BOB BURNS (comedian)

Bob Burns was a well known musical comedian of the 1930s. He created a character called "The Arkansas Traveler", a hillbilly-like guy with many wacky relatives, and starting in 1944, in Belle of the Yukon, he played a homemade horn-like instrument. It looked like the "bazooka", which was a weapon used in World War II, and GIs started calling that weapon a bazooka because of Bob Burns' instrument! This instrument became so associated with him that he used it in almost all his movies (and he was thereafter often referred to as "Bob Bazooka Burns"). He appeared with Bob Crosby's band in the 1930s, which led to 12 movie appearances, always in character. He was married to fellow hillbilly Judy Canova from 1936 to 1939. He passed away in 1956 at the age of 65.