Fact #1680
When:
Short story:
William John Clifton Haley is born in Highland Park, Detroit, Michigan, USA. After a successful career as a country-oriented singer, he will find international fame as Bill Haley, a founding father of rock'n'roll.Full article:
Jack Haley (son of Bill Haley) : His father played the mandolin and his mother played the piano, and there was always music in the house. He grew up not far from Radio Park in Wilmington, and he used to go there and listen to the cowboy acts that would come there and perform.
When he was eight years old his father gave him a guitar and he learned to play.
When he was about fifteen years old he would take his guitar to the Farmers Market about a mile up the road from where he lived and he would play his guitar in front of the merchants to draw the crowds there. A guy by the name of Cousin Lee, who owned Radio Park, had my father come and play with his band. Then my father ended up leaving and travelling with a medicine show or something. That's how he travelled out to different parts of the country, and ended up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he joined a group called The Downhomers. He replaced a country and western singer, actually a yodeller, who was drafted into the army, and my father took his place yodelling, and actually won the Indiana State Yodelling Championship. He was called the Silver-Toned Yodelling Bill Haley.
Tweet this Fact
When he was eight years old his father gave him a guitar and he learned to play.
When he was about fifteen years old he would take his guitar to the Farmers Market about a mile up the road from where he lived and he would play his guitar in front of the merchants to draw the crowds there. A guy by the name of Cousin Lee, who owned Radio Park, had my father come and play with his band. Then my father ended up leaving and travelling with a medicine show or something. That's how he travelled out to different parts of the country, and ended up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he joined a group called The Downhomers. He replaced a country and western singer, actually a yodeller, who was drafted into the army, and my father took his place yodelling, and actually won the Indiana State Yodelling Championship. He was called the Silver-Toned Yodelling Bill Haley.