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About The Artist
For a time in 1938 or 1939, they were working with the Crosley radio station, WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio and had a show on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7:30am called the "Lamplighters". They started off as a 'business proposition' working together back in 1928, then romance entered the picture and they got married. They first met while both were attending Austin High School in Chicago, Illinois. But after they graduated from high school, they took separate paths and didn't see each other for three years.One evening, Helen was attending a celebration - an engagement party of one her friends. During that party, the phone rang and the person on the other end of the line had to be informed that the party was for females only. But that gentleman told the female person that he would be right over with some gentleman friends of his. One was Don and he got to renew his friendship with Helen. Then Helen sat down on the piano and began to do some tunes, Don joined in with the harmony and they decided it sounded so good, they thought of working together.
Now when they first started off at WJJD, Helen would not let Don pay her carfare or for her lunches as in her mind, it was only a 'business arrangement'. But one day, the story goes, Helen addressed Don as "Honey". Don looked at her stern as he could be without smiling and told her, "Don't call me honey unless you mean it!" After an awkward pause, they both started laughed for it was a moment they knew how much they meant to each other. It was about two and a half years later in July of 1930 that the 'business partnership' became a 'life partnership'. Their careers took them to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where they worked on WWSW, KQV and KDKA. A 1937 WLS Standby magazine feature mentions that the reason they went to Pittsburgh to visit relatives, who in turn urged them to audition at the local radio stations. That led to work at the stations mentioned. The duo also worked with Dan and Sylvia's Revue on the east coast as well. They were also engaged to appear at the Greater Exposition in Cleveland in September 1936 as part of an over the air broadcast on their Pittsburgh radio station. But it wasn't too long before the couple started missing their hometown of Chicago. They made the move back to the midwest and on April 26, 1937, Don and Helen were heard on the Prairie Farmer station for the first time as part of the staff of WLS.
The year of 1943 saw them at the famed WOWO Hoosier Hop that aired over radio station WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We don't know exactly when they joined the cast, but we did find them mentioned in an old Mountain Broadcast and Prairie Recorder magazine article about the Hoosier Hop. The article described the tunes they did as "...old love songs, songs of the home and fireside and the occasional pop ballad." One thinks this might be similar to a duet team on the old Lawrence Welk television show. The theme song for Don and Helen was "Two by Four For Two" because it expressed the happy life they had together. Back in 1937, Don was just a shade over six feet tall and weighed about 170 pounds. Helen told the magazine she was five feet five in her shoes, or about five feet three inches and we guess it was okay to mention one's weight back then as they told readers she was 125 pounds with her light brown, wavy hair. Credits & Sources
Appearance History This Month
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They were known as "...sweet singers of sweet songs". In real life,
they were Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Bush. Country music fans knew
them as Don and Helen.
Their instincts proved to be good. In less than two weeks, they had a spot
on radio station WJJD in Chicago. They also had shows on WENR and WGN in Chicago.
But their stay in Chicago wasn't that long this time. Another radio station with
a penchant for raiding the talent stables of other stations was able to convince
Don and Helen to move to Cincinnati. The year of 1939 saw them as a member of the
cast of the WLW Boone County Jamboree. They also had a show at 5:55am called "Thought
For the Day" over WLW five days a week. The Boone County show aired 'live' over WLW
on Friday evenings from 10:00pm to 10:30pm.
