Younger visitors on this blogsite will not likely recognize the name Bill Saluga, or even that of his character Raymond J. Johnson, but older individuals could hardly have forgotten his one famous comedy routine, which began with "Oh......you can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay" and ended, "but you doesn't have to call me Mr. Johnson."
Anyone who never saw Saluga do this simple act cannot possibly imagine how funny it was, even after one had seen him do it a number of times.
Saluga made slight modifications to this routine, which featured Saluga sporting an unsavory mustache, a zoot suit, a wide-brimmed black hat, a too-wide necktie and a giant, floppy pocket hanky. Usually he held a cigar, and thus adorned, he would lean back and let fly with his familiar, "Oh......you can call me Ray," etc.
It was, and is, hard to explain why so simple a comedy act could possibly be so funny, but funny it was.
Saluga, a native of Ohio, had been a founding member of the comedy group Ace Trucking Company. He had done some TV commercial work prior to introducing his Johnson character on "The David Steinberg Show" in 1972.
He appeared on quite a number of other programs, such as "Redd Fox," "Murphy Brown," "Seinfeld," Designing Women" and "Home Improvement."
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