Bob Dyer

Robert Neal "Bob" Dies OBE (22 May 1909 – 9 January 1984), who took the stage name of Bob Dyer, was a Gold Logie-award winning American-born vaudeville entertainer and singer, radio and television personality, and radio and television quiz show host who made his name in Australia. Dyer is best known for the long-running radio and then television quiz show, Pick a Box. At the height of his radio career, Dyer and his friend and rival, Jack Davey, were regarded as Australia's top quiz comperes.

Bob and his wife, Dolly, were probably, after Sir Robert and Dame Pattie Menzies, the most recognised double act in Australia in the 1960s. Bob and Dolly's main interest besides performing was big-game fishing and, between them, they broke some 200 world and Australian fishing records.

Early life and career

Bob Dies was born in Trousdale County, Tennessee, to Heywood leahman Dies, a sharefarmer and his wife Delia (née Bell) . In an interview much later in his life with Barry Jones, Dyer spoke of his childhood: