Soupy Sales was a comedian (who I don't think was very funny) that had a kids show in the '60s with puppets. Then he became a regular panel member in the '60s and '70s versions of "What's My Line?". Most of his jokes on his kids show had to do with cream pies. The bird thing sounds like a joke he would do.

I wish to thank Brunnen-G for correcting everybody about Red Skelton's name before I did. Red Skelton was in Vaudeville, had a radio show AND a TV Show. My dad used to watch it when he was a kid. Red Skelton also made a lot of movies in the '40s (some of them were pretty funny, but I remember one or two that were dull). Most of them co-starred Esther Williams or Lucille Ball.

An example of a joke in one of his movies, where he had a dream sequence where Rags Ragland (another now-unknown but funny comedian) was his son:
RED SKELTON: If you're my son, how old are you?
RAGS RAGLAND: 45.
RED SKELTON: But I'm only 32!
Or something like that.

Red Skelton's TV show usually featured a spot where he would pretend to do something (like eat or change a tire) without any props, just in mime (and hilarious sound effects). He was pretty good. He guest-starred on "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" (a spin-off of "I Love Lucy") where he and Lucy did a scene like that.

I once saw a cartoon where a lot of skeletons came out of a closet in a horror spoof, and the last one was all red. "I'm Red Skeleton" he said.

Qua "likes to show off her knowledge of old-time comedians" rtz
~~*Q*~~