Bob Burns
Toronto Daily Star, December 16 1937
Bob Burns (1890-1956) was a radio comedian and musician who appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show before being given his own show in the 1940s. His radio character was nicknamed The Arkansas Traveler, who was a country bumpkin who dispensed homespun advice. He also played a musical instrument of his own invention made of a length of gas pipe, which he called a "bazooka".
During the Second World War, an early rocket launcher prototype was test-fired by Major General Gladeon M. Barnes, who then commented that the weapon looked like Bob Burns's bazooka. The name "bazooka" was transferred from the musical instrument to the rocket launcher; today, when we think of a bazooka, the weapon is what we think of.
Burns wrote the "Well, I'll Tell You" column from 1936 to 1940. The illustration in the column title is, indeed, of his bazooka. He invested his radio earnings in land, which made him wealthy, and he regularly worked a farm in the San Fernando Valley. He spent his final years there.
The house in which he grew up, in Van Buren, Arkansas, is now a historic place known as Bob Burns House. When he was at the peak of his fame, his mother ran a gift shop out of this house.
Created October 8, 2025.