Captain Edwin Ellsworth Peabody (Feb.19,1902 - Nov.7,
1970) was an
American musical entertainer. His career spanned five decades and he was perhaps the most famous plectrum (4 string) banjo player ever. He was also known professionally as "
Little Eddie", "King of the
Banjo", and "
Happiness Boy".
Born in
Reading, Massachusetts,
Eddie taught himself to play the violin, mandolin, guitar and banjo, at a very young age. He entered the
U.S. Navy in
March 1916 aged fourteen after lying about his age. He served in
World War I on an
S-14 submarine. It was during this period that he earned the nickname "Happiness Boy." After his discharge from the
Navy in
1921 he began a long career in show business, beginning with vaudeville. He visited
England in the
1930s and made several recordings for the
Columbia Company. Whilst there he helped to promote the banjo by visiting
BMG clubs (
Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar clubs) which were very active in the years up to the
Second World War. When the
U.S.A entered the war Eddie became a morale officer for the U.S. Navy. He already held the rank of commander and he was subsequently engaged to play shows to bring the servicemen "a touch of home". When the war finished, Eddie went about restarting his concert career. Most of the
Vaudeville halls had closed down and musical tastes had changed. In 1948, a hit from the
1920s, was resurrected by the
Art Mooney Orchestra and created interest in both nostalgic music and the banjo. Eddie capitalised on this by signing to
Dot Records and made over half a dozen albums for them. He took his act around supper clubs that were popular at the time, and TV made him a household name, once again. He also produced records and appeared in films. He was, and still is, regarded as the most popular banjo player of his generation
He developed, with the
Vega Banjo Company of
Boston, a new type of "deep resonator" for the four-stringed banjo called the Vegavox, based on the zither banjo. The Vegavox has been produced mainly in four-stringed plectrum (22 frets) and tenor (19 frets) models; however, some five-stringed models were created and sold as special orders.
Eddie also developed a special type of electric guitar, first with the
Fender Company and then
with Rickenbacker, called the Banjoline. This instrument is tuned as a plectrum banjo but with the 3 and 4 string doubled in octaves, similar to the way a
12 string guitar is strung. The Banjoline is now a very rare and highly-priced collector's item, although very seldom used today in live performances.
At some
point in the 1920s, a music critic nicknamed
Peabody "The King of the Banjo" because of his frenetic playing style which involved fast triplets and cross-picking, made some listeners think he was playing two banjos at once. The nickname "King of the banjo" stuck for the rest of his life.
Eddie Peabody served in the U.S. Navy during
WWII as a
Lt. Commander in charge of the music/band department at the
Great Lakes Training Station near
Chicago, Illinois.
Eddie continued to play live until his death in 1970 at age 68, due to a brain hemorrhage he suffered while on stage at "
The Lookout House" supper club in
Covington, Kentucky.
Eddie Peabody -
Painting The Clouds With
Sunshine (1929)
- published: 12 Nov 2009
- views: 6529