Tune Twisters

Andy Love, Jack Lathrop, and Bob Wacker began singing as a trio around 1928 or 1929 while attending a prep school near New York. Lathrop attended college in New York and Wacker got a job. Around 1933, Love suggested – to Lathrop and Wacker – commercializing their trio. Their launch was unsuccessful, and Love, discouraged, began singing as a soloist with Paul Whiteman. Eventually, the three auditioned for NBC Radio. After the audition, an NBC executive asked, "What do you call yourselves?" "You sure are some tune twisters." Love responded with a grin, "That's our name."[2]

The Tune Twisters made their radio broadcast debut in 1935 as guest artists on a show hosted by Ray Noble, who discovered them in a Westchester County roadhouse nightclub. They continued to work with Noble until he moved to Hollywood to form a new until for the Burns and Allen programs. The trio subsequently performed in vaudeville on their own. They also performed with Fred Allen and Rudy Vallée hours.

In 1938, the Tune Twisters signed with NBC to perform the for the Jell-O Summer Series, starring Jane Froman and her husband, Don Ross (né Donald McKaig Ross; 1899–1971),[lower-alpha 1] with the Alfonso D'Artega Orchestra. NBC's Red Network (radio) broadcast the show nationwide, beginning July 4, 1938. The show had previously been hosted by Jack Benny.

• Andy Love (né Andrew Jackson Love Jr.; 1911–1982), around 1934, was a vocal soloist with Paul Whiteman. In 1942, while singing with the Tune Twisters, he also sang with Kay Thompson's "Okays," her backup chorus.[3] From about 1944 to about 1948, Love led a vocal quartet, "The Andy Love Four," who performed on air as guest artists of various radio shows, including the Lyn Murray Show. The Andy Love Four, with Evelyn Knight, performed "Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum" on a 1944 Decca recording issued to coincide with the 1944 re-release of the 1937 Disney film Snow White.[4]

Love was one of three children born to Andrew Jackson Love, M.D. (1861–1948), and Anita Florence Hemmings (née Annie Williamson Hemmings; 1872–1960).[5]

• Robert Wacker (né Robert Norman Wacker; 1909–1985), in 1936, while singing with the Tune Twisters, became a singer for the Bob Crosby Band, replacing Frank Tennille.[6][lower-alpha 2]
• Jack Lathrop (né John Marcus Lathrop; 1913–1987) was a founding vocalist and guitarist with the Tune Twisters, who, from 1940 to May 1941, performed with the Glenn Miller Orchestra as guitarist and featured vocalist. In 1942, he was guitarist and vocalist with Hal McIntyre. After World War II, beginning around 1947, Lathrop was leader of the Drug Store Cowboys who, on the RCA Victor label, had several hits, including a hit duet with Eve Young, "My Darling, My Darling."

Main article: Jack Lathrop

• Gene Lanham (né Eugene Prentiss Lanham; 1915–1977), in 1940, replaced Jack Lathrop. He was married, from about 1943 to April 1947, to Dorothy Lanham (né Dorothy Dee McCarty; 1917–2015), also a vocalist, notably of the McCarty Sisters, which included (i) Frances Catherine McCarty (1911–1963), (ii) Irene Sarah McCarty (1923–1998), (iii) and Jewell Faye McCarty – as well as (iv) Gene Lanham and Ben Lake. The McCarty Sisters had traveled throughout Europe singing as the Swingtette with the Jack Hylton Orchestra.[7][8]

Gene re-married, on June 18, 1947, in Los Angeles, to Miriel Eloise King (maiden; 1917–2001). Dorothy re-married, on December 17, 1947, in Manhattan, to Andy Love.

Gene Lanham and Dorothy Lanham – under the name Dorothy Lanham – and also Robert Wacker, sang as members of the Ralph Brewster[lower-alpha 3] singers on Frank Sinatra's 1957 recording, "Mistletoe and Holly."[9] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Lanham served on the board of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Lanham remarried – on June 18, 1947, in Los Angeles – to Miriel Eloise King (maiden; 1917–2001).

• Johnny Smedberg (né John Henry Smedberg; 1911–1979), born-and-raised in Coos Bay, Oregon, replaced Gene Lanham who left to serving in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.[10]