A boy soprano, long broken, fades out

A boy soprano, long broken, fades out

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norman lebrecht

September 22, 2016

Bobby Breen was an RKO star in the late 1930s, briefly a rival to Shirley Temple.

Then his voice broke, and war broke out.

He got a life, was house pianist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra, then became a talent agent in Florida.

Bobby died this week, aged 88.

bobby-breen

Comments

  • David Boxwell says:

    His 1939 starrer “Way Down South” was co-written by Langston Hughes, and depicts an idyllic slave plantation. Which still seems to linger in the minds of a large number of white Americans and the politicians who represent them.

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