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Eddie Peabody
- Born Edwin Ellsworth Peabody, 19 February 1902, Reading, Massachussetts
- Died 7 November 1970, Covington, Kentucky
For nearly 50 years, Eddie Peabody kept the banjo on center stage, starting out in vaudeville and winding up on television with appearances on "The Lawrence Welk Show." Peabody was introduced to string instruments starting with the mandolin at age five and was playing on stage before the age of ten. He enlisted in the Navy in his teens and was among the brave souls who served in the submarine corps in its early years in World War One.
After the war, he started performing professionally and he never looked back. In 1926, he was hired to appear in a very early "talkie" and may have been the first banjoist to play on film. Peabody was interested in the technical aspects of the instrument, and at one time licensed his own special plectrum banjo design to a leading instrument manufacturer.
Peabody usually stuck to the standard banjo material--"Yes, Sir, That's My Baby," "Tiger Rag," and other country/Dixieland/flapper numbers, but he experimented on occasion--proving on more than one occasion, for example, that the banjo and Latin music do not mix.
He kept strumming to the very end--literally. Appearing at a Friday night show in Covington, Kentucky, he collapsed on stage and died at the hospital the next morning.
Recordings
- Man with the Banjo, Dot 110
- Sixteen Great Performance, ABC ABC-4010
- Banjo Wizardry, Dot 3023
- Favorites by Mr. Banjo, Himself!, Dot 3052
- Mr. Banjo's Back in Town, Dot 3082
- Man with the Banjo, Dot 3110
- Me and My Banjo, Dot 3112
- Great Latin Hits, Dot 3581
- When You're Smiling, Dot 25155
- Eddie Peabody Plays, Dot 25211
- Banjo Magic, Dot 25376
- Plays Sm-o-o-o-thies, Dot 25491
- Banjo Magic, Hamilton SHLP 12107
- Wizard of the Banjo, Hamilton SHLP 12117
S p a c e A g e P o p M u s i c
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