401 - - February 10, 2009
Subject: Bob and Ray radio
I was a Bostonian when Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were radio announcers. In the mid '40s, Boston had two MLB teams, Red Sox and Braves. There was an afternoon baseball game broadcast almost every day. Before the games, they began a show called "Baseball Matinee". Later, the name was changed to "Matinee with Bob and Ray".

They created a character known as Mary Margaret McGoon, whose specialty was a ginger ale salad - "you just stick in your hand and swish it around!'

And Wally Ballou used to announce Mary Backstage:

"Now, for the many fans who wait for her on the radio, we present once again the story of Mary Backstage, Noble Wife.......the story of a young girl from a little mining town out west who comes to New York to try to find romance and security as the wife of handsome Harry Backstage, Broadway star....and what it means to be the wife of the dream sweetheart of a million other women."

When Pop Beloved, stage door man, would ask the whereabouts of Harry, Mary would always say he was studying his lines. All he ever seemed to say on stage was "Tennis, anyone?"(those were the lines he was constantly studying). He would always enter Stage Left, of course.

Then there was the "Hawaiian Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Man", who became luau inspector, and would issue citations when dishes like apple pie came on the menu ("apple pie has no place at a luau").

Reviewer: Gary Lee-Nova - - December 8, 2008
Subject: Bob And Ray Radio Shows
I discovered Bob and Ray on the Radio in the late 1940s - early 1950s.

At that time I was about six or seven years old. At the time, they seemed weird, but also kind of wonderful, in relation to most of the other Radio I was hearing - Ma Perkins, The Guiding LIght and other drivel.

I now regard Bob and Ray as the Braque and Picasso of Radio Arts, and the funniest guys I ever heard on the Radio. Thank you for the Archive. I buy what I can afford from L. Josephson over there at the Radio Foundation, but donations are always gratefully accepted.

More, more, more, please! I could never get enough.

Reviewer: XMinusOne - - November 18, 2008
Subject: Bob and Ray aren't Hudson and Landry; Hudson and Landry might be Bob and Ray
Reviewer: stumper - - November 18, 2008
Bob and Ray preceded the great Hudson and Landry by a lot of year, and by a lot of humor. Hudson and Landry were an excellent team and made some wonder recordings (listen to Ajax Airlines, for example) but copied much of their radio skits from earlier Bob and Ray routines, just as Lohman and Barkley, Rayburn and Finch (and Claven and Finch), Harden and Weaver, probably Willard Scott and Ed Walker (The Joy Boys), and many other did.

Harden and Weaver, in their excellent but long out of print autobiography, give credit to Bob and Ray for what they "borrowed".

When you consider how long their shows were on, and how much material they went through, it's hard to think of anyone other than Jean Shepherd that might have been as prolific.

Reviewer: stumper - - November 18, 2008
Subject: Great Stuff...!_!_!_!_!
Bob and Ray remind me alot of Hudson and Landry. Anyone out there remember them? I'm only 50 years old, but have had a love affaire with OTR for years. I really enjoy stuff like this. Slightly twisted and very funny, without being dirty. I first heard them on an Internet Radio Station that's on Windows Media Player. It took me just a little bit to figure out they were not part of Dragnet. Thank you for having shows like these.

Reviewer: nightkey5 - - February 23, 2008
Subject: Misdated shows
491221 is actually 491208

491222 is actually 491216

600305_-_Kiddies_Book_Author is actually 600304

600311_-_Clarinet_Comic is actually 600310

Reviewer: TedW - - September 18, 2007
Subject: Bob Elliott still ALIVE
Just wanted to be sure that people know that Bob Elliott is still alive and well. I grew up in N.Y. and it's great to hear them again.

Reviewer: OTRFANMANFRYINGPAN - - September 2, 2007
Subject: Thank you so much.
Wow. I can't thank you enough. If either of them were still alive, there's no way I'd be downloading this, but since they're both gone and the disc sets are so expensive, I'm just gonna say thanks a lot and enjoy 'em.

Reviewer: DonnieDanger - - April 22, 2007
Subject: God Bless Bert Szoghy
Thank you!

Reviewer: papernoose - - March 1, 2007
Subject: wow..an honour
thank you so much for sharing. almost daily i wish i could hear their show again, this is something i will treasure always. thank you.

Reviewer: Naked-Gord-Program - - December 24, 2006
Subject: Great stuff!
Seeing this item prompted me to add a 1950's commercial featuring an caroon bob and ray right here: http://www.archive.org/details/Bob_Ray_Beer

Reviewer: lancelotlmg - - September 7, 2006
Subject: The Two and Only!
What a great benefactor of mankind is Mr. Bert Szoghy for depositing this treasure here! The only other place you can get so much Bob and Ray is off an expensive website, with a collection very inferior to this. Granted, some of the recordings duplicate and most need cleaning, but if you know Bob and Ray, it is well worth the work. If you don't know them, get ready for a paradigm shift of fun. Again, thank you Mr. Szoghy!

Reviewer: VenBede - - September 1, 2006
Subject: Great Stuff
Although the quality is sometimes spotty, this is great stuff. The subtle humor, the outright buffoonery, and the less then reputable characters portrayed are exquisite.

Reviewer: tomwsmf - - August 25, 2006
Subject: Laughs Inside and Out
Listening to these shows opens a whole new look on OTR . Much of what Bob and Ray do is send up the radio shows of its time as well as adding the greatest understated social humor of any time.

Its fun to figure out what shows or parts of shows they are skewering and then go find those shows, if you are not familar with them already, and see how sharp the knife went.

Aside from the OTR tangent these shows are just plain great comedy. Not always a laugh out loud sort of comedy, often you will find yourself laughing in the depths of your brain...mine makes a nice echo.