| Description |
Captain Stubby was the stage-name of Tom Fouts, a mid-western farmer turned author and comedian, who was born in Carroll County, Indiana, on November 24, 1918 and died on May 26, 2004. Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers was a country-comedy unit that performed largely throughout the mid-western States during the 1930s to the 1960s and comprised Dwight E. Stokes (lead tenor vocals and bass), Jerald R. Richards (clarinet, flute, ocarina, tin whistle and vocals), Sonny Fleming (guitar, banjo and vocals), Peter Kunatz (accordion and piano), Curly Myers (guitar, banjo and vocals), Chuck Kagy (fiddle, guitar and mandolin), Buddy Ross and Tony Walberg (accordion) and Tom Fouts (Captain Stubby) on musical hat rack, tuned toilet seat, vocals and comedy.
This was no ordinary hillbilly outfit but more akin to a kind of backwoods variant of Spike Jones & His City Slickers and it’s quite amazing that so much recorded material has survived to remind us of the group’s achievements. They were first known as The Six Hoosiers and were formed in 1938, when Tom Fouts left Indiana Central University after a year and decided to get together with five friends to create a comedy band that featured his unique “guitarlet” – a tuned toilet seat. |
