Bob and Ray

My strongest childhood memory was coming home from school and climbing the stairs to my mother's studio located above the garage. I can recall the insanely steep stairs painted oxblood red and the smell of paper oil paints and turpentine. She always had Bob and Ray playing on the radio next to her drafting table, under the skylight. My mom told me she even designed Bob and Ray's desk when she got out of Cooper Union and worked as art director at Y&R advertising. She also worked with "the penguin" Burgess Meredith. All of these memories came flooding back as I read the news of Bob Elliot's death.

A few years ago when we were performing with the Small Town Concert series in Chester Connecticut we met a lovely gal who was the granddaughter to Bob Elliot.

Recalling Bob and Ray, Who Paved the Way for Today’s Deadpan Humor

By JASON ZINOMAN FEB. 3, 2016 New York Times

At the opening of a show in his first year as a late-night host, David Letterman told his audience about a quick way to find out if someone has a good sense of humor: “If they like Bob and Ray, they’re O.K.”

The comedy team of Bob Elliott, who died on Tuesday at age 92, and Ray Goulding, who died in 1990, were an ideal litmus test because their humor was so ingeniously subtle and low-key that less discerning listeners could easily miss the joke. Together for more than 40 years (1946 to 1987), their slow-burn silliness drew explosive laughs not through jackhammer punch lines, but with long pauses, unorthodox word choices and a total commitment to characters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/arts/television/bob-elliott-of-bob-and-ray-comedy-fame-dies-at-92.html