Photograph of Red Buttons wearing a winter hat in the center with white text and stars surrounding on red background.
Union bug
EMPRESS SPEC CO. 22 JONES ST., N.Y. 14
Red Buttons was born as Aaron Chwatt in New York in 1919. He got a job as an entertaining bellhop at a Bronx tavern at age 16. There, the orchestra leader started calling him “Red Buttons” due to his red hair and the bellhop uniform. A stage name was created. Buttons had a movie career from 1944-2005 including The Poseidon Adventure. He had his own TV variety show from 1952-1955. In 1953, he recorded a hit record, “Strange Things are Happening/The Ho-Ho Song.”
This artifact misquotes the “The Ho-Ho Song” refrain as actual lyrics list, “Ho-Ho, He-He, Hoo-Hoo.”
1953 HITS ARCHIVE: The Ho Ho Song - Red Buttons. YouTube. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKlA1TIYsPw.
Red Buttons. En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Buttons.