The Museum of TV and Radio over in Beverly Hills honors various folks for various reasons of achievement and excellence. Wednesday evening, they saluted Red Buttons for more than a half-century of fine comedy. Actually, on that basis, they could have honored about half the folks in the first two rows of the auditorium. Among the many joys of the evening was watching Mr. Buttons (still sharp at age 84) not only entertain the crowd but also his friends and co-workers like screenwriter Larry Gelbart and fellow comedy legend Sid Caesar who were in the house. Gelbart, who was an especially good audience, was the head writer on Red's 1952 TV series, which was a short-lived smash.
A big hit at first, it went off in '55 and Red Buttons, having worked his way up from Catskills hotels and the last burlesque house in Manhattan, found himself unable to get any kind of job. It was the low point of his career — lower even, he said, than when the show in which he was to make his Broadway debut was aborted the day before it was to open. (The comedy, which was set in Pearl Harbor, was supposed to begin performances December 8, 1941. You can figure out the rest.) In '56, it seemed like his career was over but an agent named Marty Baum — who was also present for the tribute last night — took a personal interest. He waged a relentless campaign to get Josh Logan, who didn't want to know from Red Buttons, to cast the comedian in a showy role in the 1957 Marlon Brando movie, Sayonara. Baum's crusade got him the job which in turn got him an Academy Award…which in turn revived his fortunes.
Since then, he's appeared in an odd array of dramatic roles and comedy jobs, the latter often at roasts and benefits. I've seen him a half-dozen times at local events, usually doing either his "didn't get a dinner" routine or some variation, and I've never seen him not get the whole room to laughing. Each time, the happiest one in the room was Mr. Buttons. Several times during the interview last evening, he said he considered himself "one of the luckiest people in the world" and spoke of how he does what he does because he loves it so. There are performers who are motivated by money and others who have some desperate need for recognition to prove they belong on the planet. But there are also some who just really, really enjoy seeing an audience enjoy itself. Last night, we all had a good time — but Red Buttons had the best time of all.