Fred Lowery 78RPM Records

Fred Lowery, the most successful and the greatest of all the whistlers, lost his sight at age two as the result of complications from scarlet fever. With an artificial right eye and limited vision in the left, Fred Lowery was legally blind - not totally blind. At the age of seven he was entered in the Texas School for the Blind in Austin. Fred's first experience whistling in front of an audience came when he was cheered on by his fellow students to demonstrate his talent for bird whistler Ernest Nichols, who had come to the school to perform. Fighting off a severe case of stage fright, Fred whistled through To a Wild Rose and two more classics without a miscue. Walking off the stage, Nichols told Peggy Richter, Fred's music teacher, that someday Fred would be the world's greatest whistler.

Nichols' encouragement spurred Fred on and within a few years, he landed his first professional job in Dallas, joining WFAA radio's lively variety show, "Early Birds." There, he became known as The Texas Redbird, a name that became his trademark on the show. Three years later, he took off for New York where he paid his dues, spending a good bit of time jobless. Even a stint on the Rudy Vallee show failed to attract much interest. That all changed when Clara Bell Walsh, a multimillionaire widow that lived in the grand Plaza hotel, arranged for Fred to audition for Vincent Lopez, one of the landmark names in popular music. That was Fred's big break and he got the job.

After four years with Lopez' band, Fred had an offer from Horace Heidt, which he passed up out of loyalty to the man who had given him his first chance. But six months later, the Lopez band moved to a swank Broadway supper club, the famed Casa Manana, and Lopez reluctantly had to let Fred go. The club's operator, Billy Rose, insisted "People don't want to see a blind guy whistling when they're eating dinner." Not long after, Heidt, who had just opened at the Biltmore Hotel, called Fred and invited him to whistle during the supper program. A single number, The World is Waiting for the Sunrise, stopped the show. Over the cheering, Fred heard Heidt shout, "you're hired!"

Heidt soon began to feature Fred on his shows with his Musical Knights and took him to Hollywood to film Pot of Gold, a 1941 film that star James Stewart called his worst movie ever. While he was with Heidt, Fred teamed with singer Dorothy Rae and the pair built their numbers into an act of their own, giving shows at veteran's hospitals and rehabilitation centers.

Despite being labeled the "The Blind Whistler" by Horace Heidt, Fred Lowery never wanted to capitalize on his handicap and was so surefooted and self-sufficient that many people in the night club and theater audiences would never have guessed he was disabled if they didn't already happen to know. This was true not only because of the way he got about but because he was utterly free of self-pity or bitterness. His disability seemed to spark warm friendliness and an exuberant interest in other people.

Fred Lowery won his fight for a happy life.

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