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About this star

  • Category: Radio
  • Star rank: 2291
  • Address:
    6202 Hollywood Blvd
  • Position: 3 tiles from the curb, facing east
  • GPS location:
    34.101523, -118.324394

Tommy Riggs & Betty Lou

Next star: Gower Champion
Previous star: Rudolph Valentino

Biography

NBC’s 30th anniversary show brought together (l to r) Bob Burns, Tommy Riggs, Charlie McCarthy, Edgar Bergen, Rudy Vallée and Joe Penner.

Source: Freebase

Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou was an unusual radio situation comedy broadcast in various timeslots from 1938 to 1946. Tommy Riggs switched back and forth from his natural baritone to the voice of a seven-year-old girl, Betty Lou. These dialogues found a shape in later episodes when the character of Betty Lou Barrie was established as Riggs’ niece. In his hometown of Pittsburgh, where Riggs ran a poultry business, he was a pianist-vocalist on WCAE in 1931. When station manager J.L. Coffin heard Riggs’ little girl voice, he put The Tom and Betty Program on WCAE’s schedule, and Riggs later moved on to KDKA (Pittsburgh), WTAM (Cleveland) and, in 1937, WLW (Cincinnati), where Harry Frankel (aka Singin’ Sam) called a New York agent. An audition in New York led to a transcribed series for Chevrolet, and after Rudy Vallée heard the Chevrolet show, Riggs’ agent told him he had two days to get ready for an appearance on Vallée’s Royal Gelatin Hour. Vallée signed him for a 13-week contract.

Fact file

  • Birth: 21 October 1908, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Died: 21 May 1967 (Aged 58)
  • Occupation: Radio Actor

Read more about Tommy Riggs & Betty Lou at Wikipedia or at the Internet Movie Database

Hollywood Blvd, south side, between Argyle and El Centro

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Nearby you will also find Rudolph Valentino, Gower Champion, and many others.