[78-L] Betty and Bob

[Malcolm Rockwell]

I believe I've seen a Bob Stevens (Bob Stephens?) on a -D series 
Columbia. Nope, I just looked. But I do have a photo of Stevens in an 
orchestra leader's outfit posing with the Mills Brothers. If I can 
locate it I'll scan it and put it up somewhere.
In any case I'm wondering if this is the same Bob Stevens that worked at 
OKeh with my father in the 20s. He went on to be an indy producer for a 
number of labels and remained one of my father's best friends throughout 
his life. Due to laryngeal cancer in the late 40s/early 50s he had his 
voice-box removed and was one of the first to use "The Buzzer" invented 
by Western Electric to allow the voiceless to speak. As a kid I could 
understand him with or without the artificial voice-box.
Malcolm

*******

On 1/5/2013 6:02 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> Lawdy, lawdy, I've just discovered the worst big band vocalists ever. Vido
> Musso and his Orchestra, on a Keystone transcription (the cutting looks like
> MacGregor), with BOB STEVENS, who makes Will Oakland sound like Paul Robeson,
> and BETTY VAN, who can't pronounce the letter "r" or any other consonants or
> vowels and is adenoidal to boot. Anybody ever heard of these characters in any
> other context? Did Vido get a record date and just grab two people off the
> street? The songs are pretty awful too (and sound sight-read).
>
> dl
>
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