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Overview

Genealogy

Louie And Louise

Bob
   Childhood
   Teen Years
   Musician
   Ida
   Later Years 

Marge

The Bishops

Tom

Full-Time Musician

By high school, Bob had learned to play piano well enough that Louie and Louise bought an upright. After high school, Bob showed real promise as a musician, so his folks helped him enroll in the American Conservatory of Music for two years. This black and white photo was hand tinted, a common practice in the days before color film.

At left is an image of one of the compositions Bob wrote in 1939 as an assignment at the Conservatory, a short piece called "Ol' Gran'pap." (His children read the lyrics at his memorial service.) To read the lyrics of the song, click the manuscript. To hide the lyrics, move the mouse away from the image.

Bob was always an avid reader and had a knack for music but he wasn't really cut out for a career as a classical musician. (He did learn to play organ for church, a skill he used for many years afterward.) But the late 1930s saw the rise of the Big Band Era and Bob had the talent as a pianist and the skills as an arranger to be a valuable asset to any Big Band.

He got some new promotional pictures done like the one at left. He put his name out there, as they say, and soon he was playing some of the best rooms in Chicago. 

Bob's first experience with a full band was with the Vic Val Band, pictured above performing at the legendary Palmer House in Chicago. Bob, of course, is sitting at the piano at left.

As any (honest) musician will tell you, the reason to become a musician is so you can pick up chicks. Actually, the chicks in the shot at left didn't belong to Bob, despite his arms around them. Muriel Cole of Little Falls, New Jersey, is on the right. On the left is Jeanne Bright of Newark, who was the girlfriend of bandmate Ed Henry, who is snapping the photo. 

Despite the traveling he did, Bob always found time to visit home and the folks. Here he poses with Louie. Note the saddle shoes, the baggy, cuffed slacks, and the short sleeves on his shirt. 

There was another good reason to go home once in a while. Fellow Lindblom grad Marge Barnes was still around and once in a while (rarely, actually) she'd stare up at him with adoring eyes. Here they're visiting their friends Don and Eleanor Coombs.

Bob also worked with the Dick Barrie Orchestra, which had some hits in the late 1930s. (Bob is at the piano at left.) He even got a mention in the most important entertainment magazine at the time, Variety, while playing at the Turnpike Casino in Lincoln, Nebraska:

"Four years away from Kay Kyser [one of the best known Big Bands of the day], Dick Barrie is managing nicely, if not sensationally, on his own as a leader. . . Most of the dot-work [arranging] done personally doesn't keep Barrie from delegating some of it to other men in the band, including pianist Bob Poltevecque."

Bob often said that playing with the Edgar Drake Orchestra from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was one of the highlights of his career. Drake evidently shared the respect for Bob, judging by the inscription on this promotional photo:

Bob,

I hope you make as much of the music business as I would like to have made. Good luck! and that's all you need--you have all the good qualities.

Sincerely--
Edgar Drake

Edgar Drake, right, goes over arrangements with his orchestra, including Bob, second from right.

One night a photographer took shots of the individual band members at work on stage, resulting in some classic images of Big Band musicians. Above (l-r) are Burt Colter (?), clarinet; Lew Finnerty, drums; Jim Henderson, bass; and Hugh Kelly (?), sax. Bob is at left at the grand piano.

Any musician will tell you that playing music is the fun part but only a small part of the job. Bob didn't have to carry an instrument himself, being at the mercy of whatever piano the nightclub provided. But he helped the other band members carry their gear, took his turn at the wheel of the band bus, and when he wasn't driving often stayed up until the wee hours working on arrangements for the latest tunes so the songs would be ready when they reached the next gig. He traveled as far as Texas and New Jersey with the bands.

A higher profile with the bands he was playing with meant he needed head shots of himself. At left is a studio portrait from one of the better-known photographers in Chicago.

Bob and friends on a railcar that says "Lake Withers - Movie News - Hollywood."

Between band gigs, Bob got a call to perform aboard a train that went from Chicago to Los Angeles, up the West Coast to Vancouver, B. C., and then east back to Chicago. There was just one catch: he had to not only play accordion but he had to stroll through the railroad cars while he did it. He went out and bought an accordion and taught himself to play as the trip went along. It paid off: he played many jobs on accordion the rest of his life.

This is the best promotional picture of Bob, taken circa 1943 in Chicago. By this time he had a good reputation as a pianist and an arranger and he started to book gigs as a solo entertainer. But suddenly that put his last name, Poltevecque, on marquees, which was cramped and hard to pronounce. So he anglicized his French family name to its English translation, "Paul the Bishop (or Vicar)," and kept the last name, giving his first born son the "Paul" name for his middle name.

Bob's career as a full-time musician would come to a close about a year later when he married Marjorie Barnes. During this time period, he also took an accounting/bookkeeping course and got a day job at Drexel National Bank in Chicago. He continued to play around the area, sometimes as a duo with a girl singer. But much of his time would be devoted to his banking career and his growing family.

The Bishops