[78-L] Betty and Bob

[Malcolm Rockwell]

Early 40s in LA? It's possible. I remember him first in LA and later in 
NYC.
Memory is kind of small, though, as I was born in '46. I don't remember 
him having a voice.
Malcolm

*******

On 1/6/2013 7:09 AM, David Lennick wrote:
> Can't date this side for certain, but maybe 1940 or 1941..would he have been in
> LA at that time? Who has the Garrod Keystone discography? The original is D&S-T
> #35, contents as follows:
>
> VIDO MUSSO & HIS ORCHESTRA (mx DS-T #35 A-B-D-C)
> SO WHAT (Bob Stevens, vocal) 2:48
> YOU COULD TELL ME IT'S TRUE (Betty Van, vocal) 2:42
> I STOLE THE INSPIRATION FROM YOU (Bob Stevens, vocal) 2:39
> JIG-A-JIVE (Instrumental) 2:22
>
> On the first cut he sounds like Morton Downey. Better on the other track, so it
> could just have been an arrangement that was way too high for him. The band
> sounds as if it had never seen these charts before (and nobody ever saw them
> again, they're all awful songs, presumably non-ASCAP filler).
>
> dl
>
> On 1/6/2013 11:41 AM, Malcolm Rockwell wrote:
>> 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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