Robert Neal Dyer OBE 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.
21 Facts About Bob Dyer
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Bob Dyer is best known for the long-running radio and then television quiz show, Pick a Box.
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Bob Dyer Dies was born in Hartsville, Tennessee, to Heywood Leahman Dies, a sharefarmer and his wife Delia.
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Bob 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 theater work involving touring the United States vaudeville circuits.
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Bob Dyer first came to Australia in 1936, touring with Jim Davidson's ABC Dance Band.
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Bob Dyer 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.
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Bob Dyer was a good actor, musical and full of life.
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Bob Dyer then traveled to England, where he appeared on television in its early era, before returning to Australia in 1940, using the billing "the last of the hillbillies".
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Bob Dyer created, at the request of radio station 3DB, 26 episodes of a radio program titled The Last of the Hill Billies.
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Bob Dyer proposed nine days after their meeting, and nine days after that they were married at St John's Church, Darlinghurst.
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Bob Dyer was given permission by the American radio and television star, Art Linkletter, to use and adapt his scripts and stunts in Australia.
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Bob Dyer's shows were sponsored by Solvol, Atlantic Union Oil and Colgate-Palmolive.
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Lesley Johnson, in her biography of Jack Davey for the Australian Dictionary of Biography, writes that "in contrast to Bob Dyer's carefully written scripts, Davey's spontaneity and wit, delivered in the warm, rich voice, for which he was so well known on radio, did not attract television audiences".
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Australian radio personality John Pearce, who knew both Davey and Bob Dyer, wrote in his autobiography that Bob Dyer:.
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Bob Dyer really worked at it, and he took every piece of advice offered.
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In 1948, when he was compering Winner Take All and Cop The Lot, Bob Dyer launched the quiz show Pick a Box on radio.
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Bob Dyer toned down his hillbilly twang and "replaced his yellow boots and loud checks with a respectable suit, tie and glasses".
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Bob Dyer's catch-cry on the show, "the money or the box", was a familiar phrase in Australia decades after the show ended.
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In 1969 Bob Dyer believed that the show was losing its popularity and two years later, in 1971, he and Dolly decided to retire.
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Bob Dyer won two Gold Logie Awards, one in 1960 and, in 1971, a special Gold Logie to him and Dolly to mark their contribution to the industry over 15 years.
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Bob Dyer developed Alzheimer's disease and became reclusive until his death in 1984.