Bob Dyer - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Bob Dies was born in Trousdale County, Tennessee, to a sharefarmer father. In an interview much later in his life with Barry Jones, Dyer spoke of his childhood:

Back in Hartsville County my elder brother, a Negro boy and I all grew up together. We walked to school every day and walked back home together, but at the crossroads the Negro boy walked one way to the all-black school while my brother and I went to the all-white school. Where was the point of separation during school hours when we were brothers for the rest of the day? Our black friend later got into trouble and died tragically. I often wonder what would have happened if our colours had been reversed. That is why I have always hated racial or religious intolerance.

Dyer left school at 12 and worked as "a dish-washer, cab driver, ice man, carpenter, milk-bar attendant and railway freight hand" before taking up theatre work involving touring the United States vaudeville circuits. He first came to Australia in 1936, touring with Jim Davidson's ABC Dance Band. He returned to Sydney in 1937 as a member of the Marcus Show, doing a hillbilly and ukulele act on the Tivoli circuit, combining comedy with singing. Australian radio personality, Harry Griffiths, was a child at the time but met Dyer through his musician father who played first trombone for the Marcus shows. He says that "If Bob didn't steal the show, he came darned near it, and he was a big hit. He was a good actor, musical and full of life. He knew how to do gags, grace possible way, touring with travelling shows and doing five shows a day in the US".

Dyer then travelled to England, where he appeared on television in its early era, before returning to Australia in 1940, using the billing "the last of the hillbillies". He created, at the request of radio station 3DB, 26 episodes of a radio program titled The Last of the Hill Billies. In 1940, when performing at Sydney's Tivoli Theatre, he met Dolly Mack (stage name for Thelma Phoebe McLean, born 1920), who was a Tivoli chorus girl. He proposed nine days after their meeting, and nine days after that they were married at St John's Church, Darlinghurst. The reception was held between shows on the last day of the The Crazy Show. The next day the show went to Brisbane and they spent their honeymoon in Surfers Paradise in a borrowed car.

Bob and Dolly entertained Australian and American troops during World War II, performing in war zones in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.