Bob Burns (humorist)

He was born Robin Burn in Greenwood, Arkansas. When he was three years old, his family moved to Van Buren, Arkansas. As a boy, Burns played trombone and cornet in the town's "Queen City Silver Cornet Band". At 13, he formed his own string band. Practicing in the back of Hayman's Plumbing Shop one night, he picked up a length of gas pipe and blew into it, creating an unusual sound. With modifications, this became a musical instrument he named a "bazooka" (after "bazoo", meaning a windy fellow, from the Dutch bazuin for "trumpet"). A photograph shows him playing his invention in the Silver Cornet Band. Burns made another "bazooka" from stove pipes and a whiskey funnel, which he sometimes played with the Corps band. In September 1919, he and his "Marine Corps Melody Six" jazz band, with Burn playing his bazooka, were attached to the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in Manhattan. ==The Arkansas Traveler==

After the war, Burns returned to the stage, often playing the bazooka as part of his act. He used it as a prop when telling hillbilly stories and jokes. Burns became known as "The Arkansas Traveler" and "The Arkansas Philosopher". His stage persona was a self-effacing, rustic bumpkin with amusing stories about "the kinfolks" back home in Van Buren. His character was patterned after Sandford C. Faulkner (1803–1874), composer of the popular fiddle tune, "The Arkansas Traveler". A caricature of Burns on the cover of the book The Arkansas Traveler appears in the Looney Tunes cartoon "Book Revue" (1945). Two other Warner Bros. cartoons of the 1930s, 1937's "Speaking of the Weather" and 1938's "The Major Lied 'Till Dawn," both directed by Frank Tashlin, refer to Burns; in the first cartoon, Burns is depicted playing the bazooka and then referring to Uncle Fud, and in the second cartoon, a map of Van Buren, Arkansas is seen. ==Radio career==

In 1930, Burns auditioned for a major Los Angeles radio station. He had prepared a 10-minute performance, but was asked to do 30 minutes, which he filled out with improvised stories and bazooka tunes. The managers did not care for his prepared material, but were impressed by his improvised material. Burns was hired. He appeared on an afternoon show, "The Fun Factory", as a character called "Soda Pop". In 1941, Burns was given his own radio show, called The Arkansas Traveler (1941–1943) and The Bob Burns Show (1943–1947). ==Newspaper column==

From 1936 to 1940, Burns wrote a newspaper column, "Well, I'll Tell You," a column filler with brief homespun anecdotes. The daily feature was syndicated to 240 newspapers. ==Film career==

In 1930, Burns appeared briefly in the film Up the River playing the bazooka in blackface for a prison vaudeville show. Over the next five years, he appeared in 10 movies, either uncredited or in a minor role, usually playing the bazooka. After his national radio breakthrough in 1935–1936, Burns moved up to feature roles as a contract player with Paramount Pictures. In Rhythm on the Range (1936) he was second lead with Crosby. In 1941, Burns broke with Paramount, rather than appear in a proposed film which he thought was excessively demeaning to "the people of his native hills". ==Personal life==

In 1921, Burns married Elizabeth Anna Fisher. They had one child, Robert Jr., who was married to actress Naomi Stevens and who died in 2012. Elizabeth died in 1936. Burns then married his long-time secretary Harriet M. Foster in May 1939. They had three children, Barbara, William, and Stephen, and remained married until his death. A wealthy man from his land investments, Burns spent his final years on his model farm on Sherman Way in Canoga Park, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. He died from kidney cancer in nearby Encino on February 2, 1956, at the age of 65. ==Filmography==