Bob Dyer

Robert Neal "Bob" Dies OBE (22 May 1909 – 9 January 1984), who took the stage name of Bob Dyer, was a Gold Logie-award winning American-born vaudeville entertainer and singer, radio and television personality, and radio and television quiz show host who made his name in Australia. Dyer is best known for the long-running radio and then television quiz show, Pick a Box. At the height of his radio career, Dyer and his friend and rival, Jack Davey, were regarded as Australia's top quiz comperes.

Bob and his wife, Dolly, were probably, after Sir Robert and Dame Pattie Menzies, the most recognised double act in Australia in the 1960s. Bob and Dolly's main interest besides performing was big-game fishing and, between them, they broke some 200 world and Australian fishing records.

Bob Dies was born in Trousdale County, Tennessee, to Heywood leahman Dies, a sharefarmer and his wife Delia (née Bell) . 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. What 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".

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