TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Forget Grand Ole Singer? Bite Your Tongue

ADVERTISEMENT

By STEVE OTTO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2008

Jim Crosby takes the credit for Bobby Lord's success. He also says it was an accident.

You might not remember Bobby Lord, who died this week. But there was a time when he was the hottest thing to come out of Tampa since Slim Whitman (I mean, how big can you get?).

Back in the '60s, Bobby Lord was one of the staples of the Grand Ole Opry. He even had his own TV show and appeared to be on his way. Then he retired, went off to sell RVs and seemingly had left show business. But that was before fishing.

I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's go back to around 1947 and what was then called Wilson Junior High in South Tampa. It was just after lunch and the guys were playing pickup basketball.

"Bobby was guarding me closely," says Crosby, "as I was getting ready to make one of my famous, never-miss, 'jump-pivot' shots from under the basket."

A Shot To The Mouth

"When I came up, the top of my head struck under his chin, resulting in his teeth biting clear through his tongue. He had to go to the emergency room at what was then called Tampa Municipal Hospital on Davis Islands. His tongue was connected only by a small piece of tissue, but they sewed it all back and thank goodness the graft took.

"A few months later he began singing and amazed everyone when he sang 'Elmer and the Bear' at our yearly talent show in the auditorium."

At Plant High, Lord's singing talent began to blossom. He had a casual, ballad style to what was then being called rockabilly.

"I got him to come up with a campaign song," remembers George Levy, who was running for class president. "I don't recall the lyrics but he sure sounded good." Levy won.

Television was still in its infancy around here but Lord managed to put together his own show, "The Bobby Lord Homefolks Show." That happened when he appeared on a local variety show and a couple of weeks later the director called him up. He told Lord the regular host was "ill" and could he put a band and show together in two days. Lord rounded up a couple of guitar players from high school and an accordion player and they went on the air.

From there he signed on with "The Ozark Jubilee," then on to the Grand Ole Opry and the rest, as they say, is history.

Just A Super Guy
Bobby Lord was never a superstar. Maybe it's because he was too interested in other things, especially his family. When he turned 35 he decided to get out of the business and come back to Florida. There was real estate and that RV business, but mostly Bobby wanted to raise his kids and then his grandkids.

In the '80s he returned to television, this time as host of an outdoors show, which allowed him to do what he really loved, fish.

Lord had been battling cancer for almost a decade. "He did our 50th reunion in 2002," said Crosby, "and he was hurting then, but he still got up onstage."

Crosby got into the music business as well and you can still catch him over at the Coliseum in St. Pete or at the Gulfport Casino, playing jazz sax. "I saw him Lord a little more than a year ago at the Colonnade down on the Bayshore," Crosby says, "still smiling and still with his wife, Mozelle, of 40 years and his family. He smiled and stuck out his tongue at me."

For more of Steve Otto's musings, check out his blog, keyword: Otto Graphs.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT