Biography
Dry, incisive, and remarkably forward-looking, the comedy partnership of Bob & Ray earned well-deserved entry into the radio wing of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, though their five-decade career extended across additional formats. Bob Elliot, born in 1923 and the father of comedian Chris Elliot, joined forces with Ray Goulding (1922–1990) after the pair first crossed paths during the 1940s at Boston’s WHDH-AM. Each maintained an individual program until rainouts of Boston Red Sox games prompted station management to pair them for fill-in segments; a permanent slot followed in 1946. Over the ensuing forty years the duo carried their satirical sketches to NBC, CBS, national syndication, and ultimately National Public Radio, concluding the broadcast run in 1987. In 1958 Elliot and Goulding hosted the RCA various-artists anthology Bob & Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular; two years later the label issued their first comedy LP, Bob & Ray on a Platter. Columbia documented a year-long Broadway engagement with the 1970 live album The Two and Only, while a second Broadway engagement in the early 1980s was captured on the 1985 release A Night of Two Stars. Numerous original radio programs have since appeared on disc, cassette, or digital download.