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Because for a long time the emphasis was on the
fact that Chet Lauck and Tuffy Goff provided the
voices for most of the regular characters on the
L&A radio programs, many people never realized
that there were a number of talented radio
performers who appeared on the show in
supporting roles over the years. One of these
actors was Elmore Vincent, who played the part of
“Phinus Stonewall Peabody,” Abner’s papa,
veteran of the Confederate army.
Elmore came from an authentic rural
background, born on a cotton farm in Texas on
June 10, 1908. His family soon migrated to Tacoma,
Washington, where our hero eventually began
working in a sawmill. He recalls that his aspiration
was to be a radio singer, so nine times he took off
from his job to journey to Seattle and audition at
the two radio stations that used live talent. On the
ninth try, he was accepted by station KJR; the year
was 1929, and his salary was the whopping sum of
fact that Chet Lauck and Tuffy Goff provided the
voices for most of the regular characters on the
L&A radio programs, many people never realized
that there were a number of talented radio
performers who appeared on the show in
supporting roles over the years. One of these
actors was Elmore Vincent, who played the part of
“Phinus Stonewall Peabody,” Abner’s papa,
veteran of the Confederate army.
Elmore came from an authentic rural
background, born on a cotton farm in Texas on
June 10, 1908. His family soon migrated to Tacoma,
Washington, where our hero eventually began
working in a sawmill. He recalls that his aspiration
was to be a radio singer, so nine times he took off
from his job to journey to Seattle and audition at
the two radio stations that used live talent. On the
ninth try, he was accepted by station KJR; the year
was 1929, and his salary was the whopping sum of
 |
| The following article was published in The Jot 'Em Down Journal Volume 5, Number 1, October 1988. |
$32.50 per week. Around this time, the Great
Depression hit hard, and Mr. Vincent Sr. lost his
job in the sawmill, so Elmore found himself in the
odd position of having to support his own parents
with the proceeds from his budding radio career.
KJR’s big production was a daily, 90-minute
variety show called Mardi Gras, and just to give
himself something to do besides singing popular
songs on the program (in a light, Irish-tenor-like
singing voice), Elmore dragged out some crazy
speeches he had developed while in school, and
program director Ivan Ditmars christened the new
character “Senator Fishface.” In 1934, when NBC
bought the Seattle station, they made Elmore an
offer to move to San Francisco, where the Blue
Network was starting a variety program of its own,
Carefree Carnival, and they invited Elmore to
continue his routines as Fishface on the network –
for $40 a week.
Depression hit hard, and Mr. Vincent Sr. lost his
job in the sawmill, so Elmore found himself in the
odd position of having to support his own parents
with the proceeds from his budding radio career.
KJR’s big production was a daily, 90-minute
variety show called Mardi Gras, and just to give
himself something to do besides singing popular
songs on the program (in a light, Irish-tenor-like
singing voice), Elmore dragged out some crazy
speeches he had developed while in school, and
program director Ivan Ditmars christened the new
character “Senator Fishface.” In 1934, when NBC
bought the Seattle station, they made Elmore an
offer to move to San Francisco, where the Blue
Network was starting a variety program of its own,
Carefree Carnival, and they invited Elmore to
continue his routines as Fishface on the network –
for $40 a week.
