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Lonzo and Oscar
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Still Going Strong!
The comedy team of Lonzo and Oscar began as an idea of country music legend, Eddy Arnold, who by the mid-forties was one of the biggest stars in the country. In 1944, Kentucky native Rollin Sullivan was already being called “Oscar” by his fellow band members, Arnold’s Tennessee Plowboys, having come to the band from Paul Howard’s Arkansas Cotton Pickers. Eddy wanted a comedy team to open his show and asked Oscar and Lloyd George, then the bass player in the band, to work up the act. In 1945, the act was formed and called “Cicero and Oscar.” Shortly thereafter, the band was registering at a hotel when a porter came across the lobby with a load of linens. A maid leading the way called to him, “Come on Lonzo.” The name immediately struck a chord with Eddy, who said to Lloyd, “From now on, your name will be Lonzo!” For the next two years, they opened Eddy’s tent shows and venue performances across the nation, gaining a great following of their own. Their 1947 recording of “I’m My Own Grandpa” became such a big hit that, by the end of 1948, they struck out on their own, having secured regular membership on the Grand Ole Opry, where they remained until their resignation in 1987. Lloyd George left the act in 1950 to begin a solo career under the name Ken Marvin. Oscar’s brother, Johnny, who was a member of the Plowboys band, became the second Lonzo and remained in that position until his death in June 1967. Oscar chose Dave Hooten as the third Lonzo and he remained until they left the Opry. The fourth Lonzo, Mike Johnson, stayed for a short time and was replaced by Cleo Hogan. The act played locally in southern Kentucky, where Oscar had purchased a campground property. When Cleo passed away in 1998, Oscar enlisted the help of Billy Henson as the sixth Lonzo.
Billy Henson had been associated with the act from the early to mid sixties. He was a songwriter for the Lonzo and Oscar Music Publishing organization and, as a recording artist, had released five singles and one album on their Nugget Records label. He traveled with Lonzo and Oscar as their lead guitar player and front man throughout the United States and two tours of Germany. He later left to tour as a featured act with the Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart Show for six months. Henson formed his own band and played the military club circuit and worked “package shows” with artists including Red Foley, Martha Carson, Cousin Jody, Sheb Wooley, Stonewall Jackson and Smiley and Kitty Wilson. He also worked as a single act for six months in California. After Hogan’s death, Oscar asked Henson to help with the next edition of the Lonzo and Oscar act. The duo worked festivals as far as Texas and as far north as Michigan, while delighting fans at the Country Music Association’s annual Fan Fair in Nashville.
In 1999, due to business obligations at the campground and health concerns, Oscar decided to sell the entire Lonzo and Oscar organization to Billy Henson. Along with his wife, Patsy, Henson had previously acquired the Lonzo and Oscar Music Publishing organization, now known as Lair Music Publishing. In addition, they acquired the Nugget Records, Clark Records, and Vine Street Records labels. Henson began a search for a new comedy team member and finally decided on Ron Ryan, a Murfreesboro, Tennessee musician. With Ron as the seventh Lonzo and Billy as the second Oscar, the team began performing as the latest edition of Lonzo and Oscar. Henson is amazed and encouraged by the fact that, even though the faces have changed over the years, the act is still well remembered and accepted wherever they perform; “We get encores and standing ovations at our shows, and the people still love us and our brand of clean , old-time country comedy.”
And so, after all these years, Lonzo and Oscar are still going strong well into the twenty-first century, possibly making it,
The oldest continually performing country comedy act in the world!!
Bookings & Promotion,
Wildwood Entertainment, Inc.
P. O. Box 2607
Murfreesboro, TN 37133-2607
Phone - FAX: 615 890-8992
Email:
wildwoodinc@bellsouth.net
lonzoandoscar@bellsouth.net
Billyhensonmusic@bellsouth.net
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| Official Website goes Live! |
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 The Official Website for Lonzo and Oscar goes LIVE!
This is the one and only place in the entire World Wide Web. That you will be able to find complete information on and about the Lonzo and Oscar country comedy act. Here you will find our schedule for performances, Special Announcements, the history of the act, and much more. New content will be added daily till there’s no more to add.
So register and enjoy.
This wonderful website was designed, built, hosted, maintained and administered by SWAMPBOTTOM at WWW.BLUEGRASSWEB.NET . If you have a BlueGrass or Classic Country music band, event, or festival. And would like to have a real community website designed, built, hosted, maintained and administered for free. Contact him at SwampBottom@BluegrassWeb.net or go visit his site for more information.
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What happening this Year
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Sirius Satellite Radio
SwampBottom highly recommends that you check out getting yourself a Sirius Satellite Radio.
Its great being able to travel around this great country of ours while listing to commercial free music.
And not having to worry about finding another station thats worth listening to when the signal fades.
With the portable receivers you can listen in your car, boat, office, home, outhouse, barn, trailer, and camper.
Even out in the holler where you have your moonshine still hid.
And if you have one of them there computers you can listen online like I do.
Of course the best station they have is #65 Sirius Bluegrass.
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