Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Bob Elliott (1923–2016)

Bob Elliott: as in Bob and Ray. I somehow caught on while still in high school, when Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were doing an afternoon show on New York’s WOR. I remember my Spanish teacher telling me that they had mentioned my name on the air. I must have written to them, and my teacher must have listened while driving home. When I began my life as a college commuter, listening to Bob and Ray turned the late-afternoon crawl to the George Washington Bridge into a pleasure of sorts. Yes, I may have been stuck in traffic. But I was stuck in traffic while listening to Bob and Ray.

There are some scattered references to Bob and Ray in these pages. The one that a fan will appreciate is this one, with a letter from the Bob and Ray character Mary Backstayge. That such gentle lunacy flourished on the airwaves is a wonder.

The New York Times has an obituary.

comments: 2

Elaine said...

The Bridge over the Atlantic Ocean..... we had two sets of cassette tapes, and the whole family loved them.
And now Bob has joined Ray on the far side of that Other Bridge....

Michael Leddy said...

That makes me think of the House of Toast. Buttered on the far side, or the near side? They really were The Two and Only.