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Red Buttons: Broadway
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In 1942, Red Buttons did "Vicki" on Broadway with Jose Ferrer and Uta Hagen. Also, in 1942, Red appeared in "Wine, Woman and Song" for Minsky. This was the last burlesque show in New York City since the La Guardia administration was determined to close it. Red was on stage when the place was raided. In 1943, Buttons, now in the Army Air Corp., was chosen for a role in Moss Hart's "Winged Victory." First he did the Broadway show, and then the motion picture for Darryl Zanuck with George Cukor directing.
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Later that same summer, Buttons worked on the Borscht Belt;[1] his straight man was Robert Alda. In 1939, Buttons started working for Minsky's Burlesque; in 1941, José Ferrer chose Buttons to appear in a Broadway show The Admiral Had a Wife. The show was a farce set in Pearl Harbor, and it was due to open on December 8, 1941. It never did, as it was deemed inappropriate after the Japanese attack. In later years Buttons would joke that the Japanese only attacked Pearl Harbor to keep him off of Broadway.
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When "Winged Victory" disbanded, Red joined Mickey Rooney's outfit in France, and together with Mickey, entertained the troops all through the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Red had the honor to perform at the Potsdam Conference and was among the first troops to enter Berlin. After the service, Red did two more Broadway shows – George Abbott's "Barefoot Boy with Cheek" with Nancy Walker, and Michael Kidd's "Hold It."
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Buttons first appeared on Broadway playing a supporting role in {+Vickie} (1942). Buttons appeared in the play {+Winged Victory} a short while later, and he reprised his role in the 1944 screen version. In 1952, the red-haired comedian starred in the CBS television series The Red Buttons Show.
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After the war, Buttons continued to do Broadway shows. He ... performed at Broadway movie houses with the Big Bands. In 1952, Buttons received his own variety series on television - The Red Buttons Show ran for three years, and achieved high levels of success. His catch phrase from the show, "strange things are happening," entered the national vocabulary briefly in the mid-1950s.
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Buttons continued on the Borsht Belt's Atlantic City and Las Vegas successor venues. In 1995 he celebrated 60 show business years with Buttons on Broadway. The older he got, the more loyal were his public. "Ninety isn't old," he declared. "You're old when your doctor doesn't X-ray you any more - he just holds you up to the light."
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