Tommy Riggs & Betty LOU

Starter of this subject: J.Cooper
Last post in this subject: 1/28/2000
Messages in this subject: 4

J.Cooper 1/28/2000
4 replies
I am still searching for ANY material or information on OTR's Tommy Riggs and his un-seen little friend "Betty Lou" . I have One segment only. Riggs had a special way of changing his voice to sound like a little girl.Something like Marion Jordan's "Teeney"little girl character... on the McGee & Molly Radio Show.Riggs used this character on that early OTR show. As far as I can learn, he never had an actual figure such as Edgar Bergen used for his character voices...on radio and on TV and in-person performances as a ventriloquist. Riggs simply changed his voice in front of the radio- microphone and that was that...What information or material do you have on Tommy and "Betty"..other than what appears in the Dunning Book,etc....?
Ted Davenport 2/10/2000
0 replies
John, I have several of these. He was a regular on Rudy Vallee's show. I just did several of these and he appeared on each show.
Joe 3/1/2001
0 replies
hello!

I myself was trying to get some info today about tommy riggs and "betty lou". I have an old character spoon with the picture of a young girl and "betty lou" written under it. Here's what I've come up with: Tommy Riggs, comedian. A radio ventriloquist without a dummy, Riggs created the voice of Betty Lou which he used a radio stations WCAE in Pittsburgh an WLW in Cincinnati. He appeared for 47 weeks on Rudy Vallee's NBC progarm in the late 1930s I think they also ended up having their own program entitled Quaker Party: (i think it was sponsored by Quaker and the spoon that I have was an advertising premium) "Tommy Riggs & Betty Lou" Some of the other character voices on the show were done by:

Mel Blanc: voices of Uncle Petie, Rover the Dog Bea Benaderet: voice of Mrs. Wingate Verna Felton: voice of Mrs. MacIntyre

Hope you find this helpful, there doesn't seem to be that much out there. Email me if you learn more. THanks!

Betty 3/6/2001
1 replies
I was named after Betty Lou, my Dad's favorite radio show in December of 1939......once had a newspaper photo of the two of them, showing Betty Lou to be a little girl with pig-tails, and looking somewhat like "Howdy Doody".....would enjoy any info on these two....thank you.
Lou 3/6/2001
0 replies
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